Rhode Island- Take Action Now! - Patients Rights Action Fund

Rhode Island - Take Action Today!

With just weeks left in the legislative session, it is more important than ever that your legislators hear from you! Please take a few moments to send a message today to your State Senator and State Representative asking them to oppose SB 2051/HB 7760. Both the house and Senate Judiciary Committees have held hearings, but they have not yet had a vote. Your voice makes a difference!

The dangerous policy of assisted suicide puts our most vulnerable neighbors at significant risk. We must remind our legislators that suicide is not medical care, and we deserve better access to quality care, such as in-home hospice and palliative care, not an ill-conceived public policy that puts patients at risk of mistakes, coercion, and abuse. Despite proponent claims, the facts are clear that people access assisted suicide for reasons of disability, not for pain.

Here are some of the reasons why they must oppose assisted suicide:

1. Patients have been denied coverage for lifesaving treatment and offered assisted suicide instead.

1. Young women with anorexia have been given lethal drugs by their doctor under this same policy in Colorado and Oregon.

1. Pain and suffering, or even concern about it, never make it into the top 5 reasons why patients die by assisted suicide in Oregon. Rather, the most commonly cited reasons are disability related concerns, which is why the National Council on Disability rejects assisted suicide.

1. Mental conditions are ignored and depressed patients receive the lethal medications.

1. Doctors make mistakes and patients who are not dying receive the prescription drugs.

Assisted suicide laws abandon vulnerable patients and they impact everyone’s end of life care. Rhode Island legislators would be making a grave mistake to pursue SB 2051/HB 7760

Please fill out the form and urge your legislator to reject SB 2051/ HB7760 today.

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Message: As your constituent, I am deeply concerned about SB 2051/HB 7760, a bill that would legalize assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is dangerous and discriminatory policy that has no place in Rhode Island. In other states that have legalized this practice, patients “choose” assisted suicide for reasons of disability and not wanting to be a burden. In fact, pain, including fear of future pain, has never been even a top five reason that patients ask for lethal drugs. Our neighbors facing disabilities deserve appropriate care, treatment, and support, not assisted suicide. That’s why major disability rights organizations, including the National Council on Disability, oppose legalizing assisted suicide. The American Medical Association calls assisted suicide “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.” Our suicide rates are too high! Vulnerable patients need aid in living, not suicide. Assisted suicide harms vulnerable patients and has no place in Rhode Island. Please oppose all efforts to bring this dangerous policy to our home and vote NO on SB 2051/HB 7760. Thank you.

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