Physcian Assisted Suicide

Physician Assisted Suicide

A smoker since age 19, Lovelle Spriva found out five years ago that she had inoperable lung cancer. Radiation and chemotherapy slowed the cancer’s spread but could not stop it. The doctor warned her that she was likely to die within six months, making her eligible for Oregon’s unique 10 year old, “ Death with Dignity Act”. One month later she signed and followed all the guidelines of the Oregon act, to make the “Death with Dignity Act” active. Lovelle’s next decision was to decide which day would be the day that she would set her soul free from her body. Lovelle told her mother that she felt at peace and that she was ready to go, thinking about the her medical symptoms that were advancing.

Now, because of the tumors in her neck and throat, it became hard for her to take the first two pills that would prepare her stomach to handle the medication. Lovelle had been suffering for awhile now; she had become short of breath, signs of stomach distress, and her weakness and pain was intensifying. Swallowing was very painful for her; it was like choking on broken glass or razor blades, but she choked down the lethal potion anyway. There with family and friends she waited. She said her goodbyes, gave her hugs, and even went to her favorite sitting stone next to the parking lot and had her last cigarette. As she lay in bed and waited her mother asked her “Are you okay honey?”, “I’m fine, mom”, “You’re not sick?” “No, I’m peaceful, it stopped raining, the sun’s out and I’ve had a wonderful day.” She closed her eyes and let go (Colburn).

Lovelle is one of the many who have used physician assisted suicide to die. This practice is when a doctor supplies a death causing means, for instance barbiturates, but the patient performs the act which brings death. In other words the doctor prescribes the medication and the patient carries out the lethal injection. Although not legalized in the United States, it is being disputed. Oregon is the only state that carries this out, but with guidelines that have to be strictly followed. In order to be considered you have to be diagnosed with six months or less to live, sign a legal document titled “REQUEST FOR MEDICATION TO END MY LIFE IN A HUMANE AND DIGNIFIED MANNER,” and make two oral requests 15 days apart for physician assisted suicide (PAS). Some may look at PAS as a negative way to address a terminal illness, but others look at PAS as a choice.

The choice of the right to die or not can be viewed as a negative, but to most it is a positive way of dealing with a terminal decision that needs to be made. There are still a number of individuals that look at the right to die as a positive personal choice. Personal choices can be seen in other medical practices, such as general surgeries, ways to treat the common cold, each with the patient making the final choice on how to take care of the medical situation. These positive choices can be found in other countries around the world, such as the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, PAS has been legal for some time now. In 1984 they passed a law stating that a patient must be unbearably and terminally ill, asking for assistance to die. Two doctors must agree on the necessity of the patient’s wishes. Belgium is another country that has legalized PAS. In 2002, they passed a law stating that two doctors must also be involved, plus a psychologist if the patient’s mental health is questionable. The doctor and patient together choose between lethal injection and prescribed overdose. To illustrate the need for PAS, today there are five to ten thousand comatose patients in long term care facilities in America. There are countless terminally ill patients that have begged for their deaths, both young and old with the majority being elderly people in care

facilities, deteriorating in their own waste. These are our people, we need to stand up and treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve.

In 2001, Oregon passed a law for PAS, the” Death with Dignity Act”. This law was written with several safeguards to protect vulnerable sick, weak, elderly and others from being taken advantage of. Some of the specifics of the act are as follows. In order to be eligible for PAS under the act you must be 18yrs or older. The individual must be an Oregon resident able to communicate one’s own health care decision, diagnosed with a terminal illness, and have six months or less to live. The last precaution is to make sure that the decision made is agreeable and with the total understanding of the decision being made. The law also requires the patient to make two verbal requests, separated by fifteen days to a doctor and witnessed by two individuals that are not family or caregivers. Patients must be able to self administer the medication, this limiting the doctor’s direct role in the decision. Oregon’s act must be finalized by a second physician that the Individual can make the decision. Finally, all of these decisions must be made in order to not make a profit to a family or concerned member and unduly influence his or her life.

In regards to Oregon’s dying with dignity act, the physicians for compassionate care groups, believe that the doctors are focusing on a better way to kill their patients instead of helping the patients cure their medical needs. These opposing views believe that Oregon physicians should make the patient more comfortable and relive pain. The patient should be offered palliative care. Besides palliative care they should include breathing machines, feeding tubes, and other devices with the sum of relieving symptoms but not curing the underlying illness. PCCG (Physicians for Compassionate Care Groups) consider PAS to be the ultimate abandonment to a patient by a doctor. Those who are also against PAS have reported that people who would fall victim to non consent, would be the individuals who are less

educated in general, have financial difficulty, and lack in health insurance. PCCG feels this would lead to vulnerable patients who would be made to consent to PAS when they don’t really want it. The patients will simply be killed because they are a nuisance to their families or the health care provider wanting to save money.

According to Wesley Smith, an author of the book Culture of Death: The Destruction of Medical Ethics in America, should not be legalized because it is too dangerous. Further, that in Oregon, mentally unstable individuals have been