Washington State Election 2008 - Initiative 1000
Initiative Measure No. 1000 concerns allowing certain terminally ill competent adults to obtain lethal prescriptions.
This measure would permit terminally ill, competent, adult Washington residents, who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician.
Should this measure be enacted into law?
Yes [ ] No [ ]
Death with Dignity… What could sound more ‘dignified’?
On its face assisted suicide seems like a sensible and humane policy. My first inclination was to be against the initiative but then I heard the commercials featuring actor/activist Martin Sheen. I am not sure I have ever been on the same side of an issue as Martin Sheen. After further study I have decided that legalization of assisted suicide would still be a serious mistake for many reasons some of which are not always immediately evident (as evidenced by Sheen’s commercials).
Physician-assisted suicide and/or euthanasia proposals have been introduced in 21 states, some multiple times, since Oregon passed its law in 1994. Not one has passed. But it is not just the Catholic Church and politicians who are against assisted suicide. The American Medical Association and the state medical associations in 49 states, including Washington, oppose legalizing assisted suicide. A Washington State Medical Association brochure, “I-1000 is not the Answer”, states the organization “strongly opposes” I-1000.
Initiative 1000 requires that two doctors must agree that an individual meets the law’s criteria. But it doesn’t have to be your regular doctor. In Oregon, where a similar law has been in place since 1994, there’s considerable evidence that a majority of people ’shop’ to find a doctor who will say yes.
In Washington you can already choose to refuse any medical treatment you don’t want. You can already choose to receive good end-of-life and hospice care, excellent pain control, and the relief of discomfort. Suicide is not a medical “treatment.” Patients have a right to care, not to suicide.
Depression is natural for people diagnosed with a terminal illness. Depression is usually temporary and treatable, but I-1000 doesn’t require professional assessment or treatment for depression. The waiting period is only 15 days, so a suicidal “cry for help” could easily be met with lethal prescription, instead of encouragement and treatment. Many feel they would find relief in hastening their own death, we, as a society, have long discouraged suicide as a remedy for psychological suffering.
I also believe that it is not the physical pain that frightens most people but rather the loss of independence and the indignity. Fear of not being able to get out of bed on our own power and not being able to make your way to the bathroom. We don’t want our loved ones to have to have wipe our backside. But do we want to condone suicide just because we need help using the toilet? Many people with disabilities would object to that being a criteria for self-worth.
To summarize, although it is argued that we should not legislate morality, I believe we definitely should not be legislating immorality.
Sources:
- [What you don’t know can kill you](http://dredf.org/assisted_suicide/ab374.shtml By Marilyn Golden)
- The Risks of Legalization
- Why Assisted Suicide Must Not Be Legalized
- No Assisted Suicide
- Not Dead Yet
Is the ability to shop around for a doctor that will agree in place just in case “your” doctor is, let’s say, Catholic, and would never, under any circumstances give his approval?
Comment by Geoff — October 16, 2008 @ 8:32 am
Yes, if a doctor has scruples and holds to his oath to ‘Do No Harm’ then he might decide he could not be a party to a persons decision to commit suicide.
But is the requirement that you get 2 physicians to ’sign off’ on your suicide any kind of safeguard if there are doctors out there willing to sign off for a referral fee? How long should they have to talk with a person before they can ‘diagnose’ a need for suicide?
Comment by YeOleImposter — October 16, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
In a society that places an ever declining value on human life, it is a small step from suicide by choice to suicide as an obligation. Has anyone noticed that our once positive social security system and Medicare for the elderly have become negatives called “entitlements”?
If the medical profession can give and take life at will, who needs an omnipotent God. We can crank out and anoint as many as we need from our medical colleges and universities.
We are all terminal. Pending death is a condition of our physical life. What is sacrosanct about a 6 month estimate by a medical professional? My brother had a couple of those estimates more than fifteen years ago, but he was not desperate or hopeless and he lives. My mother had a couple of those estimates from doctors at Western State Hospital in 1993, but we were not desperate or hopeless, and once we got her out of Western State Hospital, she lived eleven more years.
Desperation and hopelessness are a condition of mind that can result from many situations in life. Should we treat the condition or expand the use of the proposed solution, medically assisted suicide? If we value life, we should treat all of the patient’s needs in all phases of our lives. If we continue to devalue life, sadly, there are no limits on the use of expedient solutions.
Comment by Augsut N Kugler — November 4, 2008 @ 7:18 am
Do you not realize that terminal cancer patients usually die of the morphine they have to have to manage the pain?
They are in so much pain, and have to have more and more morphine to be able to stand the pain, and even then, they are in incredible, screaming pain . . . until the kidneys shut down, as a direct result of the morphine.
I-1000 just shortens the inevitable result, at the choice of the patient.
Having seen this tortuous cycle play out several times over the last few years, I’m not going to play. When the pain starts to get too bad . . . I’m saying goodbye. On my terms. Because I’ll have planned.
You and your family, however, will be tortured . . . even when wishing, crying, begging to die. As has happened to several of my family members.
Comment by Rachel — November 4, 2008 @ 1:13 pm
I guess I have not seen this situation. Can you point me to some studies online that discusses the inability of pain management to help? My mother died of cancer and also have known others, yet have never seen this that you talk about.
I feel for you that you have had several family members die of cancer. Maybe it is something genetic with a tendency towards cancer, inability for morphine and other pain meds to work, etc. I would not wish the pain on anyone but the initiative does not say that a person has to be experiencing excruciating pain but only that they have to be depressed enough to want to die. That is not a high enough threshold in my book.
Comment by YeOleImposter — November 13, 2008 @ 9:44 am