HARTFORD, Connecticut (Euthanasia Prevention Coalition) — I have great news: the Connecticut assisted suicide bill has died again.
This year represents 11 straight years for Connecticut to debate and defeat an assisted suicide bill. (Article from 2022: “Connecticut assisted suicide bill defeated again”).
READ: Abp. Paglia defends assisted suicide as ‘greatest common good possible’ for dying people
A news article by Hugh McQuaid for the CTNewsJunkie on April 19 reported:
A legislative panel on Wednesday tabled a proposal to allow terminally ill adults in Connecticut to end their own lives with medication, effectively ending the bill’s progress in the Judiciary Committee for the third consecutive year.
Sen. Gary Winfield, a New Haven Democrat who co-chairs the committee, announced that the proposal did not have enough support to pass as he raised it for a discussion during a midday meeting after hours of negotiations.
The assisted suicide bill sponsors, in 2023, intentionally added tighter guidelines in order to get it passed. The opponents of the bill explained that the intention was to get the bill passed, and then similar to other states, to expand the assisted suicide law in future years. McQuaid stated:
Supporters hoped those guard rails would help to win over skeptical members of the Judiciary Committee. It wasn’t enough. During a brief interview Wednesday, Winfield said earlier discussions indicated there was not even close to enough support among the committee members to pass the bill.
READ: The Netherlands is euthanizing children, and Canada could be next
The Quebec College of Physicians believes Canada’s assisted suicide program, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), can and should be used on infants born with ‘severe malformations’.
This is nothing short of infanticide.
In a recent press release, Dr. Louis Roy from the Quebec College of Physicians claimed that MAiD could be appropriate for babies born with ‘grave and severe syndromes’ for which their ‘prospective of survival is null, so to speak.’
No matter how you spin it, an infant cannot consent to their own death – to decide for them and give a lethal dose is murder.
Sign now to tell the Quebec College of Physicians they cannot issue death sentences to infants with illnesses!
Once the door to killing without consent is opened, the number of people who become eligible to be murdered increases exponentially. Providing MAiD to a person who cannot consent is a standard that is wildly dangerous for all persons with intellectual disabilities in Canada.
Canada cannot begin killing babies when doctors predict that they will not have a good quality of life. Predictions are often based on discriminatory assumptions about life with a disability. Many people diagnosed with disabilities as babies who were expected to not have a good quality of life are now grown adults leading thriving lives.
Providing MAiD for terminally ill newborns is murder! This is a slippery slope towards ending the lives of millions of people either born with or diagnosed with intellectual disabilities.
The Quebec College of Physicians MUST back down from infanticide — SIGN NOW and make them know that you flatly condemn this horrifying practice!
MORE INFORMATION:
‘It’s murder’: Quebec physicians group slammed for proposing to euthanize ‘severely ill’ babies
McQuaid reported on statements from the Judiciary committee:
‘I do not want to put another thing in a lap of someone that is facing life’s difficulties and saying, ‘You also have the option to kill yourself,’’ Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, said. ‘I don’t want anyone to have that option, legally, because I think that is a small step from going down the road to now you’re going to be encouraged, if not overtly, implicitly.’
There were concerns about the proposal on both sides of the aisle.
Rep. Steve Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat who co-chairs the committee, spoke of his own father’s terminal cancer diagnosis and the difficult decisions it has brought. He pushed back on characterizations that opposition to the bill stemmed largely from the religious affiliation of legislators.
Instead, Stafstrom said his concerns about the proposal grew throughout this session due to court battles in other states, where lawsuits have sought to scrap safeguards similar to those contemplated under the bill.
‘There are still some outstanding issues and we are right to be cautious on it,’ Stafstrom said.
READ: Pontifical Academy for Life tries to clarify Abp. Paglia’s troubling assisted suicide comments
Connecticut is the best example of a bipartisan opposition to assisted suicide. Thank you to the disability group, Second Thoughts Connecticut, and to the many people who worked so hard to defeat the bill for eleven consecutive years.
Reprinted with permission from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.