Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Latinos Misrepresented by PAS Bill Supporters
California's Compassionate Choice Act is discriminatory, warns a Latino advocacy group. The group also complains non-Latinos are misrepresenting the Latino community by claiming Latinos widely support euthanasia.
"Doctor-assisted suicide is incompatible with basic human rights and Latino values. The average, hardworking Latino in California believes life is precious and we are obligated to do all we can to prevent a person committing suicide" said Angel Luevano, the State Director of California LULAC.
LULAC is the largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States.
"To suggest otherwise is simply ludicrous and negates all morality or understanding of Latino culture," Luevano said.
Luevano claims people from outside the Latino community in California are trying to speak for Latinos on the issue of doctor-assisted suicide, and in particular bill AB654. If passed that bill would make California the second state to allow doctor-assisted suicides, the first being Oregon. The bill must still be approved by the state's congress before reaching Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - who has said he's "open-minded" to the issue.
Opposition to right-to-die legislation is significantly higher in the Latino and African American communities. Large sums of grant money are being spent to "educate" these populations and make the right-to-die agenda more appealing to minorities. Fortunately many community leaders are well aware of the facts behind the spin.
...one Spanish doctor said, that once the Pandora Box is opened, there is no control on what doctors do. Those opposing euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicides, often cite statistics from the 1990 Remmelink Report, an official government study on the practice of Dutch euthanasia. Among other figures, that report found that Dutch physicians deliberately and intentionally ended the lives of 11,840 people by lethal overdoses or injections--a figure which accounts for 9.1% of the annual overall death rate of 130,000 per year. Doctors also admitted, in the report, to having killed 8,100 patients from overdoses of pain medication, not for the primary purpose of controlling pain, but to hasten the patient's death - and with 61 percent having failed to give their consent.
"LULAC will not stand on the sidelines while assisted suicide advocates misrepresent the opinions and moral views of the Latino community for their own political goals. Simply stated, we have the conviction that assisted suicide is morally wrong and urge defeat of this bill," LULAC said in a statement.
Luevano´s LULAC said California legislators are receiving over 20,000 postcards, letters and phone calls from individual Latinos across California.
It's good to see that among Latinos this propaganda has so far been ineffective. I hope the Latino community turns out in force against AB 654.
"Doctor-assisted suicide is incompatible with basic human rights and Latino values. The average, hardworking Latino in California believes life is precious and we are obligated to do all we can to prevent a person committing suicide" said Angel Luevano, the State Director of California LULAC.
LULAC is the largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States.
"To suggest otherwise is simply ludicrous and negates all morality or understanding of Latino culture," Luevano said.
Luevano claims people from outside the Latino community in California are trying to speak for Latinos on the issue of doctor-assisted suicide, and in particular bill AB654. If passed that bill would make California the second state to allow doctor-assisted suicides, the first being Oregon. The bill must still be approved by the state's congress before reaching Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - who has said he's "open-minded" to the issue.
Opposition to right-to-die legislation is significantly higher in the Latino and African American communities. Large sums of grant money are being spent to "educate" these populations and make the right-to-die agenda more appealing to minorities. Fortunately many community leaders are well aware of the facts behind the spin.
...one Spanish doctor said, that once the Pandora Box is opened, there is no control on what doctors do. Those opposing euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicides, often cite statistics from the 1990 Remmelink Report, an official government study on the practice of Dutch euthanasia. Among other figures, that report found that Dutch physicians deliberately and intentionally ended the lives of 11,840 people by lethal overdoses or injections--a figure which accounts for 9.1% of the annual overall death rate of 130,000 per year. Doctors also admitted, in the report, to having killed 8,100 patients from overdoses of pain medication, not for the primary purpose of controlling pain, but to hasten the patient's death - and with 61 percent having failed to give their consent.
"LULAC will not stand on the sidelines while assisted suicide advocates misrepresent the opinions and moral views of the Latino community for their own political goals. Simply stated, we have the conviction that assisted suicide is morally wrong and urge defeat of this bill," LULAC said in a statement.
Luevano´s LULAC said California legislators are receiving over 20,000 postcards, letters and phone calls from individual Latinos across California.
It's good to see that among Latinos this propaganda has so far been ineffective. I hope the Latino community turns out in force against AB 654.
papijoe 6:07 AM
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