Read the Vote No on 106 guest column.
While serving as a state lawmaker in Colorado for over a decade, I had to make decisions about controversial legislation so I always asked myself, “Will this bill expand individual liberty or will it increase government control?” Liberty versus control—a simple way to look at complex issues, but an effective one.
So when I first heard earlier this year that proponents were gathering signatures to put an End-of-Life Options proposal on our statewide ballot, I thought long and hard about this very serious issue. After giving it much thought, I ended up making what was ultimately a simple decision.
I’m voting yes on Proposition 106 not only because it’s right the thing to do but because serious healthcare decisions should be between Coloradans, their families, their faith and their doctors. Simply put, there is no role for government in very personal decisions made at the end of a person’s life.
If you are arguing against Prop 106, where the government can force you against your will to spend your money and suffer needlessly, how can you ever argue for any restrain on government. If government can do this to you, what can’t it do?
Yet, this is exactly what our current government policy does—it forces Coloradans to pay for end of life healthcare they may not want or need. Start asking and you will find many stories of surgeries costing thousands just days before someone passes.
Recently, I was on my good friend Ross Kaminsky’s conservative radio show. I followed an appearance by an extremely courageous Coloradan, Matt Larson. Matt is a 36-year-old registered Republican who lives on the Front Range and his story is heartbreaking. Matt was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year. He is fighting his disease and doctors told him there is a 50/50 chance that it will return. I hope it does not.
Matt desperately wants to live. He isn’t suicidal in any way, shape or form. Matt simply wants the personal freedom to avoid needless suffering if his brain cancer returns and his death becomes inevitable.
Matt said, “This is not a left or right issue. This is not a political issue. This is an issue of compassion. More than two-thirds of people that understand the process and eligibility requirements support this. Try to get two-thirds of anybody to agree on anything these days.”
I agree whole-heartedly. Which is why I am proud to be voting Yes on Proposition 106, Colorado’s End-of-Life ballot initiative.
The language in the ballot initiative is straight-forward. The law would allow terminally ill, mentally capable adults with six months or less to live access to medication that they would self-administer to end their suffering. The safeguards are extensive – and far better than anything that exists in the current system.
I am pro-life without exceptions. I am also an evangelical Christian, and I rely on faith to guide my decisions everyday. And I think that forcing people against their wills to needlessly suffer at the end of their lives isn’t compassionate or Christian.
Make the compassionate choice, make the choice for liberty. Please join me in voting Yes on 106.
Greg Brophy is a former state Senator from Wray, Colorado.