It was during the Hemlock conferences first session that Merrill, Raben, and others presented those research findings to conference attendees. The message was simple: People dont like the word "suicide," and Hemlock had to take on a kinder, gentler image. "People want to talk about this concept as lessening suffering rather than assistance in dying," Merrill explained.
Even more significant, he said, was that support for Hemlocks agenda jumped 13 percentage points when the idea of patients being in control of their care and pain treatment at the end of life was presented to the focus groups.
A handout distributed to the conference audience spelled out Hemlocks new direction. Deceptively titled "Empowering People to Preserve the Dignity of Life: A New Roadmap," [hereafter cited as "Roadmap"] the sheet stated that the newly "reshaped and expanded" advocacy program will be carried out, not by Hemlock, but by its political arm, the Patients Rights Organization of the United States of America (PRO-USA). The new program consists of three key components: (1) promotion of a new advance directive, (2) consensus building endorsements of Hemlocks new "Statement of Principles," and (3) the advancement of state laws to expand patients rights.
The Hemlock Society was very busy here in SW Fla over the last fifteen years, at least.
They made appearances at senior centers and nursing homes, letting often lonely and in pain seniors know that they have more pain and further dependency to look forward to, and that a "Living Will" will empower them to stand up to uncaring children and doctors and die at a time of their own choosing and method.
Lonely seniors trust these death peddlers to 'care' about them more than their loved ones. It's a powerfully diabolical sales pitch. Try questioning the 'concern' of right-to-kill advocates with a lonely follower, you then become just one more person trying to strip them of their remaining independence.
With this agenda, there is no faith, hope - or charity.
(3) The "patient's right to privacy" is a smokescreen so that they can do things to patients behind closed doors that aren't moral or proper!!! It's just like nazi Germany. Whatever you are doing, call it something else so that the public isn't alarmed.