Tell legislators to be prepared for suicide bill

To the editor:

Disappointed that they haven't been able to replicate the Oregon victory in any other state, the Hemlock Society has hired a Washington, D.C., consulting firm specializing in federal policy, law and regulations and a national public-opinion and political research firm headed by Robert Raben, who was an assistant attorney general under Janet Reno.

Raben's firm formed six focus groups to find out why people react to assisted suicide the way they do. They found that people don't like the word "suicide," preferring "lessening suffering" rather than "assistance in dying."

Now the Hemlock Society is using deceptive language to hide its real agenda. Talk now is of "empowering people to preserve the dignity of life," and it is being presented by the group's political arm. There are three steps to the program: 1. promotion of a new advance directive, 2. consensus-building endorsements and 3. advancement of state laws to expand patients' rights.

The third step is the most alarming and the group goes from state to state pressuring legislatures to adopt a Patients Control and Comfort Act. Deceptive language in this act would decriminalize physician-assisted suicide. Please contact your state legislators and ask them to be prepared for this coming ploy on behalf of suicide advocates and to be ready to block any such initiative before it is too late.

JULIA B. BUEHRLE

Cape Girardeau