BY NISSA LAPOINT
MAY 07, 2015
Dr. Tom Newman wheeled himself to the microphone before a committee of state lawmakers and a crowd at the Capitol, who were gathered to listen to heart-wrenching testimony of personal trials and passionate views on both sides of physician-assisted suicide.
The doctor, who said he is a cancer survivor and uses a wheelchair, testified at the Capitol for the first time in February. He told lawmakers the destructive legislation would confuse the meaning of “death with dignity,” especially for the disabled like his son, who died of ALS.
“This bill dignifies suicide because it redefines it,” he said Feb. 6. “The words ‘death with dignity’ is a ploy. It’s a political marketing tool … to sell to the public the comforting idea of physicians’ tacit approval of suicide given by lethal means.”