As we mentioned in last month’s e-alert on HB2739, physician-assisted suicide is alive and well in Hawaii.
HB2730 passed through two committees last week and is expected to be voted on by the full House tomorrow morning.
Take Action:
- Today: Contact your Representative today and urge him/her to vote NO on HB2739. If you don’t know who he/she is then click here and fill in the blank next to “Find Your Legislator” in the upper right hand corner. Be sure to let him/her know that you are a member of Concerned Women for America of Hawaii.
- Tomorrow: If at all possible, attend the morning’s rally at the state capitol put on by Hawaii Family Forum.
- Now: Please forward this e-alert to friends and family. Encourage them to both pray and act immediately.
Please Pray: Pray for your representative by name. Pray he/she will have the courage to defend life.
“…And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” – Psalm 139:16
You can call it “death with dignity,” “medical aid in dying” or “informed healthcare decision”, but suicide is still suicide no matter how you spin it!
Statistics from states that have legalized physician-assisted suicide show the terrible unintended consequences Hawaii can expect to experience if it follows suit. Here are just some of our concerns:
- The individual could be given the prescription due to a misjudgment or an error in the diagnosis of their disability or illness.
- Oregon, the first state to legalize assisted suicide, provides the most complete data available on the practice of assisted suicide in the United States. Oregon reports that individuals primarily choose assisted suicide because of reasons related to a disability and very little to do with pain management. The primary concerns center around having a disability: losing autonomy (92%), being less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable (90%), and losing dignity (79%). Fear of inadequate pain control is one of patients’ least cited reasons.
- Modern medicine has made significant advances in pain control. Doctors now have a range of options to treat pain in terminally ill patients, including even palliative sedation as a last resort.
- PAS increases overall suicide rates, lethal addictive drugs go unused, and mental health issues are ignored.
For more facts and statistics, go to noalohainsuicide.org.
Though there are many sound academic reasons to oppose physician-assisted suicide, as believers, the most important reason is because God, and God alone, is the author of life. We cannot take on the role of God and take life based on our inconsistent judgment.
We do not understand why God allows pain and suffering, but we know God is good; God is love, and His ways are higher than ours. God has appointed a time for each of us to be born and to die. He is with us in all things and has a purpose for every situation that comes our way. God has a plan for each and every one of us.
For Life!
Barbara Ferraro
State Director
CWA of Hawaii
P.O. Box 10732
Hilo, I 96721
director@hawaii.cwfa.org
hi.cwfa.org
808-965-9834
Wilma Youtz
Legislative Liaison
CWA of Hawaii
hawaii.cwa.liaison@gmail.com