Assisted suicide at center stage once again

Two recent Oscar-winning movies, “Million Dollar Baby” and “The Sea Inside,” sympathetically portray people seeking to end their own lives. In Florida, the high-profile right-to-die case involving Terri Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged woman, may finally come to an end this month after years of debate.

Also, the U.S. Supreme Court recently said it would review the legality of Oregon’s pioneering assisted-suicide law.

It’s an extraordinary confluence of events for a stubbornly controversial issue that once again appears to be taking center stage.

Advocates from both sides say Hollywood’s portrayal and media coverage are helping their cause: They are either helping the public understand the need for laws protecting assisted death, or cementing the views of those who oppose such laws on ethical or religious grounds.

Either way, the attention comes at a crucial time. This spring, lawmakers in California and Vermont will begin debating assisted-suicide legislation. Although several states have considered legalizing assisted suicide during the last decade, proponents of such laws believe the California and Vermont bills have the best chance of success in years.

Movies such as “Million Dollar Baby” “are connecting with people because they fear they don’t have control over how they would die if they found themselves in a situation like that,” says Barbara Coombs Lee, co-chief executive of Compassion & Choices, a national advocacy group based in Denver.

Burke Balch, director of medical ethics for the National Right to Life Committee in Washington, D.C., says many people are turned off by the supportive portrayals of suicide in movies and on television. If Schiavo’s husband’s request to remove her feeding tube is carried out as scheduled March 18, Balch predicts a public backlash.

“The majority of people don’t believe it’s ethical to help someone die,” he says. “They don’t condone suicide.”

Doctors, legal experts and patients have long been divided on the subject. Michigan pathologist Jack Kevorkian, who is now in prison, symbolized the movement in the 1990s after he assisted in the deaths of dozens of patients. Polls show the majority of Americans favor physician- assisted suicide if it’s done under strict supervision and only in specific circumstances. According to a Field Poll released last week, 70% of Californians favor allowing doctors to prescribe life-ending medication to the terminally ill.

Outside Oregon, however, advocates never have been able to make legally assisted suicide a reality. The closest they came was in Hawaii in 2002, before an assisted-suicide bill was narrowly defeated in the state Senate. In California, a statewide referendum on the issue failed by a margin of 54% to 46% in 1992.

In “Million Dollar Baby,” a boxing trainer played by Clint Eastwood agrees to help a quadriplegic female boxer (played by Hilary Swank) end her life by administering a lethal injection. Some religious groups have denounced the sympathetic portrayal of the boxer’s death in the movie, which they say actually depicts euthanasia. (In legal terms, assisted suicide involves the physician-approved administering of a lethal medication by a terminally ill patient; euthanasia, in contrast, is when someone ends a patient’s life by lethal injection or by suspending lifesaving medical treatment such as a respirator or feeding tube.)

Disability advocates are also concerned that the Eastwood movie stigmatizes the disabled and sends a harmful message to those struggling with new disabilities or chronic conditions. Research shows that people with recent disabilities are initially despondent and may consider suicide, but often later find happiness with their lives.

California may be the biggest test in years of whether assisted suicide will expand beyond Oregon. Groups such as Compassion & Choices have been lobbying California doctors, legislators and patient advocates over the last several weeks.

The proposed legislation is expected to be considered by the Assembly Judiciary Committee in April. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not yet announced his position on the issue.

Two weeks ago, a mix of religious and disability rights groups opposing the measure announced the creation of a new coalition, Californians Against Assisted Suicide. The group has started a letter-writing and phone campaign to state legislators and has begun appealing to churches and their parishioners to do the same.

The American Medical Assn. and the California Medical Assn. both oppose physician-assisted suicide.

The laws proposed in California and Vermont mirror Oregon’s law. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act, adopted in 1994, extends a right to die only to capable adults who are diagnosed with a terminal disease and are likely to die within six months. A second doctor must confirm that the patient is dying, and the patient must request a lethal dose of medication in writing. According to state data, hundreds of patients have consulted doctors and obtained medication since the law took effect, but only 171 have followed through.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that states have the right to determine whether to legalize assisted suicide. But the Bush administration has been trying in recent years to strip Oregon doctors’ medical licenses if they authorize drugs to help someone die. The court is expected to rule on the issue later this year.

Steve Mason, a 65-year-old lung cancer patient in Ashland, Ore., says it is important to him to have control over when and how he will end his life. Mason’s doctors say he could die within weeks, and he already has the lethal medications in his house. When Mason decides he’s getting too weak, he plans to have a wake at home with his two daughters and friends, and then go upstairs to his bedroom to take the medication.

Says Mason: “I insist on dying with the same dignity with which I lived.”