Debate over “End of Life”

By Ray Mullman on September 3, 2016Posted in Advocacy

USA Today had an interesting article on “End of Life” legislation.  End of Life laws allow doctors to prescribe a fatal batch of drugs to mentally competent patients  estimated to have six months left to live.  The cause of death will  be attributed on the death certificate to the illness itself or “natural causes,” not suicide, which can be important for life insurance benefits, according to Death with Dignity, an advocacy group for End of Life issues.

California, Vermont, Oregon and Washington have laws in place allowing doctors to prescribe “End of Life” drugs.  The new law has picked up supporters  from families that have dealt with loved ones  deemed terminally ill and in pain.

Opponents, led by physicians, are working to overturn the legislation in all four states.  However, efforts to expand the controversial law to other areas including New Jersey, Utah, Colorado and Washington, D.C., are growing.

“Foes argue that the laws amount to state-sanctioned suicide. The better answer, they say, would be to provide more care to the terminally ill in their final days, rather than giving them the means to take their own lives.”

“We’re not treating people equally in California,” says David Stevens, a physician who is executive director for the American Academy of Medical Ethics, which  leads the lawsuit in California.  “How do you deny this to someone who suffers more?”

Elizabeth Wallner, who has fought Stage 4 colon cancer for six years, says the end of life should not be construed as suicide. “My gut reaction to the word ‘suicide’ is one of absolute frustration because it implies that I don’t want to live anymore.” Wallner says.

“Cancer is going to kill me,” Wallner says. “Whether or not I ingest the medication and die three weeks early, either way, I have no control over it. I have control over the timing, and I absolutely have control over the amount of suffering that I go through. To be told that I don’t have the mental capacity to make a decision that meets my values and my beliefs, that’s dehumanizing.”

Original