California assisted suicide bill opens door to unchecked abuse

In a commentary entitled, "Let's call physician-assisted suicide what it is," Los Angeles Times
reporter Karin Klein rightly decries the deceptive rhetoric of the assisted suicide movement and California Senate legislation. However, the commentary ignores the legislation-mandated cover-up of assisted suicide details that could trigger abuse detection and whistleblowing by media, watchdog groups and investigators focused on protecting actual patients.
Under the senate bill, any information that if reviewed might lead to questions about whether the patient had been coerced, disabled or depressed; whether an autopsy had proven the diagnosis incorrect; whether the lethal medication failed to immediately kill the patient; or a host of other known dangers associated with assisted suicide, would be deliberately hidden from observers. Even the state government is only required to collect a "sample of certain records" of an act, otherwise prohibited by state anti-suicide law, in which a person actually dies.

This assisted suicide bill is not a ticket to individual freedom but to unchecked abuse.