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Independent Living News & Policy from the National Council on Independent Living

Urge your Representative to Cosponsor House Concurrent Resolution Opposing Assisted Suicide!

Just before the new year, Representatives Lou Correa (D-CA) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) reintroduced a Concurrent Resolution (HCR 79) in the House of Representatives opposing assisted suicide laws. The resolution expresses “the sense of Congress that assisted suicide…puts everyone, including those most vulnerable, at risk of deadly harm” and “undermines the integrity of the health care system.” A press release was also issued, which includes a statement from NCIL’s Executive Director, Kelly Buckland.

NCIL has long opposed legalization of physician-assisted suicide for the dangers it poses to people with disabilities. On October 9, 2019, the National Council on Disability (NCD) released the findings of a federal examination (PDF) of the country’s assisted suicide laws and their effect on people with disabilities, finding the laws’ nominal safeguards are ineffective and oversight of abuses and mistakes is absent. Simply put, assisted suicide laws are bad public policy.

HCR 79 calls attention to the dangers that physician-assisted suicide laws pose. It explains that they do not and cannot offer adequate safeguards against coercion or abuse, which inevitably occurs behind closed doors. It also explains concerns with minimal reporting requirements and the lack of transparency or oversight where assisted suicide is already legal, preventing detection or consequences for violations of the law. Moreover, it raises concerns that our profit-driven healthcare system, combined with limited access to needed treatments and community-based supports and services, threatens to make assisted suicide the only “option” for some people.

Take Action!

Contact your Members of Congress to secure cosponsors for the recently reintroduced Sense of Congress concurrent resolution (HCR 79) opposing physician-assisted suicide. Physician-assisted suicide laws are bad public policy. Please urge your Members of Congress to cosponsor the Concurrent Resolution in the House, and ask your Senators to cosponsor a companion resolution in the Senate!

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or (202) 224-3091 (TTY). You can find your Senators’ direct phone number and contact form at senate.gov and your Representative’s direct number and contact form at house.gov/representatives.

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