The [proposed] Act has no required oversight over administration of the lethal dose.[1] In addition, the drugs used are water or alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected into a sleeping or restrained person without consent.[2] Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, puts it this way:
With assisted suicide laws in Washington and Oregon [and with the proposed Act], perpetrators can . . . take a “legal” route, by getting an elder to sign a lethal dose request. Once the prescription is filled, there is no supervision over administration. Even if a patient struggled, “who would know?” (Emphasis added).[3]Footnotes:
[1] See the proposed bills in their entirety, beginning in the appendix at A-5 and A-19, respectively.
[2] The drugs used include Secobarbital, Pentobarbital, Phenobarbital and Morphine Sulfate, which are water and/or alcohol soluble. See Oregon and Washington report excerpts, in the appendix at pp. A-63 and A-64 (listing these drugs) . See also http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.htmf and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.qov/pmc/articles/PMC2977013
[3] Alex Schadenberg, Letter to the Editor, "Elder abuse a growing problem," The Advocate, Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar, October 2010.
