The ACLU would not want to draw attention to themselves or their plan to legalize *****physician assisted death,***** unless absolutely necessary
Their Florida branch of the ACLU gave an award to the former Chief Justice of the FL Sup Ct Gerald Kogan, because he supports physician assisted death. They said he was courageous to dissent from other FSSC judges.
Annual ACLU banquet honors Justice Kogan
"Always the courageous judge, Justice Kogan used his years on the bench to defend a wide range of individual rights," the ACLU of Florida proclaimed. As examples, the organization cited his dissent from the majority decision in Kirscher v. McIver,
Few find clear-cut answers in assisted suicide debate
By TAL ABBADY, Associated Press
[snip]Another link on Kogan: Kogan Took Unethical Swipe at [Sanders] Sauls
Hemlock insists that patients must be able-bodied enough to obtain and ingest the lethal drug dose — usually morphine — on their own.
"You have to have the means to stir it, drink it, push the liquids in yourself," said Mary Hudson, president of the Florida Hemlock Society.
Hudson bristles at the word suicide to describe Hemlock-aided deaths.
"Assisted death is untraumatic, not violent," said Hudson. "In our cases, family is always a part of the planning. That's hardly what we think of as suicide." [snip]
Like many Hemlock advocates, Robert Rivas sees no distinction between physician-assisted death and a doctor's legal right to cut off a dying patient's life support upon the family's consent.
"It's a totally phony distinction," said Rivas. "The Court just didn't have the courage to apply the law. They were afraid of being discredited and attacked."
Retired Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan, who wrote the only dissenting opinion in the 1997 ruling, agrees [that there is no difference between physician assisted death and removing life support].
"The court should have been bolder," said Kogan. "We allow doctors to disconnect feeding tubes and respirators. It makes no sense to say there's a difference. In both cases, the doctor is assisting in the patient's death." [snip]