An article from:
Colorado Springs Right to Life, Inc.
_Lifeline_ Newsletter
421 North Tejon St.
P.O. Box 9836
Colorado Springs, CO 80932
March, 1995
ARGUING AGAINST PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE
If we're going to protect depressed, disabled, and dying people
from the lethal pressures of the newly-introduced physician-
assisted suicide bill (HB 1308), then we have to start educating
ourselves, our families and friends, and our elected officials.
For this reason, we're devoting the rest of this newsletter to
some pertinent (and, we think, persuasive) information.
Polls show that it is the young and healthy...not the old and
sick...who clamor for the right to die. (LIFE AT RISK, 4/94)
Researchers say the Hemlock Society's suicide options "are
mostly used, not by the terminally ill, but by the treatably
depressed," including teens and seniors. (LIFE AT RISK
4/94)
Psychiatrists report: 75% of suicidal people are very
ambivalent; attempts are not an effort to end it all, but a cry for
help, a wish to be rescued; motives include the desire to
accomplish something, to establish communication, to test
another's love and concern. ("Suicide and Mental Illness,"
NRLC, 5/94)
Experts in suicide discount the idea of `rational suicide,'
insisting the terminally ill, like others, commit suicide only
when suffering from clinical depression. Furthermore,
depression is as treatable for the terminal as for anyone else.
(LIFE AT RISK, 4/94)
Research shows the suicide rate in terminal patients is 2-4%.
Competent counseling, together with appropriate medical care,
is the correct response. (AMA News, 9/7/92)
Although most major urban medical centers have not
developed special palliative-care units, "I can state without
equivocation that the physical sources of suffering associated
with dying all can be controlled." (Dr. Ira Byock, hospice
physician, FAMILY VOICE, 1994)
Even cancer patients with intractable pain can be kept pain-
free. Furthermore, dosages which would be addictive to
us...which would put us to sleep, slow our breathing,
eventually kill us...do not have the same affect on patients in
pain. (Dr. Matthew Connoly, well-known expert on pain
management, THE RIGHT TO KILL)
Only 31 percent of dying patients even need a painkiller the
day before they die. Nearly 100% of cancer pain is
controllable. (US News & World Report, 4/25/94)
The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law found the
medical community is not doing a very good job of caring for
chronically-suffering and severely-ill people. (Up to 60% of
cancer patients do not have adequate pain control; terminal
patients who become clinically depressed and suicidal often do
not receive adequate mental-health intervention or anti-
depressants.) If doctors do such a poor job of relieving pain
and depression now, what kind of job will they do if killing is
endorsed as a "treatment option."? (NATIONAL REVIEW,
10/10/95)
Only one-third of patients who visit a primary-care physician
with symptoms of depressive disorders are appropriately
diagnosed and treated. Ten to 15% of cancer patients meet the
diagnostic criteria for clinical depression, but few are treated
with anti-depressants. Depression in Alzheimer's patients if
often mistaken for dementia. (New York Times, 4/21/93 and
11/15/90)
Uninformed medical personnel, using outdated or inadequate
methods, often fail to bring patients relief, despite the fact that
adequate interventions exist to COMPLETELY control pain in
90-99% of cases. ("Pain Control," NRLC, 5/94)
Only 13 of the 126 medical schools require either a course or a
clinical rotation in geriatrics. Although most schools offer
elective courses in geriatrics, only 3.5% of the students take
them. (Gazette Telegraph, 7/16/91)
Only 28% of doctors in a survey reported in HIPPOCRATES
would obey an assisted-suicide request, even from a terminal
patient.
The 1994 AMA Code of Ethics says, "Physician assisted
suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician's
role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and
would pose serious societal risks."
The American Bar Association, citing the abuses in Holland,
rejected a 1991 resolution for assisted suicide, observing "what
may be voluntary in Beverly Hills is not likely to be voluntary
in Watts." ("Physician-Assisted Suicide" paper by Mary
Senander.)
The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law
(composed of both pro-life and pro-euthanasia members)
concluded its extensive investigation by UNANIMOUSLY
opposing assisted-suicide laws, saying they would be
profoundly dangerous for many patients who are ill and
vulnerable. (Issues in Law and Medicine, Winter, 1994)
"My own experience has led me to believe that no human
being, no matter how educated or wise, can accurately assess
the potential of another to rise above the bleakest of
circumstances." (Chicago Tribute, 4/16/93. Author has polio,
attempted suicide as a teen.)
"My rights are threatened by the legalization of assisted
suicide far more than the pro-euthanasia person's rights are by
the illegalization of it. She already is free to kill herself; her
friends, family, and doctors are free to help her. She doesn't
want to accept the consequences of such a choice. I, on the
other hand, am put in the position of defending my choice to
live. I, more than she, must fear my final days at everyone
else's mercy." (Detroit Free Press, 3/25/94, Author has
multiple sclerosis.)
Ninety-six percent of middle-aged and elderly patients who'd
undergone intensive care would want it again...and 74% would
want it, even if it gave them one more month of life. (JAMA,
1988)
"Individuals cling to life, fighting to the last breath. A desire
for death...may be a momentary part of living, but suicide is
virtually invariably the result of deep, often sudden,
depression. When a doctor assists suicide, he encourages and
validates the mental illness of his patient." (JAMA, 1991)
"Lots of my dying patients say they grow in bounds and leaps,
and finish all the unfinished business. But assisting suicide is
cheating them of these lessons, like taking a student out of
school before final exams. That's not love; it's projecting your
own unfinished business." (Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross,
internationally-recognized expert on death and dying, USA
Today, 11/30/92)
"The transition from life can be every bit as profound, intimate,
and precious as the miracle of birth. The surprising fact is that
in the midst of their dying, many people are able to experience,
not merely comfort, but an increased sense of well-being,
which often includes a deep connectedness to others and to the
world." (Dr. Ira Byock, practicing hospice physician,
FAMILY VOICE, 1994.)
Before Oregon's assisted-suicide law passed, at least
some pharmacologists pointed out that drug overdoses are
ineffective at ending lives, often just causing vomiting and
sleep, or worse, putting the patient into a `persistent vegetative
state.'
Cheryl Smith (an attorney who helped draft the
Oregon measure), Derek Humphry (the co-founder of
Hemlock) and Dr. Peter Admiraal (the `father' of the Dutch
euthanasia movement) all agree that 20-25% of deaths from
overdose will be long and drawn out rather than spontaneous.
"Families will have to be educated about this.
Otherwise, they'll have some emotional trauma watching loved
ones take two, three, or four days to die," says Smith.
Humphry says the Oregon law "will only work if, in every
instance, a doctor is standing by to administer the coup de
grace, if necessary." (AMA News, 1/23-30/95)
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