Next Few Days Will Decide Fate of Assisted Suicide Bill SB 88.

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT YOUR OWN LEGISLATOR. SEE BELOW TO CONTACT THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE THIS WEEKEND ASKING THEM TO VOTE AGAINST SB88.

SB 88, the assisted suicide bill, was referred to the Judiciary Committee yesterday. The Committee must send it back to the Senate by Thursday, April 14th, or the assisted suicide bill will be dead.

That is what we want. We want the assisted suicide bill to die. 

Connecticut’s pro-assisted suicide lobby is furiously trying to prevent that from happening. They are particularly active this weekend.

We need your help to stop them. And to kill the assisted suicide bill.

Some say the assisted suicide bill is already on life support. That is the implicit message of this headline.

Don’t believe it. As the article itself reports, Big Suicide is working the Judiciary Committee hard. Note in particular this paragraph:

“The frustrating part is this [the assisted suicide bill] should pass,” said Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, a co-chair of the Public Health Committee and longtime backer of the proposal. “And instead we have people who are able to block legislation because of their personal beliefs. That’s the story.”

It is that phrase, “personal beliefs,” that we wish to bring to the attention of FIC members. That phrase appears repeatedly in the mouths of assisted suicide proponents. It is, for them, a pejorative term intended to demean the motivations of anyone who would dare oppose their attempt to legalize assisted suicide. 

You see it again in this letter to the editor:

Are our legislators voting their personal beliefs, rather than representing the people who elected them?

Let’s just call the use of this phrase, “personal beliefs,” what it is: A dog whistle to anti-Catholic bigots.

Unitarian and Congregationalist ministers testified this year in favor of assisted suicide. No one questioned their motivations for doing so. In their case, it was ok to act on their “personal beliefs.”

But Rep. Stafstrom, the Democrat co-chair of the Judiciary Committee, happens to be Catholic. That is whom Rep. Steinberg was alluding to in the CT Mirror article. The letter writer, who used the same code words, is a constituent of Rep. Stafstrom’s.

The insinuation against Rep. Stafstrom by proponents of assisted suicide is appalling. 

We doubt very much that Rep. Stafstrom agrees with the Family Institute of Connecticut on, say, abortion or same-sex marriage. If Rep. Stafstrom has any hesitancy about advancing the assisted suicide bill, we doubt very much that it has anything to do with his faith.

But what if it did? So what? Why is it ok for a Unitarian or a Congregationalist to act on their “personal beliefs” but not a Catholic?

Again, we do not know the inner thoughts of Rep. Stafstrom. But we do know that he is being targeted by the assisted suicide lobby on the grounds of his being a Catholic.

Because of the tactics of our opponents, beating SB 88 would not just be a victory against assisted suicide. It would be a victory against the anti-religious bigotry of the assisted suicide lobby too. That would be a win for everyone of any faith (or no faith) who believes in equality. 

Please click here, then on the assisted suicide alert at the bottom, to ask your legislators to vote NO. 

Then click here and then click on “Committee Membership” and email each member of the Judiciary Committee and ask them to vote NO. This weekend is crucial for emailing the Committee!

Thank you!