Turning against aid-in-dying bill

I am someone who in the past would have supported H.B. 6425 (An Act Concerning Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients), believing it would give more power to individuals to choose how to die. I’m someone who wears a mask, I’m getting the vaccine, and I’m a member of my local Democratic ward committee. I now strongly oppose H.B. 6425, after seeing the enormous pressure my friend was subjected to to take the cheaper option (for the hospital) of withholding medical procedures from her sick, elderly, destitute mother. That pressure came from physicians, nurses, and a hospital “ethics board.”

With the support of three other physicians, and under tremendous stress, my friend was able to withstand the pressure and get her mother the procedures that enabled her to breathe and receive nutrition. In our society which is so unequal, huge pressure to withhold more expensive treatment and hasten death is and will continue to be brought to bear on individual people who are poor, who are sick, who are least likely to have the resources and confidence to resist such pressure. This is already happening, and if a bill such as this is enacted, the pressure will only increase. Until we have a society where everyone has an equal chance to live and to get the care they need and want, regardless of income, level of ability/disability, age or skin color, I won’t support a bill that will add more pressure to end the lives of vulnerable people. Deborah Elkin

New Haven