Here is the latest E-Blast from our Executive Director, Peter Wolfgang:
H.B. 5898, the ACT CONCERNING AID IN DYING FOR TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS is getting another public hearing this Monday, March 18th!
Though FIC Action and our allies have crushed Assisted Suicide at the state Capitol every year for the last six years–and the biggest pro-Assisted Suicide legislator lost her election five years ago–a few powerful pro-Assisted Suicide legislators are forcing our overburdened state government to take up the issue again in 2019.
Family Institute of Connecticut Action needs as many people as possible to take the steps below to help us defeat the Assisted Suicide bill. We especially need you to come to the legislature Monday, March 18th to testify against the bill.
FIC Action does not support keeping a patient alive by extraordinary means against that patient’s will. We support true aid-in-dying, which is hospice and palliative care. What we oppose is licensing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs for the purpose of taking a human life, prescribing suicide as a treatment.
And we are not alone. Connecticut hospice associations, disability rights advocates and many on the political Left joined FIC Action in 2013-18 to oppose assisted suicide because it is bad public policy that puts vulnerable populations at risk. We can find alternatives for easing pain without passing a law that could put pressure on the elderly and people with disabilities to feel that they are a burden and should end their lives.
See FIC Action’s 2015 Fact Sheet on everything that is wrong with the nearly identical 2019 bill. See this Washington Post article on what has happened on the Assisted Suicide issue in the time since it was last heard in Connecticut.
The societal implications of legalizing Assisted Suicide are staggering. Government and doctors would be endorsing suicide. One Connecticut legislator at the first “Compassion and Choices” press conference in 2013 admitted under questioning that once this first bill is passed, they could come back for a second bill to allow the mentally incompetent to take their own lives. In Belgium, a law to euthanize children has been passed. In Oregon, patients desiring treatment under the Oregon Health Plan have been offered assisted suicide instead.
We cannot let this happen in Connecticut. FIC Action needs your help to stop the Assisted Suicide bill. Here are five ways that you can fight back:
1) Use our Grassroots Action Center to send an e-mail directly to your state senator and state representative by clicking on the link at the bottom of this message. The link will direct you to another screen with a “take action” button at the bottom. Click on the “take action” button to e-mail your legislators. We have provided some basic points, but please either put the message in your own words or add a brief introduction and conclusion! Personalized messages have a much greater impact. Let our legislators know that you want them to vote NO on HB 5898 and any other bill that legalizes Assisted Suicide.
2) In addition to your own legislators, contact the members of the Public Health Committee now and ask them to vote NO on HB 5898. Their contact information can be found here.
3) Attend the public hearing on Monday, March 18th, and testify against the Assisted Suicide bill. Here is the information:
The Public Health Committee will hold a public hearing on Monday, March 18, 2019 at 10:30 A.M. in Room 1Dof the LOB. The Committee is accepting electronic testimony via email at phtestimony@cga.ct.gov. Please submit electronic testimony in Word or PDF format no later than 12:00 P.M. on Saturday, March 16, 2019 to submit in time for the hearing. We encourage you to submit testimony even after this date. Numbers matter! If you are unable to submit electronic testimony, please submit one copy of written testimony no later than 8:30 A.M. on Monday, March 18, 2019 in Room 3000 of the LOB. Please submit separate testimony for each bill. All testimony submitted must be related to bills on the agenda. Testimony submitted after the deadline may not be available to Legislators until after the hearing. Sign-up for the hearing will begin at 8:00 A.M. in the First Floor Atrium of the LOB. The first hour of the hearing is reserved for Legislators, Constitutional Officers, State Agency Heads and Chief Elected Municipal Officials. Speakers will be limited to three minutes of testimony. Bills will be heard in the order listed in the Bulletin. Unofficial sign-up sheets have no standing with the committee.
4) Click here to donate to Family Institute of Connecticut Action. FIC Action, the lobbying arm of Connecticut’s pro-family movement, is your eyes and ears at the state Capitol. Your support allows us to continue to be your voice for faith and family.
5) Forward this message to every like-minded state resident you know and ask them to do likewise. Use the FIC Action Center to share this message on Facebook and Twitter. “Like” FIC Action’s Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. Follow those pages for regular updates and share our posts. We need as much support as possible to stop Assisted Suicide in Connecticut.
Thank you for making your voice heard in the fight to protect our most vulnerable citizens from Assisted Suicide. Click on the link below to log in and send a message to your legislators.
https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/LlTiOM19jXbXGqFevn69jA