Urgent: Ask Public Health to NOT Raise Assisted Suicide Bill
Your Help Needed Immediately
Assisted Suicide is on the agenda of the Public Health Committee meeting for tomorrow, (Wednesday), January 20th, at 10 am. It is item 3 (“AAC Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients”) under “Bills for Review.” If the Committee votes to raise the bill for a public hearing, that hearing could occur as early as next week.
Please email all 33 members of the Public Health Committee NOW and politely and professionally ask them to NOT raise the bill for a hearing tomorrow.
FIC Action and our allies have successfully defeated the assisted suicide bill for the last eight years. It is bad public policy that puts vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and disabled persons, at risk. They rightly fear that, for them, the “right to die” could become a duty to die.
It is especially egregious for assisted suicide to be on the agenda during a global pandemic.
The public is forbidden from entering the Legislative Office Building to testify in person or to lobby their representatives in person. This puts disabled persons, who have led the fight against assisted suicide, at a distinct disadvantage. If assisted suicide advances at our state Capitol this year, it will be because its supporters did an end-run around the normal democratic process.
And at a time when children and teenagers are at a greater risk of suicide because of the mental stress caused by the pandemic lockdown. This is no time to make suicide more socially acceptable!
Suicide, including assisted suicide, is a contagion. One person’s allegedly private “choice” to commit suicide or assisted suicide affects everyone around that person, radiating outward in concentric circles. Retaining the prohibition on assisted suicide is the least we can do to prevent suicide contagion.
Please email each individual on the Public Health Committee NOW and politely and professionally ask them to NOT raise the bill for a hearing tomorrow. Here are their email addresses:
abrams@senatedems.ct.gov
jonathan.steinberg@cga.ct.gov
anwar@senatedems.ct.gov
kushner@senatedems.ct.gov
jillian.gilchrest@cga.ct.gov
haskell@senatedems.ct.gov
kasser@senatedems.ct.gov
moore@senatedems.ct.gov
tony.hwang@cga.ct.gov
heather.somers@cga.ct.gov
william.petit@housegop.ct.gov
tom.arnone@cga.ct.gov
aimee.berger-girvalo@cga.ct.gov
whit.betts@housegop.ct.gov
christie.carpino@housegop.ct.gov
michelle.cook@cga.ct.gov
ann.dauphinais@housegop.ct.gov
mike.demicco@cga.ct.gov
josh.elliott@cga.ct.gov
jaime.foster@cga.ct.gov
henry.genga@cga.ct.gov
robin.green@housegop.ct.gov
eleni.kavrosdegraw@cga.ct.gov
kathy.kennedy@housegop.ct.gov
nicole.klarides-ditria@housegop.ct.gov
liz.linehan@cga.ct.gov
kathleen.mccarty@housegop.ct.gov
johnmichael.parker@cga.ct.gov
kevin.ryan@cga.ct.gov
sean.scanlon@cga.ct.gov
peter.tercyak@cga.ct.gov
phil.young@cga.ct.gov
lezlye.zupkus@housegop.ct.gov
Thank you!
Peter Wolfgang
President, FIC Action