Colorado’s ‘yes’ vote could mean HALF the country will consider euthanasia
- Colorado voters approved a ‘right to die’ bill on Tuesday with 65% in favor
- The bill allows patients with under six months to live to feed themselves lethal medicine to end their own lives
- Pro-euthanasia lobbyists say this paves the way for half the country to follow suit, with New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey up next
Mia De Graaf For Dailymail.com
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Assisted suicide has been legalized in Colorado.
Voters overwhelmingly back Proposition 106 on Tuesday night, meaning patients with six months to live can now be prescribed lethal medicine to end their own lives.
It is the fifth state to approve a ‘right to die’ bill since Oregon passed the first Death With Dignity Act in 1997.
And pro-euthanasia lobbyists claim the ‘yes’ vote has now opened the floodgates for at least seven more states – including New Jersey and New York – to follow suit.
‘Colorado demonstrates what we have been saying: Voters want medical aid-in-dying laws because they want to have all possible options at the end of life,’ acting director of advocacy at Compassion Choices, Toni Broaddus, said on Wednesday.
Voters overwhelmingly back Proposition 106 on Tuesday night, meaning patients in Colorado with six months to live can now be prescribed lethal medicine to end their own lives
‘When you pass a bill by such a significant majority, it just demonstrates the non-partisan nature of this issue, and the widespread support.’
Broaddus expects New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Hawaii, and New Mexico – and possibly more – to consider an identical bill in 2017.
The bill is based on the law Oregon passed in 1997.
It permits doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to mentally independent patients who have less than six months to live.
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Patients must be mentally and physically sound enough to feed themselves the lethal medicine prescribed by a doctor.
Washington, DC’s city council voted 11-2 in favor of a similar bill last week.
A Gallup poll in May 2015 found 68 percent of Americans support assisted suicide for people with six months to live.
And a Lake Research poll in July 2015 found Washington DC residents to be a good reflection of national opinion: 67 percent of DC residents are in favor of the Death With Dignity bill, according to the poll.
However, religious protesters are staging fierce opposition to the bill, as are patients groups that warn insurance companies may be more motivated by the monetary gains of prescribing lethal medicine.
Rita Marker, executive director of the Patient Rights Council which opposed the bill, lamented the result on Wednesday, saying that the legislation is not robust enough to prevent pressurizing ill patients into doing something they don’t want to do.
‘All of these safeguards stop when the so-called prescription is filled,’ she said.
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