Connecticut should again reject assisted suicide bill
/The following column was written by Paul Choiniere and published on March 1, 2015 in The Day.
By Paul Choiniere
You have to give the group Compassion & Choices high marks for persistence. Despite little progress, for the third straight legislative session they are back in Connecticut, asking the General Assembly to pass a law that would allow doctors to prescribe medications that terminally ill patients could use to commit suicide.
I know the group doesn't like that ugly word and you won't find it in any of Compassion & Choices press releases or guest commentaries. Instead there are references to "aid in dying," "death with dignity" and "end-of-life choices."
But what they are talking about is the state sanctioning suicide: "The act of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally."
The assisted suicide bills did not get to the floor for a vote in 2013 or 2014, but as I wrote a year ago, the group sees Connecticut as a progressive state that can eventually be persuaded to see the issue as a matter of individual choice - the choice in the organization's words to "have the best death possible."
