Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Assisted Suicide is not legal in Hawaii


An article that published in the Honolulu Star Advertiser once again confirms that assisted suicide is not legal in Hawaii. Compassion & Choices, (C & C) known by Not Dead Yet researcher Stephen Drake as "Conflation and Con Jobs," claimed that an obscure law from 1909 that allows people in Hawaii to use drugs that have not been approved for use in Hawaii, as also allowing people in Hawaii die by suicide assistance.

Senator Josh Green
Deputy Attorney General Heidi M. Rian and Attorney General David Louie responded to a question by Senator Josh Green, the chair of the Senate Health Committee. The response to Senator Green stated:
"We do not believe that (Hawaii Revised Statutes) 453-1 provides authority for a physician to assist with dying. "A physician who provided such assistance could be charged under Hawaii's manslaughter statute."
In response to the contention that the 1909 law allowed doctors to prescribe suicide for their patients, the statement said:
there is nothing in the legislative history that "supports a conclusion that the term includes lethal dosages of medication."
This is not a new strategy for C & C.

Connecticut
C & C also claimed that Connecticut's law that prohibited assisted suicide, did not prohibit "Aid in Dying". This case was based on a Word Game and in June 2010, the Connecticut court clearly decided that "Conflation and Con Jobs" - C & C were trying to fool them and they threw the case out.

C & C claimed, in June 2010, that assisted suicide was legal in Idaho. They stated that their was no specific law that prohibited assisted suicide in Idaho, even though the common law was recognized as prohibiting assisted suicide and assisted suicide was considered to be part of the manslaughter provisions in Idaho. The position of C & C was not only rejected but in 2011, the Idaho legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill to clarify that assisted suicide is a felony in Idaho.

For more information on the Hawaii case go to: Article 1, Article 2.

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