Advocating for Persons With Disabilities

Cathy Ludlum says she has a great life, but since childhood she’s been aware not everyone thinks so.

She remembers being 5, sitting in her wheelchair as people in the supermarket looked at her and shook their heads. She wondered how she could tell them she was not to be pitied.

Years later, in the hospital, Ludlum overheard the staff talking about her, assuming she led a tragic life in an institution, even though the medical chart said otherwise — she lived on her own and ran a consulting business despite a neuromuscular disease that took away her ability to move.

“People like me are at enormous risk when we’re in the hospital or otherwise disempowered,” Ludlum said.

Ludlum, 47, of Manchester, believes misconceptions about people with severe disabilities can lead medical workers to give them less aggressive lifesaving options. Doctors might think they would not want to live if they were in the patient’s condition and assume the patient feels the same, she said. Or medical workers might see a disability as a fatal condition, even if it is not.

That makes her wary of an effort in Connecticut to let terminally ill patients end their lives through medication prescribed by doctors.

Two Fairfield County doctors, backed by a national group, have asked a Superior Court judge to declare that state law does not prohibit doctors from prescribing lethal doses of medication to mentally competent, terminally ill patients who request it. They say doing so is not assisted suicide because the patient is already dying, making the question not if he or she will die, but when.

Ludlum and other advocates for people with disabilities are seeking to intervene in the case.

The concept — giving people in pain control over their dying processes — may sound sympathetic, Ludlum said. But she and other advocates fear the reality will be more complex, and could leave people who have severe disabilities vulnerable. They worry about the law being misapplied — for example, if a person with a disability asks for help dying but is not terminally ill — and about the ideas such a policy would foster about the worthiness of a life lived with diminished capacity.

Full Article, Online Poll, and Source:
Doctors’ ‘Right-To-Die’ Efforts For Terminally Ill Patients Worry Advocates For People With Disabilities

Problems Accompany Legal Euthanasia

Assisted suicide has been legal for a year in Washington, and the state health department has issued its first report.

During the first year, 63 people requested and received lethal prescriptions to kill themselves. 47 have since died, while 36 are confirmed to have used the poison to accomplish it. Although 79 percent suffered from cancer, few cited pain as the reason for seeking end of life treatment as the main concern was the cost for alternate treatment.

“What is and has been the reality of this [is] that when you transform assisted suicide into a medical treatment, it makes it just like every other medical treatment, except it’s lots cheaper. And people begin to see it as a benefit for the family,” comments Rita Marker, attorney and president of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide (ITF).

Many of the patients had insurance, but Marker says that means nothing. It does, however, serve as a reminder of an Oregon cancer victim whose treatment was rejected by her insurance. She was told, though, that they would cover her drugs for assisted suicide. The report shows there are too many unknowns, and the possibility of murder is an example.

Full Article and Source:
Problems Accompany Legal Euthanasia

See Also:
One Year Anniversary of Legalized Suicide

One Year Anniversary of Legalized Assisted Suicide

Scores of Washingtonians “have become a victim” to the state’s one-year-old physician-assisted suicide law, said a pro-life hospice nurse.

“Thousands of others, including senior citizens and people with disabilities, have received the message that they, too, are expendable,” said Eileen Geller, founder of True Compassion Advocates, an organization that campaigned against Initiative 1000 and now provides information for those seeking good end-of-life care.

In July 2009, Margaret Dore, a Seattle attorney with expertise in probate, guardianship and elder law, wrote an article for the Washington Bar Association, in which she describes the abuse potential in the Death With Dignity Act.

Dore wrote that the Death With Dignity Act “contains potentially coercive provisions [that allow] an heir, who will benefit from the patient’s death, to help the patient sign up for the lethal dose. She stated that: “Having an heir act as one of the witnesses creates a presumption of undue influence [that] does not promote patient choice [but] invites coercion.”

She addressed the issue of “self-administering” the drug, stating that the law “does not state that ‘only’ the patient may administer the lethal dose [but] is instead defined as the act of ingesting. In other words, someone else putting the lethal dose in the patient’s mouth qualifies as ‘self-administration,’ [or] putting the lethal dose in a feeding tube or IV nutrition bag.”

The attorney discussed the issue of competency, noting that: “The act does not require that the patient be competent or even aware when the lethal dose is administered… [nor is there] language requiring the client’s consent at the time of administration. Without a requirement of competency, consent, or even awareness when the lethal dose is administered, the stage is set for undue influence and worse,” she concludes.

The Washington State Department of Health reported this week that lethal doses of medication were dispensed to 63 people between March 5, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2009.

Under the Death With Dignity Act, the physician cannot list assisted suicide as the cause of death but instead must report an underlying illness present at the time of death. If the death certificate isn’t sent to the health department, there is no way of knowing if the deceased died from assisted suicide or not.

Full Article and Source:
Washington: First Year Under Legalized Assisted Suicide

New Hampshire Rejects Assisted Suicide

The New Hampshire House of Representatives on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have legalized assisted suicide.

Lawmakers voted 242-113 to kill the measure. In November, the House Judiciary Committee had recommended against passing the bill by a wide margin, 14-3.

HB 304, introduced by Representative Charles Weed, would have allowed a “mentally competent person who is 18 years of age or older” who was deemed terminally ill to request a fatal drug through a written request.

“It’s not the function of government to encourage suicide in the young or the old,” said Committee Republican Rep. Nancy Elliott in November. “It’s a prescription for elder abuse.”

Full Article and Source:
New Hampshire House Strikes Down Assisted Suicide

New Hampshire Committee Votes Against Assisted Suicide

A bill to legalize assisted suicide in New Hampshire lost key backing Tuesday from a legislative committee when both supporters and opponents joined forces to reject it.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 14-3 against the bill that would let terminally ill patients over age 18 obtain lethal prescriptions, with safeguards to prevent abuses.

Supporters of assisted suicide said the bill was flawed and teamed up with opponents to vote against recommending the measure to the full House. The committee has been working on the bill since September.

The House votes on the recommendation in January. If the chamber accepts the committee recommendation, legislative rules make it nearly impossible for the issue to be brought up again next year.

Oregon has approved assisted suicide ballot questions twice. Washington state followed suit last year.

Full Article and Source:
NH Committee Votes Against Assisted Suicide

CT Doctors Ask for Clarification on Suicide Law

Two Fairfield County doctors are asking the Connecticut courts to clarify a 40-year-old law in a way that would prevent physicians from being prosecuted for prescribing drugs to end a person’s life.

Attorneys for the doctors, Gary Blick of Norwalk and Ronald Levine of Greenwich, are seeking a ruling on the current law that says a person is guilty of second-degree manslaughter if “he intentionally causes or aids another person, other than force, duress or deception, to commit suicide.” They want to ensure that the provision would not apply to licensed physicians who prescribe drugs for mentally competent, terminally ill patients.

“Obviously, the crux of this case is what is suicide and what is aid in dying,” said Kathryn Tucker, an attorney who for the doctors and legal director for Compassion & Choices. She called the issue “a case of first impression,” one that has not been decided by the courts.

The lawsuit is guaranteed to prompt controversy both in the courts and in the legislature.

Full Article and Source:
Fairfiled County Doctors Seek Clarification on Suicide Law

New Hampshire Eyes Assisted Suicide

Today, a New Hampshire House committee begins the emotionally difficult work of deciding whether to recommend legalizing assisted suicide for the terminally ill.

The Judiciary Committee holds the first of what is expected to be many long work sessions on a bill introduced last session but held over the summer for more work. The full House votes on the measure next year.

The bill would let terminally ill patients older than 18 obtain lethal prescriptions, with safeguards to prevent abuses.

Opponents call the bill a recipe for elder abuse.

State Rep. Nancy Elliott, R-Merrimack and a committee member, said she hopes the committee will recommend that the bill be turned down.

“This bill opens our vulnerable seniors up to coercion, talking them into ending their life so they won’t be a burden,” said Elliott, R-Merrimack.

Kevin Smith of the conservative Cornerstone Policy Research said Wednesday that doctors should be treating the terminally ill, not helping them die.

“This would put a dollar sign squarely between the patient and the caregiver,” Smith said.

Full Article and Source:
New Hampshire Eyes Assisted Suicide Legislation