From: Thomas (Burke) J. Balch [balch@erols.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 5:01 PM
Subject: ALERT: Oppose involuntary euthanasia bill: contact U.S. Senators!

• Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has introduced a bill that would open the door to involuntary euthanasia by authorizing health care providers to deny life-saving treatment against the express will of the patient or patient's family.
• Title VI of the Health Care Assurance Act (S. 24), while requiring health care providers to withhold treatment from those who do not wish it, does not require them to provide lifesaving treatment to those who want treatment, if it is "under prevailing medical standards, either futile or otherwise not medically indicated." Tragically, a significant shift in medical ethics has expanded the meaning of the term "futile" to include not only treatments which are physiologically ineffective, but also those which, in the health care provider's opinion, do not result in a quality of life beneficial to the patient.
• Once life-saving treatment is denied, while the legislation directs transfer to another provider, it does not require the unwilling provider to provide treatment pending transfer. Those with disabilities or long-term illnesses would be made vulnerable to the judgments of others who deem them "better off dead" than alive because they consider them to have a low "quality of life."
• Contact your senators and representatives. Urge them to oppose the Health Care Assurance Act unless amended to protect patients and their families who choose life!

  A NOTE ON E-MAIL: If you use e-mail to write to a lawmaker, be sure to include your regular mailing address in the e-mail. Otherwise, your representative has no way of knowing whether you are actually his or her constituent. For E-mail to Virginia senators, send to Senator George Allen and Senator John Warner. For E-mail to Representatives, you may use www.house.gov/writerep.

VSHL is the Virginia affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.