PAS Supporters make a Dangerous Move to the Left

In a recent blog post, the CEO of Compassion & Choices, Kim Callinan, announced the group’s updated position on several crucial aspects of the physician assisted suicide debate. The announcement, which addresses waiting periods and prescribing privileges, illustrates the groups continued dangerous move to the left as they advocate for the legalization of PAS.

Compassion & Choices, a national pro-PAS advocacy group which has been the main supporter of PAS legalization bills here in Maryland, has spent years misleading the public and elected officials and this latest move is another assault on some of the most vulnerable members of our society. In Ms. Callinan’s announcement, she wrote that Compassion & Choices now supports the removal of any waiting period between a patient’s first and second request.

“If lawmakers want to improve medical aid in dying laws, then let’s address the real problem: There are too many regulatory roadblocks already… I am merely suggesting that we drop some of the regulations that put unnecessary roadblocks in place. The most obvious is the waiting period (15 days, except in Hawai‘i, where it is 20 days) between the terminally ill patient’s first and second request.”

As equally concerning as this shift in position is, Compassion & Choices is also urging lawmakers to expand the scope of which medical professionals are allowed to prescribe suicide.

“Lawmakers should also consider extending prescribing privileges to nurse practitioners and reducing overly cumbersome reporting that deters doctors from practicing.”

Compassion & Choices has shown a strong commitment to spending tens of millions of dollars nationally to introduce and pass legislation that is based on their positions. Legislation in New Mexico has already been introduced which reduces the waiting period to 48 hours and allows any health care provider to prescribe the lethal aid.

This is the same out-of-state interest group that is pushing PAS legalization in Maryland this year – House Bill 399 and Senate Bill 311. With House and Senate hearings on these bills coming up in less than two weeks, it is imperative that we block any PAS legalization in Maryland!