Changing the Law

There was a recent article in the newspaper about an individual who gave another person a lethal dose of drugs. That individual was sentenced to seven years in prison for providing the lethal dose. It has been my understanding that if you provide an “instrument of death” to another and that person uses it on himself or another individual you are as guilty as having ended that person’s life. If you are present during the commission of a crime whereby someone loses their life, it is as if you had committed the crime.

Now, the State Legislature wants to change the law so that if you provide an “instrument of death” to one of the most vulnerable of our society that you are no longer guilty. The legislature feels that if the person is suffering and is going to die anyway, that you are being merciful by helping them.

We, as a society, spend billions of dollars each year trying to prevent suicide. We try to convince people that their life is worth living. But according to the state legislature, if you are sick or old, your life doesn’t matter.

We do not have the right to take another’s life or help another to take their own life. And no state law can change that fact.

— Ron Prykanowski, Ewing