UPDATE: When I first wrote this letter, the video had been up for about 4 hours and we had reached 4,000+ people. The trailer has now been live for about 10 hours and has reached more than 12,000 people—that is the power of social media!!! Your gift right now will help us build on this momentum!
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Dear Friend,

I just got home from back-to-back-to-back trips, and now find myself with three weeks in the office before I hit the road again for speaking engagements in Ireland and Spain. My talk at Yale University was particularly well received by the students and has already led to two new speaking engagements in the New Year.

People are hungry for our work and it excites me to hear that from audiences I speak to. Not only are we meeting a need, we are closing a gap by raising awareness of the difference between ethical and unethical advances in medicine, science, and biotechnology.

While I was away, however, RESOLVE, the lobbying arm of the reproductive industry, launched an attack on the testimony I gave in Minnesota a few weeks ago opposing surrogacy. I’m waiting for transcripts from the hearing so I can fully respond to the utter ridiculous rebuttal they lodged against me.

On October 3, we released the official trailer for our new documentary short film, Compassion and Choice: DENIED (scroll down to view the trailer here on this page). Through the story of Stephanie, a terminally ill mother of four who has experienced first-hand the effects of California’s recent legalization of physician assisted suicide, the film will explore the impact that the legalization of physician assisted suicide has on those who want to live.

Spoiler alert: the result is that compassion and choice are both denied. You’ll have to watch the film to see the several ways this happens, though.

This, of course, has stirred the pot with those who argue we have a right to die by physician assisted suicide. I’m sure this battle will heat up even more once the entire film is released after the election. We have joined coalitions to fight legislation seeking to legalize physician assisted suicide in Minnesota, Colorado, and the District of Columbia. What is the infatuation with legalized death and turning our doctors into killers?

We need your help most immediately to promote this new film. We made this film in house on our usual shoestring budget. Now that we are set to release it, we need to market it on social media, to legislators looking at passing pro assisted suicide laws like California. And we need to promote this to the press who write about stories like Stephanie’s, which is featured in this film.

Importantly, when the film is released, it will be FREE to view online. We want it to be available to everyone all around the world, with no hindrance to viewing it—these legislative battles are not unique to the U.S.

I’m hoping that this letter will raise the $5,000+ we need to promote and market the film properly. At the time of this writing, the trailer has been live for about four hours and has reached more than 4,000 people [see update at top of page]—that is the power of social media! Through it we can quickly reach massive audiences with the message that assisted suicide is not the solution for those battling terminal illness.

Can we count on your gift today? Your gift today will go a long way to helping us get this film in front of the millions of people who need to see it. Education, telling stories, promoting our shared human future is what drives us each and every day. Your support allows us to keep going.

Thank you for your partnership,

Jennifer

We need at least $5,000 to build on the momentum of reaching more than 1,000 people per hour.
Please give today!

 
The Center for Bioethics and Culture is a non-profit 501(c)(3) public benefit educational organization. All gifts are tax-deductible.

Author Profile

Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.