How exciting, despite it being a “short session” devoted to what should be financial issues, the Public Health Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly will be holding ANOTHER public hearing on assisted suicide. We here at Family Institute of Connecticut think this may be the 10th, but who is counting! Please don’t let them fatigue us. We have outlasted other ASTROTURF efforts to bring assisted suicide to our state . . the Hemlock Society, the Final Exit Network, Compassion & Choices and others! We will tenaciously defend our state, our vulnerable populations, against assisted suicide. Even if some day they should pass it. Maybe from denying us public hearings, or sneaking it through some financial amendment, WE. WILL. FIGHT. But, we don’t have to do much more this year than show up. We live in a great state, that DOES give us a chance to participate (do you know some states don’t even hold public hearings?). What you can do right now, is plan to testify this Wednesday on February 23. You will need to 1) submit testimony to phtestimony@cga.ct.gov (include your name & “SB88”) in a WORD or PDF document, 2) sign up to testify by phone or zoom before 3pm on February 22 https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_w-svNgPnTo2AOlZum5PrDg, 3) follow instructions to show up on zoom at your assigned time on Wednesday (probably after 10am).

**2022 Myth vs Fact Assisted Suicide SB88 Sheet**

What else can you do? PLEASE NOTIFY YOUR OWN REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR THAT YOU TESTIFIED. Please go to our ACTION CENTER and submit a letter. Send them your testimony (you should be able to link your written testimony after the hearing) and let them know you care about SB88!

Here are the necessary links and details we have so far . .

https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/CGABulletin/Bulletin.asp
Public Health Committee

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

The Public Health Committee will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, February 23, 2022 at 9:00 A.M. via Zoom.  The public hearing can be viewed via YouTube Live.  In addition, the public hearing may be recorded and broadcast live on CT-N.com.  Individuals who wish to testify via Zoom must register using the On-line Testimony Registration Form.  Registration will close on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 3:00 P.M.  Speaker order of approved registrants will be posted on the Public Health Committee website on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 6:00 P.M. under Public Hearing Testimony.  If you do not have internet access, you may provide testimony via telephone.  To register to testify by phone, call the Phone Registrant Line at (860) 240-0569 to leave your contact information.  Please email written testimony in Word or PDF format to PHtestimony@cga.ct.gov.  Testimony should clearly state testifier name and related Bills.  The Committee requests that testimony be limited to matters related to the items on the Agenda.  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.  The Committee encourages witnesses to submit a written statement and to condense oral testimony to a summary of that statement.  All public hearing testimony, written and spoken, is public information.  As such, it will be made available on the CGA website and indexed by internet search engines.

S.B. No. 88 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING AID IN DYING FOR TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS.  

What do I testify about? SB88 includes many supposed “safeguards” to address problems with assisted suicide. Check out this flyer as to why none of them will work, particularly when it comes to expansion.

Want more detailed analysis? This is a Myth/Fact sheet geared toward specific problems with SB88.

Our friends at Patients Rights Action Fund have many resources including “7 reasons to oppose assisted suicide.” https://patientsrightsaction.org/resources/

Other resources include . . .https://www.epcc.ca, https://epc-usa.org, https://notdeadyet.org, http://dredf.org, https://www.choiceillusion.org

Big Suicide is playing for keeps. The sadly misnamed Public Health Committee raised the bill at the earliest possible moment, the same day Peter’s letter was published below. (You can read FIC’s live-tweets of that meeting here.) And they will now hold the hearing for assisted suicide on the earliest possible date.

This is a very serious matter. We cannot stress enough the urgency of having as many people as possible testify against assisted suicide on Wednesday, February 23rd.