Originally Posted - June 10, 2006

return home

The practice of euthanasia was easily established and advanced in the United States under the pretense of end of life wishes, choices, compassion, dignity, assisted suicide, and self rights to the public through introductions of various means.

Among those heavily involved in pushing euthanasia via legislative and public policy change in the U.S. is Myra Christopher and the billionaire donors who fund the cause. Myra has incrementally dosed our society towards legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia, largely through educational programs directed toward the medical field and medical industry, the legal field, government, the media, and the clergy, which leads to public policy changes.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide has evolved from opposition to these acts, and currently is an acceptable practice to some in this country by virtue of self rights and self determination. Types of euthanasia are practiced within the United States, under the radar of an unsuspecting public by using terminology such as futile care, terminal sedation, and hastening death, mercy, and similar terminology. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/041606HealthcareConnection.html

Myra's collaboration with right to die groups extends to Project GRACE and Kansas City @the Crossroads programs.

Project GRACE started as a partnership of physicians, elder care providers and citizens of Florida dedicated to "changing the death-defying, technology-driven approach to end-of-life care to a holistic, compassionate one that respects human dignity and the individual's best interests and personal wishes."

GRACE is an acronym for Guidelines for Resuscitation And Care at End of life, was founded by Lofty Basta, MD, and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

Dr. Basta, a cardiologist by profession, felt Americans died in discomfort and deserved better. He felt patients needed to gain control over their own deaths. Dr. Basta's book, A Graceful Exit: Life and Death on Your Own Terms, was written in 1996, and is one of the most well known publications among right to die activists.

Dr. Basta developed clinical guidelines for resuscitation and care at end of life, which was published in February of 2000 in Clinical Cardiology. These guidelines were a plan and design of Project Grace. http://www.clinicalcardiology.org/productcart/pc/supplements/CC23S2/cc23s2.full.pdf

Among the Staff and Directors of Project GRACE are Mary J. Labyak, MSSW, LCSW, Vice President, of the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast who serves on the Executive Committee, and George Felos, Esq. who served or rather, continues to serve on the Board of Directors. George is the lawyer who defended the husband of Terri Schiavo and argued her feeding tube should be removed to cause her death by dehydration. Hospice of the Florida Suncoast is where Terri was housed in the final years of her life.

GRACE is also a founding partner of the LIVE program under Caring Connections with direct input and influence from Myra's Center for Practical Bioethics. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/052406MyraChristopher7.html

In promoting autonomy for inmates, the Volunteers of the America G.R.A.C.E. project helped change advance care planning within the prison population. With a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care initiative, which is Myra's State Initiative number 12, the project developed a set of standards for prisons and jail palliative care that strongly encourages advance care planning. http://www.practicalbioethics.org/FileUploads/SI_12.pdf

Living wills were an early focus of attention, but surrogate designation was also addressed, according to Liz Craig, G.R.A.C.E. project resource coordinator.

The project collaborates with the American Correctional Association, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), the North American Association of Wardens and Superintendents, the American Correctional Health Services Association, the American Correctional Chaplains Association, the National Prison Hospice Association, the Center to Improve Care of the Dying (Rand Corporation), the Third Age Center (Fordham University), and the Open Society Institute's Project on Death in America and Center on Crime, Communities, and Culture.

Myra Christopher, as NPO of the Community State Partnership (C-SP) program, was instrumental in development of 24 Initiatives, including the standards for prison inmates. State Initiative 12 addresses the prison population issues with collaboration from the GRACE Project, Myra's Community-State Partnership program, and Last Acts that is no longer in existence. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/050206MyraChristopher3.html

Mary Labyak serves as Director of The Hospice Institute of the Florida Suncoast that provides end of life and palliative care education, consultation, research and innovation. The Institute is also a community resource for people living in Pinellas County, Florida, and provides national programs and resources for end of life care across the country. They are also a regional resource center serving several states. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/041606HealthcareConnection.html

There are seven nonprofit divisions of the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast:

1) Hospice Care
2) HomeCare of the Florida Suncoast
3) The Hospice Institute of the Florida Suncoast (education, research and consultation)
4) The Hospice Foundation of the Florida Suncoast (development and community relations)
5) Suncoast Solutions (computer software systems)
6) AIDS Community Project of Tampa Bay (ACP)
7) FACT: For AIDS Care Today, Inc. (community outreach, service and support).

Kansas City @ The Crossroads is another Myra Christopher project. Myra is involved in the Crossroads program, which took up the ethical issue of embryonic stem cells.

This program is comprised of ethicists, physicians, clergy, legal and public policy advisors from the Institute for Bioethics, Law & Public Policy; the Diocese of Kansas City & St. Joseph, Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute; the Institute for Bioethics, Law & Public Policy at the University of Kansas School of Medicine; the Diocese of Kansas City & St. Joseph; Myra Christopher's Center; Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, Washington University School of Medicine; Crossroads moderator Nick Haines with KCPT-TV; patient advocate and member of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures; Mary Cook, State Representative, Kansas (District 18); Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences; Jerry Johnston, Pastor of the First Family Church; Professor of Medicine at UMKC School of Medicine; and Kansas City Interfaith Council, who met to debate public policy on life sciences.

If you critique Myra's comments on stem cells, you have a very clear understanding as to why she has been so successful in legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia in this country.

Myra commented that there never would be consensus on such a divided issue, and said the focus should be on finding common ground.

What that common ground entails remains to be seen. As there is no common ground on capital punishment, embryonic stem cell, or abortion, neither is there common ground on euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Dr. Onder, one participant, stated, "The purpose is to create cells to kill them for the research, what I would call 'clone and kill' research." Myra disagreed, calling "clone and kill" "catchy and incendiary" and "a sound bite."

The same is true of the terminology used by right to die/end of life advocates in the name of aesthetics.

Myra also disagreed with Pastor Johnston claiming the more people knew, the more likely they would change their viewpoint, and it was a black and white decision. "There are multiple world views, but it's politically expedient to make this an either/or issue," Myra stated. Another participant disagreed, stating that the two different world views would remain apart, regardless of education, "One view is that every human being has inherent value," "And then, the other view tends to look at things in a utilitarian fashion. They look at things in a practical way; does the end justify the means?" Myra said she had changed her opinion over the years and public dialogue had helped. She also stated that she still was optimistic that common ground could be found without reaching a consensus. Bill Duncan agreed with her, and said he could be further changed with the right "scientific evidence."

There are no multiple world views with euthanasia. You either oppose or support the practice. The more people learn, the more likely they are to take a stand and declare their support or opposition on the issue.

Based on Christopher's comment that dialogue would change opinion, Haines wanted to know how healthy dialogue could occur where differing viewpoints are heard and respected.

Myra also stated that "rhetoric draws the attention away from critical issues. We need to get beyond the differences and work on progress." In speaking of public policy and ethically regulating something that is unethical to begin with, Myra replied that her Center for Practical Bioethics' science and ethics initiative was making progress between both opinions. "We are committed to creating an infrastructure and mechanism with oversight," she said.

No amount of dialogue will change one's views as to what they perceive as right versus wrong. No amount of education will change a person's opinion or viewpoint if they are locked into an ideological principle. You can only educate the uninformed. Maybe this is what the right to die groups are counting on.

Euthanasia with oversight will not work for various reasons.

In Holland, physician assisted suicide has been practiced for well over a decade, with allegedly strict controls in place. A Dutch government survey in 1992 revealed that in 8,100 cases where doctors prescribed lethal overdoses of pain medication, 61 percent of the patients had not consented to their death. According to a USN & WR report, 45 percent of the patients were involuntarily euthanized in hospitals; this is described as doctors who did not consult family members and these patients were killed without their consent.

Even more appalling, the Dutch government is now relying on the courts to set precedents that would serve as unofficial policy that would govern the mercy killing of newborns.

Myra should reference the Dutch euthanasia program for accuracy, as her oversight idea is "futile" to enforce. Holland proves that fact. Other countries that practice euthanasia have proven this as fact also.

Myra's comment, "We are committed to creating an infrastructure and mechanism with oversight," simply will not work.

The mechanisms in place for oversight in the state of Oregon regarding their assisted suicide law do not work due, in part, to the HIPPA regulations. Data is missing. Some information cannot be tracked and properly analyzed to prevent abuses.

Oregon is a prime example that with missing data and the inability to track issues such as whether the patient was depressed and sought a psychological evaluation and other important questions, an analysis with any meaningful conclusions is impossible.

Why present an incomplete idea involving stem cells, push it into law, knowing fully well it will not provide the very oversight suggested and needed, and will become as controversial as capital punishment and assisted suicide? Myra's only recourse is to collaborate and lobby for policy changes first, get her laws passed, then pass it off to others or forget about it, and move on to another issue.

This type of activity is exactly what Myra has done so well over the past 2 decades. Once the sloppy or impotent law is in place, we play hell convincing state legislatures and the federal Congress that revisions are warranted, or that a reversal of the law is justified, or that relevancy of any part or piece is in need of clarification. This is an inept way to pass a law and amounts to shoving an ideology down American citizens' throats, while we are totally misinformed.

The most irritating factor is that Myra and her like minded euthanasia proponents have used the medical profession to gain ground in legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The euthanasia movement has abused the field of medicine to push their philosophy.

Forget any argument about polls and whether the majority approves or disapproves of stem cell research or assisted suicide and euthanasia. If right to die advocates were really honest and serious about their philosophy, they would tell the American public what their self determination and self rights truly entail, and push to allow the public a voter initiative.

Allow the public a vote on euthanasia, and not surreptitiously sneaking around the country educating and changing policies to advance their ideas of what constitutes good medicine, rights, mercy, burden, quality, futile, and so on.

Euthanasia proponents will not do that, else they will be exposed and their mission fails. People cannot find out what they are truly supporting. Does the majority want euthanasia legalized in this country? This is the question that begs an answer.

The question we must all ask is not whether Myra is using deceptive language in developing and disseminating teaching resources funded by philanthropists who change public policy, as we know that is true and factual, but how these policy changes affect us all in the long term, regardless whether euthanasia, stem cells, or any other ethical issue is debated.

At this juncture, none of us are assured of adequate medical treatment, nor are we safe in this country with certain disabilities and disease processes, such as Alzheimer's, traumatic brain injuries, AIDS, stroke patients, quadriplegics, and the demented elderly. This will not improve, but only become worse over time, unless Americans speak out now. 6-10-06