“Physician-assisted suicide targets vulnerable people who are made to feel that their lives are no longer valuable or worth living,” she said in a March 20 statement. “Instead of continuing to prescribe toxic cocktails of life-ending drugs, we should provide truly compassionate measures, ensuring that people facing end-of-life decisions have access to high-quality palliative care.”
Anderson told CNA that she is especially concerned for the state’s most vulnerable residents, who she said are under special threat in the assisted suicide laws.
“After 26 years, the law has had a corrosive effect on medical professionals and caregivers who see assisted death as a legitimate response to illness and disability,” she explained.
Now, Anderson said, there “are no real protections against coercion.”
She urged people to give special care whom she believes are most targeted by the state’s assisted suicide laws.
“Our elderly, disabled, medically fragile, and chronically ill neighbors need us to seek them out, actively communicate that each one is a person with infinite value, and find practical ways to help them in their daily lives,” she said.
Since assisted suicide was legalized in Oregon there have been 4,274 lethal prescriptions and 2,847 reported deaths in the state, per OHA.
Credit: Source link
