THE RIGHT TO DIE: THE U.S. 9TH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS RULING : Families’ Tales of Anguish, Suffering

In a legal brief filed in support of the challenge to Washington’s ban on assisted suicide, the survivors of 10 terminally ill patients told of their anguish and their loved ones’ suffering.

Many of the patients committed suicide, but did so alone so their families would not be prosecuted for helping them. Others experienced prolonged, difficult deaths.

“Watching a loved one die a lingering and painful death causes more trauma, anger and guilt than the hastening of death with medical help ever could,” the survivors contended in the brief, which includes their personal declarations. Here are excerpts:

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Elvin O. Sinnard and his wife, Sara, were married for 49 years. During the last 11, Sara suffered from a heart condition that was finally so painful she could barely speak. She ended her life with a plastic bag. Sinnard recounted:

“On the day of her decision, I was with her up to the point of placing the bag over her head and she said, ‘Elvin, you must now go to the office because you cannot be implicated in this.’

“She had to die alone. I was denied my right to be with her when she died. This is not right. . . . A person has the right to control the conditions of their death as much as they have the right to control the conditions of their living.”

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Jeff Halsey’s 34-year-old partner, Danial Danzer, was dying of the complications of AIDS. His biggest fear was of dementia, so when he felt his mental abilities slipping, he stopped taking his insulin treatments. Halsey wrote:

“It was a very long five days of convulsions . . . violent outbreaks and a total loss of self-dignity. I couldn’t wait for him to die so that he would quit suffering and I would quit suffering. I feel that Danial and I were both robbed of important, quality time by his slow and painful death. He might have been spared some of his greatest pain and retained his dignity if he and his physician had received help from a compassionate code of laws.”

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Harold Fogelquist’s mother suffered a major stroke that left her partially paralyzed, unable to speak or eat. She had said she did not want to be kept alive with a feeding tube, but her family reluctantly agreed to one after her hospital threatened legal action. His description:

“Over the next two months, Mom removed the feeding tube about a dozen times. To have the tube reinserted is a very unpleasant procedure which requires a physician and an X-ray. To prevent further removal of the tube, her unparalyzed left hand was tied to the bed rail. However . . . she was able to move herself slowly so she could reach the tube with her tethered left hand and remove it, which she did repeatedly. In February 1989, at her doctor’s suggestion, a ‘jejunal’ feeding tube was surgically put into her stomach through her abdomen. Mom mercifully passed away in early March after having been, in effect, tortured to death while being treated contrary to her expressly stated wishes.”

--Compiled by Bettina Boxall, Times staff writer