12 August 2009

Section 1233 Written by Proponents of Assisted Suicide

Update: Section 1233 has been dropped.
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Jill Stanek has a full report.
Compassion & Choices has worked tirelessly with supportive members of congress to include in proposed reform legislation a provision requiring Medicare to cover patient consultation with their doctors about end-of-life choice (section 1233 of House Bill 3200).
Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer wrote of section 1233, "Actually, I know a little bit about this section because it's a bill that I wrote which was incorporated into the overall legislation." Blumenauer wrote an amicus brief in favor of assisted suicide in the major Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 243 (2006). Of the amicus brief, he writes, "The amicus brief I have filed with other members of the delegation supports the Court's decision to uphold Oregon's Death with Dignity law."