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Thursday, February 13, 2025 - 11:50 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA FOR 30+ YRS

First Published & Printed in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA FOR OVER 30 YEARS!

DAVIDSONVILLE, Md. -- On Thursday, January 30, multiple non-profit groups and concerned citizens arrived in Annapolis to speak with their Maryland legislators about the dangers of the End-of-Life Option Act.

The bill has failed to pass in Maryland during 7 previous legislative sessions but there are rumors the bill will soon be introduced again this year.  According to Laura Jones, co-founder of the educational non-profit, The Dignity Mandate, “Many legislators see this issue as a matter of personal choice.   However, this bill extends beyond individual autonomy and requires the doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to be complicit in the act by providing the deadly drugs people use to overdose and die.”

Jessica Rodgers of the Patient Rights Action Fund, a national organization that monitorsthis issue throughout the US, shared lessons learned from states where it is legal. According to her, proponents continue to push through the legislature or the courts for expansion after this practice has been legalized in order to diminish the safeguards that convinced legislators to vote yes and to provide easier access to lethal drugs. Jessica also told the legislators, “The practical application of these laws is that someone will qualify if they would die within six months without treatment. That's why a doctor in Colorado justified, and faced no penalty for, writing lethal prescriptions for young women with anorexia.  Despite mental health conditions not being a qualifying condition, the doctor has faced no consequences."

Jonathan Alexandre, legal counsel for Maryland Family Institute said “The safeguards do more to protect the doctors than to protect the patient. It is a corrupt law that requires the doctors to falsify the death certificate, stating the death was the result of an illness, not a drug overdose”

Chris Kelter, who spoke to the legislators on behalf of the seven Maryland-based Centers for Independent Living stated, “This deadly option of healthcare is dangerous to the disability community.  Specific cuts in the proposed state budget and other fiscal uncertainties will reduce the provision of services to people with disabilities and cause undue harm. People with disabilities should be supported and live life to the fullest and should not have to consider ending their lives for any reason. Enacting this bill into law would be a crushing blow to the spirit of those who fight to live.”

“We hope this bill will not be introduced in Maryland,” stated Laura Jones.