Assisted suicide bills require objectors to facilitate assisted suicide
Wisconsin, USA (April, 2007)
Wisconsin Assembly Bill 298 and Senate Bill 151 are identical measures that
authorize a competent person who is at least 18 years old and who has a
terminal disease "make a request for medication for the purpose of ending
his or her life in a humane and dignified manner." Nothing requires a health
care worker to participate in the administration of the drug, but physicians
are obliged to act on the request, and other health care workers may be
involved in the process leading up to the writing of a prescription for
lethal medication.
There are no protection of conscience clauses in the
bills. On the contrary: a physician unwilling to fulfill the request is
required by section 9 to initiate transfer the patient to a willing
colleague. Many objectors would take issue with a requirement to initiate
the transfer process, which goes beyond simply responding when another
physician to whom care has been transferred by the patient requests the
file.
Senate Bill 151 & Assembly Bill 298
(Introduced April, 2007)
(9) If the attending physician refuses to fulfill the requester's request
for medication under this chapter, the attending physician shall make a good
faith attempt to transfer the requester's care and treatment to another
physician who will act as the attending physician under this chapter and
will fulfill the requester's request for medication. If a transfer is made,
the attending physician to whom the requester's care and treatment is
transferred shall comply with the requirements of this section.