Seemingly Dead Euthanasia Bill Could Start to Move

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Alex Schadenberg
Donna Latteri

HB 140, while it failed to pass in the 2019 legislative session or even come to a vote, is still alive due to Delaware's having a two year legislative cycle.

Per Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, the seemingly dead bill could start moving in the 2020 session. He's right.

Euthanasia Bill Fails to Move

Bess McAneny
testifying against bill

HB 140 is dead for now. The bill had sought to legalize medical "aid in dying," which is a euphemism for active euthanasia.

After a hearing before the House Health & Human Development Committee, the main sponsor, Paul Baumbach, requested that the committee forgo holding a vote.

No vote was taken.

Margaret Dore

Dore Letter Opposing HB 160

I am an elder law and guardianship attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal.  Like HB 160, our law is modeled on a similar law in Oregon. I urge you to not make our mistake. 

I have three points:

Death Certificate Falsification Requires Defeat of HB 160

Kirk Allison, PhD, MS

Dear Legislators:

I directed the Program in Human Rights and Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health from 2006-2016 and am a past chair of the American Public Health Association's Ethics Special Primary Interest Group (now Ethics Section).

While working on my dissertation I was a visiting preceptor (research rotation) at the Hennepin County (Minnesota) Medical Examiner's Office. It was greatly impressed upon me the need for scientific accuracy in the medico-legal documentations of death.

Compassion & Choices Is a Successor Organization to the Hemlock Society

Theresa Schrempp

Dear Editor:

I am a lawyer in Washington State where assisted-suicide is legal. 

Your readers should know that Compassion & Choices is a successor organization to the Hemlock Society, originally formed by Derek Humphry. In 2011, Humphry was the keynote speaker at Compassion & Choices’ annual meeting here in Washington State. In 2011, he was also in the news as a promoter of mail-order suicide kits from a company now shut down by the FBI. This was after a 29 year old man used one of the kits to commit suicide.

Assisting Persons Can Have an Agenda

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Michelle Carter assisted boyfriend's 
suicide,"wanted sympathy, attention"

Persons assisting a suicide or performing euthanasia can have an agenda. Consider Tammy Sawyer, trustee for Thomas Middleton in Oregon. Two days after his death by assisted suicide, she sold his home and deposited the proceeds into bank accounts for her own benefit.[1]

In other states, reported motives for assisting suicide include: the “thrill” of getting other people to kill themselves; a desire for sympathy and attention; and “want[ing] to see someone die.”[2]

Medical professionals too can have an agenda, for example, to hide malpractice. There is also the occasional doctor who just likes to kill people, for example, Michael Swango MD, now incarcerated.[3]

Session Ends With No Floor Vote On HB 160

House Chambers

Delaware's legislative session ended with no floor vote on HB 160, which had sought to legalize assisted suicide, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined.

The bill had previously cleared a House committee with only one actual "favorable" vote.

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to get this great result.