Washington’s first legally assisted suicide
Washington state’s assisted suicide law went into effect March 5, 2009 and it has taken only 84 days for the first doctor assisted suicide to take place. The Associated Press is reporting that Linda Fleming, a 66-year-old woman with terminal cancer died Thursday night after taking drugs to end her life that were prescribed by a doctor under the Death with Dignity law. Those in favor of assisted suicide say it is a matter of a human being choosing if they will live or die. Those who are against say it is murder. I am not sure how my readers feel about this issue, but here is where I stand.
Before I weigh in on the subject, I will say this. The law in Washington is loaded with safeguards to make sure assisted suicide is the choice of the patient and they are given every opportunity to change their minds. I applaud them for the way this law is crafted. From USA Today:
Under Washington state’s “Death with Dignity” law, taking effect Thursday, a patient wishing to qualify for a lethal prescription a patient must:
– Be at least 18, declared competent, and a state resident.
– Be determined by an attending physician and a consulting physician to have a terminal disease and be expected to die within six months.
– Make an oral and written request, signed and dated by the patient and witnessed by two other people, one of whom must not be a relative of the patient, entitled to the patient’s estate, anyone tied to a health facility where the patient is being treated or is a resident, or the attending physician.
– Repeat an oral request to the attending physician at least 15 days after making the initial oral request. The patient can rescind the request at any time.
Once the request is made, the attending physician:
– Determines whether the patient is competent and has made the request voluntarily.
– Informs the patient of alternatives, like hospice care and pain control.
– Refers the patient to another physician for confirmation of the terminal diagnosis and to ensure the patient is competent and acting voluntarily.
– Recommends the patient for counseling if the patient is believed to be suffering from a psychiatric or psychological disorder.
– Recommends that the patient notify next of kin.
– Dispenses medication directly, or with the patient’s consent, contacts a pharmacist to fill the prescription.
First of all, I have always believed doctors were supposed to be doing everything they could do to save lives. To have one prescribe drugs to someone who is terminally ill, knowing full well what is about to happen, goes against everything they stand for. There is no way to know what kind of thought process these doctors go through before they make the decision to follow through with the patient’s wishes, but I would hope they think long and hard about. It certainly isn’t a decision to be taken lightly.
As for the patient, there is no way for me to understand what they are going through. Confronting one’s own death is something that only happens once and since no one can come back from the grave and tell us what happened, we can only surmise. I do know this. I experienced death first hand when my wife passed away and she fought with everything she had to stay alive. For someone to willingly give up their last days upon this earth is incomprehensible to me.
I have also seen first hand the suffering that can and does go on with terminally ill patients. Some of this suffering is actual physical pain and some of it the mental pain of not knowing for sure what is going to happen. I can understand how someone would want to die with dignity, but death is not always dignified. We can not control the length of time we spend on this earth, unless we take matters into our own hands and end our life. That decision used to be left up to God and I see no reason for that to change.
Our country and our culture used to embrace life, but over the past several years, it seems that we have slipped in that regard. We have countless babies every year that are aborted before their time and now we have adults who are petioning doctors to help them end their lives. It’s a very slippery slope and one from which we need to exit.
When the goldsmith purifies the gold, the fire gets very hot toward the end. To stop the process is to leave the job undone. Mercy is best reserved for the Soul and for God to administer. Great article.
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Great job, Larry. I, being one who is always in pain, have come to understand that my time is not my own.
I trust that God will take me before it becomes too much for me to bear. I also don’t think it is right to ask our doctors to go against the oath they took and help someone die. That has to mess with your head.
My biggest problem with this new law is that it is yet another step forward in our death culture.
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I agree, Dominique. It seems like our society and culture is leaning more and more towards death, instead of protecting life.
A great, thought provoking post Larry though I’m not sure I agree with your conclusion. What about individual rights and the freedom to control one’s own destiny when others will not be harmed? You’ve been there and I think in the same situation I would fight the way your wife did. But if my 95 year old grandfather, faced with 4-6 months of pain and suffering, said he did not wish to end his days that way, I would be hard-pressed to argue with him. I think your post will stay with me for a few days…thank you.
Thanks for the comment, Mike. I understand what you mean about your grandfather. I have seen my own grandparents on my father’s side suffer untold misery from Alzheimer’s and it was not a pleasant ordeal. That was several years ago and no one had even heard of assisted suicide back then. Also, having Alzheimer’s, they would have been unable to make that decision, but I can imagine how an elderly person might wish for that, if they were in a lot of pain and knew within reason it would only end in death. It would be a hard decision and one could certainly argue that they would have the right to decide to end their own life. It just seems like that is making a decision that only God should be able to make.
Not sure whether I agree that our society is leaning more towards death than life, but the post was interesting. Some related info:
Death With Dignity Act was passed in Oregon (twice, by a very large margin), finally becoming law in 1998. In ten years, 401 terminally ill adult patients who went through exhaustive psychological and medical screening chose to end their lives, and a total of 88 doctors participated. Nobody was forced or coerced; no physician or pharmacist who has a moral objection to the process is ever asked to participate. The stated reason for wanting suicide assistance were – 95% loss of autonomy, 92% decreasing ability to participate in activities, 92% loss of dignity, 5% inadequate pain control.
Not sure why you would discuss abortion and assisted suicide in the same post. While I have strong personal convictions that would lead me to a much different choice than those who chose to end their own lives, I see this as an intensely personal decision where other’s religious or moral beliefs have absolutely no bearing. Washington, like Oregon, will need continued vigilance to ensure that the system isn’t abused nor used against someone’s will. The laws are extremely clear, and I think it is best to leave each adult to their own conclusions.
Laurie,
I mentioned abortion in the article because I believe it is significant to the discussion. As I said, our society used to embrace life and between abortion and assisted suicide, we are getting away from that. That was the point I was trying to make.
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