You may recall that Arizona End-of-Life Options launched its ongoing Seven Touches
campaign in early July. Since then we have been providing all 90 state
senators and representatives with a steady stream of information
explaining our organization and emphasizing the need for a medical aid
in dying (MAID) law in our state. The campaign will continue through
December. PLEASE SEE SPECIAL TRAINING INVITATION
AT THE END OF THIS
ARTICLE
The campaign calls for “touching” every legislator at least seven times
via email, phone calls and personal meetings. If you have been
participating in the campaign, thank you for your unselfish support. If
you haven't had a chance to join in, it’s not too late. Here's how to
get started.
STEP ONEFirst,
you need to locate the name and email address for the Senator and two
Representatives who represent the Legislative District you live in. To
start, simply go to this website and
enter your home address. Your Legislative District will pop
up at the top of the map. (Your Congressional District will also be
displayed, but ignore that for now.)
STEP TWONext, type the number of your Legislative District on this website Legislatorswhere
the House Roster and Senate Roster are shown in two different displays
and provide each member's name, phone number and email
address. Note that when you send your emails, each person's name
must include the extension @azleg.gov. Thus, for example, John
Allen's email address would be JALLEN@azleg.gov.
STEP THREE Draft
an email something like the SAMPLE below. It's fine to send the same
email message to each of your three legislators. Just remember to change
the recipients' names and email addresses. Remember, the SAMPLE is
exactly that, so feel free to change up the language to suit your own
personal style.
STEP FOUR Proofread each email to eliminate possible typos, save a copy for your files, and send your Touch on
its way. If you come up against a question about the campaign that you
can't answer, please give Dwight Moore a call at 360-223-4958.
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear (name)
For the past several months I have
been sharing information with you about medical aid in dying (MAID). At
issue is the absence of a law here that would give Arizonans afflicted
with life-ending illnesses access to MAID.
This is hardly a new
issue. Since 2004, our advocates have been working closely with
legislators crafting and submitting bills proposing a MAID law.
Interestingly, during that same time period, broad public sentiment
favoring medical aid in dying has grown significantly – both in Arizona
and across the country. For example:
A 2018 survey conducted by Medscape shows that 58% of American doctors support physician-aided dying, up from 46% in 2010.
A
2018 Gallup poll reveals that a broad majority of Americans, 72%,
believe that doctors should be legally allowed, at a patient's and a
family's request, to end a terminally ill patient's life using painless
means.
For much more information about verified polling results, please refer to our website.
Clearly, the time is here for open-minded discussion and approval
of a “Death with Dignity” law in our state. That is why I am urging you
to consider all the compelling evidence and voice your support for an
aid-in-dying law in the 2021 legislative session. Your support can
finally grant Arizonans the same rights 70 million Americans in other
states already have available to them.
Next month I will be calling your
office to schedule a phone call or meeting to further discuss medical
aid in dying and hear your opinions.
Yours truly,
(name)
(home address)
SPECIAL TRAINING INVITATION
All AZELO volunteers are invited to attend a special virtual training program from 10-11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 20.
Please make a note on your calendar. The session will provide guidance
and resources for tackling the upcoming Touches Five, Six, and
Seven.
Zoom Meeting Invitation:
AZELO Host is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: AZELO Seven Touches - Touches Five - Seven Training
Time: Aug 20, 2020 10:00 AM Arizona
News From the Front Lines The AZELO
Advocacy Team is busily gearing up for the 2021 Arizona legislative
session. While last year’s focus was to perfect our medical aid-in-dying
(MAID) bill language, this year our primary focus is on our bill
sponsors and co-sponsors, according to Advocacy Team Lead Leesa Stevens.
“For the upcoming session our primary
goal is to assure identical language in both the House and Senate bills
and limit the bills to only one in the House and one in the Senate,”
Leesa says. “We encountered a bit of a problem last year in the Senate,
where two bills were introduced, each with different language. Having
two competing MAID bills in the Senate created confusion,” she recalls.
“With a tightly coordinated approach in the upcoming session will be
much more likely to be successful.”
Also on the plus side, the Advocacy
Team reports that AZELO has a nucleus of very motivated legislators, and
that “we just need to work proactively to get everyone on the same page
(bill).”
On the bill sponsorship front, the
team will be considering all past sponsors. In addition, feedback from
the Seven Touches campaign will be used to evaluate legislators'
attitudes regarding medical aid in dying and pinpoint those individuals
supportive of our cause and willing to lead or co-lead the 2021 effort.
“Once identified,
we will be contacting each supportive legislator with bill information
and ask them to either sponsor or co-sponsor our bills in the Senate and
House,” Leesa reports. “We want to have all our research completed and
everything in place by the first of December.”
AZELO
Chairman Ron Fischler added his thanks to the Senators and
Representatives who supported our MAID legislation last year. “We are
very much looking forward to their continued support in the future,” he
says. “They are our statehouse heroes.”
In the House or
Representatives those individuals include Pamela Powers Hannley
(D-Tucson), primary sponsor of House Bill 2582, and her co-sponsors:
Richard Andrade (D-Glendale), Isela Blanc (D-Tempe), Reginald Bolding
(D-Laveen), Kirsten Engel (D-Tucson), Charlene Fernandez (D-Yuma),
Randall Friese (D-Tucson), Rosanna Gabaldón (D-Sahuarita), Geraldine
Peten (D-Buckeye), Diego Rodriguez (D-Laveen), Athena Salman (D-Tempe).
In the Senate,
Juan Mendez (D-Tempe) was prime sponsor of SB 1384. His co-sponsors
included Martin Quezada (D-Phoenix), Rebecca Rios (D-South Phoenix),
Randall Friese (D-Tucson), Athena Salman (D-Tempe) and Raquel Terán
(D-Glendale/West Phoenix).
In addition, SB
1497 was introduced by primary sponsor Victoria Steele (D-Tucson), with
co-sponsorship from Lela Alston (D-Phoenix), Andrea Dalessandro
(D-Sahuarita), Sally Ann Gonzales (D-Tucson), Juan Mendez (D-Tempe),
Tony Navarrete (D-Glendale/West Phoenix), Lisa Otondo (D-Yuma), Martin
Quezada (D-Phoenix), and Rebecca Rios (D-South Phoenix).
