Sunday, April 12, 2015

Protect your healthcare. Don't let legal assisted suicide come to California.

Kenneth Stevens, MD
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article17359709.html#storylink=cpy (fourth
letter down)

I am a doctor in Oregon, one of the few states where assisted suicide is legal. I have been following the progress of California’s assisted-suicide bill [SB 128] with alarm.

Here in Oregon, our Medicaid program steers patients to suicide, which is covered in lieu of treatments for cure or to extend life. Private health plans and providers have this same ability.

I first became involved with the assisted suicide issue shortly before my first wife died of cancer in 1982. We had just made what would be her last visit with her doctor. As we were leaving, he suggested that she overdose herself on medication. I still remember the look of horror on her face. She said “Ken, he wants me to kill myself.”

Protect your health care. Don’t let legal assisted suicide come to California.

DR. KENNETH STEVENS, SHERWOOD, ORE.