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What You Need to Know, Fast

Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia

  • Euthanasia is the direct killing of a person, usually by injecting a lethal substance.
  • Euthanasia is prohibited in all 50 states under homicide laws. Eight states and Washington, D.C., have so-called, death with dignity statutes:
  • California (End of Life Option Act; approved in 2015, in effect from 2016)
  • Colorado (End of Life Options Act; 2016)
  • Hawaii (Our Care, Our Choice Act; 2018/2019)
  • Maine (Death with Dignity Act; 2019)
  • New Jersey (Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act; 2019)
  • Oregon (Death with Dignity Act; 1994/1997)
  • Vermont (Patient Choice and Control at the End of Life Act; 2013)
  • Assisted suicide fast fact- Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands with or without the consent of the patient. Guidelines have been adopted to allow the killing of newborns with disabilities. Euthanasia is legal in Belgium and Luxembourg.
  • Assisted suicide involves one person providing the means and instructions to help another person commit suicide.
  • Most states have laws which prohibit assisted suicide.
  • Attempts to legalize assisted suicide with ballot measures have been defeated in five states.
  • Assisted suicide fast fact- Assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Legalization is debatable in Montana due to a court decision which leaves the issue in doubt.
  • Assisted suicide is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. It is not legal but widely practiced in Switzerland which attracts people from all over the world to be assisted with suicide.
  • Illegal drugs from Mexico are taken to Australia and New Zealand to be used for suicide. People are taught how to make their own suicide pills.
  • Allowing people who are not dying to die of starvation and dehydration by withholding or withdrawing food and fluids is legal in all 50 states.

Stem Cells

  • Human embryonic stem cells are only obtained by killing the human embryo. Embryonic stem cell research is opposed because a human life must be destroyed.
  • Because embryonic stem cells grow uncontrollably they are considered to be dangerous to a patient.
  • Scientists in Madison, WI and Japan recently programmed ordinary human skin cells into becoming cells which act like embryonic stem cells. There is no loss of human life using this process.
  • Adult stem cells are found virtually anywhere on a person’s body. Adult stem cell research is universally supported because no one has to be killed to retrieve the cells.
  • Adult stem cells are also found in cord blood discarded after a baby’s birth and in amniotic fluid surrounding the baby in the womb.
  • There are 73 diseases and conditions which have been successfully treated using adult stem cells in human persons.
  • No human clones have been created to date. The cloning process involves inserting the DNA of the person to be cloned into a human female egg with its DNA removed.
  • Fetal farming is a process envisioned by scientists where a human embryo would be allowed to develop in an artificial womb. When the baby reaches sufficient size, scientists would use the embryo as an organ farm and remove tissues and organs for experimentation.
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