The state senate in Oregon state voted to impose a crackdown on companies that sell
so-called ``suicide kits,'' which contain hoods or other items intended to help a
person kill himself. They passed the bill yesterday in response to the death of a
29-year-old man who killed himself using a suicide kit he ordered through the mail
from a California company.
“It does show the contradiction within the frame
of mind of the Oregon senate, they are against suicide for some people, and they are
in favour of suicide for others,” says Joseph Meaney, Director of International Coordination
for Human Life International (HLI).
Oregon is one of just a few states in
the USA that allow physician-assisted suicide, but lawmakers said that law has safeguards
and take advantage of the vulnerable. Meaney says this is not true.
“If you
are sick and you have a bad prognosis, they think that killing yourself is absolutely
the way to go,” he told Vatican Radio. “The other thing, and this is really a terrible
thing to say, but basically it has become a cost-cutting measure. There was a woman
in Oregon in 1994 who decided she wanted to get an extra cancer treatment, and she
applied for it. The state of Oregon denied her application for this extra treatment,
but said they would pay for her doctor-assisted suicide…of course, she was highly
offended that they would pay for her death, but not for her treatment.”
Listen
to full interview by Charles Collins with Joseph Meaney: