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Momentum Shift Against Assisted Suicide 

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Momentum Shift Against Assisted Suicide 

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Isaac McLaughlin-Mod 1

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Momentum is finally shifting against the legalization and expansion of assisted suicide. Twenty-three states have rejected bills attempting to legalize assisted suicide since the beginning of 2017, and these bills are now considered dead for the remainder of the year.

Why such unusual bipartisan consensus? In our profit-driven healthcare system, where care is expensive and assisted suicide is cheap, patients with terminal illnesses, people with disabilities, the elderly, and the poor are in grave danger of being pushed towards a death-too-soon. Assisted suicide policy injects government bodies and insurance companies with financial incentives into every single person's end of life decisions.

The states that defeated these bills to legalize or expand assisted suicide run the gamut politicalls, from New York and Rhode Island to Utah and Indiana. Such bills were defeated by votes in the legislature, died from inaction, stalled in committee or were completely withdrawn. A circuit court in Hawaii dismissed a lawsuit which asked the court to resolve that the criminal laws in the state should not apply to assisted suicide.

And there are four additional states - Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan - that are unlikely to act on similar measures this fall. Another indication that momentum is shifting in opposition to the expansion of this practice is states like Alabama and Ohio recently enacted laws to strengthen prohibition of assisted suicide. And a congressional committee passed an amendment to their appropriations bill to repeal the new DC law legalizing assisted suicide.

The success in beating back legalization or expansion of assisted suicide has been mainly due to the committed opposition of legislators from both political parties, and broad coalitions of organizations - both progressive and conservative - in each state, that are working tirelessly to educate legislative bodies and the public on the issue. These coalitions include all major disability rights organizations, medical community members and associations, faith-based organizations, life and family advocacy groups, patient advocates, elder abuse lawyers, and more.

Just in the last year, there have been more cases of patients being denied coverage for care which shows that legalizing assisted suicide results in more abuse and less choice. Stephanie Packer, a California mother of four suffering from a serious form of scleroderma, reported that her insurance company denied her coverage for chemotherapy treatment but offered to pay for a lethal prescription.

And Dr. Brian Callister, a Nevada physician, asked two different insurance medical directors to approve life-saving treatments but his patients were denied and offered coverage for suicide drugs instead. Those patients were from states that have legalized assisted suicide. In addition to entangling the government and profit-driven companies in everyone's end of life decisions, loopholes abound in this bad policy that allow for abuse.

For example, we know that in Oregon only 4 percent of patients considering assisted suicide are being referred for psychological evaluation, yet 26 percent overall were found to have major depressive disorder. These numbers suggest that persons with mental illness could be prescribed a death-too-soon instead of the treatment they ought to receive. Some vulnerable populations, like people with disabilities and terminal illness, are at a higher risk should assisted suicide become legal in more places.

But the truth is that it affects everyone. It's a human issue, and that's why the winds are changing on this dangerous practice.
J.J. Hanson is a terminal brain cancer patient and president of the Patients Rights Action Fund. If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions.

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A momentum shift against assisted suicide

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Momentum is finally shifting against the legalization and expansion of assisted suicide. Twenty-three states have rejected bills attempting to legalize assisted suicide since the beginning of 2017, and these bills are now considered dead for the remainder of the year. Why such unusual bipartisan consensus?

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Sarah Sanders: Ethics Investigation into allegations about Al Franken 'appropriate action.'

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Sarah Sanders: Ethics Investigation into allegations about Al Franken 'appropriate action.'

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Isaac McLaughlin-Mod 1

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White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said President Trump believes an ethics investigation into allegations Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., groped a Los Angeles radio host during a USO tour in 2006 is the "appropriate" course of action.

"On Sen. Franken, it appears that the Senate is looking into that, which they should, and we feel that's an appropriate action," Sanders told reporters Thursday when asked about the allegations against Franken.

Radio host Leeann Tweeden said Franken forcibly kissed her while they were practicing for a skit during a USO tour in the Middle East in December 2006. Tweeden also said Franken groped her. A photo shows a grinning Franken grabbing Tweeden's breasts while she was sleeping on a flight from Afghanistan after the tour concluded.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called on the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the allegations against Franken, and Franken also asked for a review of the accusations.

The Minnesota senator apologized for his behavior and said though the photo was meant to be a joke, he understands why Tweeden felt violated.

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Sarah Sanders: Ethics investigation into allegations about Al Franken 'appropriate action'

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White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said President Trump believes an ethics investigation into allegations Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., groped a Los Angeles radio host during a USO tour in 2006 is the "appropriate" course of action. "On Sen.

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Mourning the loss of ethics in Journalism

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Mourning the loss of ethics in Journalism

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Isaac McLaughlin-Mod 1

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With the president's daily mentions of "fake news," it is important to take a moment and examine the very amendment that gave journalists the right to publish. The First Amendment grants all citizens a right to free speech, but journalists also vow to objectively portray the truth - currently the latter is being disregarded by some.

In the past 15 years, journalism has seen a sudden shift, thanks to social media and the overwhelming urge to promote one ideology over another. Even though journalism has largely moved from print to digital, two things should remain steadfast: ethical decision-making and journalistic integrity.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 62 percent of Americans say the mainstream media favors a political party, which is up about 50 percent in past years. Further, 64 percent say the media favors the Democratic Party.

Trust in the media has steadily fallen below majority levels largely due to the lack of nonpartisan, neutral reporting that is presented by many news organizations. This was especially prevalent during the 2016 presidential election and has continued during the first nine months of the Trump administration; so much so that Republicans who trust the media have fallen to 14 percent from 32 percent in just one year.

Furthermore, as pointed out by Trump himself, a study done by Morning Consult found 46 percent of registered voters believe major news organizations fabricate stories about him. That means just 37 percent of Americans think the mainstream media does not invent stories - the rest are undecided.

As a field that serves to inform the public, it is astonishing to see how little faith the majority of the country has in the media.

The public's standards for journalism seem to have decreased as the media continues to grow with blogs, YouTubers, and social media. While one should expect an opinion on commentary pages, opinion-driven news stories should not be the norm for mainstream media organizations.

The burden on mainstream media organizations is twofold: abiding by their commitment to journalistic integrity and serving as a model for student journalism. As some of the most prominent news outlets in the country, supposedly held to the highest of journalistic standards, publish "news" articles dripping with the author's opinion or biased perspective, they open the doors for many more news organizations to do the same.

We continue to see mainstream media and, likewise, see student newspapers spin narratives to serve their own interest by using cherry-picked photos, taking content out of context, or posting misleading headlines.

Shockingly, the Morning Consult poll also showed that 28 percent of Americans think the federal government should have the power to revoke the broadcast licenses of major news networks if it says they are fabricating news stories about the president, and only 51 percent think the government should not be able to do so.

Giving the government this sort of power and jurisdiction over the freedom of the press would be detrimental to the people's right to know. There are already a number of restrictions on the First Amendment, such as copyright and libel laws.

We are facing a precipice in media and we need to decide if we in this profession will continue down this road of biased reporting or return to the core of journalism.
Kelsey Carroll is a student at Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne, studying communications and political science. She is a media ambassador and chapter president for Young Americans for Liberty. If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.

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Mourning the loss of ethics in journalism

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With the president's daily mentions of "fake news," it is important to take a moment and examine the very amendment that gave journalists the right to publish. The First Amendment grants all citizens a right to free speech, but journalists also vow to objectively portray the truth - currently the latter is being disregarded by some.