A new bill has quietly been introduced which would allow federal funding for assisted suicide.
Rep. Brittany Pettersen has sponsored HR 8137, which would “provide for an exception to the restrictions described in the Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act of 1997 with respect to certain States.” Should the bill pass, those undergoing assisted suicide would be able to use Medicare or Medicaid (in other words, taxpayer) funding to be killed.
In 1997, the Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act was passed, banning any federal funds from “assisting in the suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing of any individual.” Yet in recent years, assisted suicide has gone from a horrific crime to a so-called “dignified” way to die, and has become legal in more and more states across the country.
Currently, assisted suicide is legal in 10 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and 10 more states are seeking legalization.
A draft discussion of HR 8137 obtained by the New York Sun explained how Pettersen intends to argue that assisted suicide should be eligible for federal funding: by saying that it’s not really assisted suicide.
“Medical aid-in-dying, an authorized medical practice, is not euthanasia, mercy killing, or assisted suicide,” the draft discussion says.
As it is, many people who undergo assisted suicide are receiving state funding; the most recent report out of Oregon, for example, found that 78% of all assisted suicide patients were Medicaid or Medicare recipients — a noteworthy statistic, people citing “financial concerns” a reason for seeking assisted suicide has been rising steadily throughout the years. People in both California and Oregon have said they were denied treatment for their illnesses by insurance, and referred to assisted suicide instead, even when they hadn’t said they wanted to die.
Perhaps most disturbingly, the report again affirmed that people are not pursuing assisted suicide because they fear a long, painful death; in fact, 92% of people who applied for assisted suicide cited “loss of autonomy” as their reason for wanting to die; the two most cited reasons were inability to enjoy activities (88%) and loss of dignity (64%). These are the same reasons cited in previous reports as well. Now, these people will have even more incentive to die, with the federal government paying for their deaths.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has launched a petition protesting the legislation.
