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Letter: My Testimony Was Misquoted

Monday, May 20, 2013

To the Editor:

Ed Wendell seriously misquoted me in his Feb. 12 Forum letter. I did not utter the words he attributed to me. In fact, my own mother died suddenly.

I did testify in opposition to legalizing physician-assisted suicide at the Vermont Senate committee hearing. The full text of my testimony is available at www.TheBestCarePossible.org.

Ira Byock, M.D.

Palliative care physician

Enfield

Related

Letter: Mixed Message on Suicide

Thursday, February 14, 2013

To the Editor: This is in opposition to the physician-assisted suicide bill before the Vermont Senate. There is a suicide problem in Vermont now. This measure would send the message that suicide is an acceptable practice and make Vermont complicit in the act by, in effect, saying to Vermonters that suicide is acceptable in some cases. Mixed messages don’t work, …

Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison, prepares to report on a death with dignity bill in the Senate on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013 in Montpelier, Vt. The Vermont Senate is debating legislation that supporters call "end-of-life choices" and critics call "physician-assisted suicide." The Senate is set to vote Tuesday whether to follow a recommendation of the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the measure.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

Testimony: Doctors Should Not Become Agents of Death

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Following is testimony prepared by Dr. Ira Byock for a hearing on end of life choices held by the Vermont Senate’s Committee on Health and Welfare in Montpelier on Jan. 31. I am Dr. Ira Byock. I am a practicing palliative care physician and direct the palliative care program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon. I am a professor in …