Citizens Prevail Against Assisted Suicide in South Dakota

Citizens Against Assisted Suicide
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There are so many people to thank for our victory preventing assisted-suicide from coming to South Dakota.

This was an effort by well over a hundred key people, some of whom want to remain anonymous. First and foremost my thanks goes out to my bipartisan board of current and former legislators: Brian Grosch, Rep. Lynne DiSanto. Rep. Ray Ring, Rep. Julie Bartling, Dennis Feickert, Scott Munstermann, Jon Hanson and Rep. Steve Haugaard.  I made a total of eight calls to ask these people to serve. 100% said yes.

Thanks also goes out to the many professionals that provided us pro-bono work – the corporate lawyer that drew up our organizational papers, the tax lawyer that applied for our tax exempt status with the IRS, the election-law lawyer that provided us guidance navigating South Dakota election laws, and the many others that have reached out to us to provide their gracious support – to each of you, thank you, thanks you!

So many other South Dakotans stepped forward to help, I can’t name everyone.  We had literally dozens of South Dakota citizens-volunteers lined up to scrutinize petition validity and prepare for a court challenge – to all of you, thank you.

Our first and best strategy was to stop the initiative at the signature gathering phase through education.  Thank you to everyone that invited us into your homes, businesses, community groups, coffees, political meetings, church groups, medical doctor meetings and other groups to talk about the many dangers of assisted-suicide.

I also need to thank the many people that reached out to us from other states and countries that have fought this battle before and provided us strategic advice. Also, many thanks to Nik Nikas and Dorinda Bordlee from Bioethics Defense Fund, Barbara Lyons from the Patient Rights Defense Fund, Margaret Dore from Choice is an Illusion and Clint Cline from Design4.  We could not have accomplished this without your help.

Of all the different outcomes we prepared for, not qualifying for the ballot was far-and-away the best.

Thank you to everyone that made this a reality.

Dr. Fred Deutsch

President Citizens Against Assisted Suicide