SANTA FE, N.M. (CNA/EWTN News) — Proposed legislation in New Mexico could legalize assisted suicide in the state, and may even allow for the prescription of deadly drugs outside the state via telemedicine, and by health-care professionals other than physicians.
Deacon Steve Rangel, associate director for the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bill was disheartening to read.
“In our Catholic faith, we know the dignity of life from conception to natural death,” he told Catholic News Agency.
Rangel cited several particularly objectionable points in House Bill 90, known as the “Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act,” including a provision that medical practitioners other than doctors can administer the drugs, without ever having examined the patient in person.
He also pointed out that the bill reduces the waiting period for assisted suicide from 15 days to 48 hours.
“We all get down. We’re human beings,” he said. “But at [a patient’s] most vulnerable point, are we going to let them make a life decision like that?”
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, headquartered in Ontario, told CNA that this assisted suicide bill jumped out at him as particularly expansive and vague.
“This bill allows nurses and physician assistants to be involved also. So you have this wider group of people who can be involved in the act itself of prescribing.”
The current bill allows for the prescription of assisted suicide drugs after a health-care professional examines a patient via telemedicine.
“A doctor could assess you, or even a nurse, by telemedicine. So you have a terminal condition, supposedly, and this is going to be approved that you can die by assisted suicide but your interview for this process is done over a screen,” Schadenberg said. “To me, this is a crazy thing because we’re talking about life and death.”
The bill includes a provision that makes assisted suicide acceptable if it can be determined that a terminal condition will cause a patient’s death “in the foreseeable future.”
“‘Foreseeable future’ is not defined,” Schadenberg noted. “So it’s wide open…basically you can have your interview by telemedicine, and die two days later because your terminal condition that you supposedly have might cause your death in the ‘foreseeable future’.”
The bill also removes conscience protections, he said, because although doctors are not required to prescribe the lethal medication, they are mandated to refer the patient to a medical professional who will.
In addition, the bill does not clearly define whether residents of states other than New Mexico might be allowed to avail themselves of assisted suicide. It was reported in some publications that the bill lacks a residency requirement completely, meaning patients coming from other states to seek the procedure, “suicide tourism,” could become a reality.
Most assisted suicide laws, such as Oregon’s, Schadenberg clarified, explicitly state that the patient must be a resident of the state in order to qualify for the procedure.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress