Physician-Assisted Suicide ‘Solution’ Is No Solution at All

As a member of the state Assembly Select Committee on Palliative Care, I have learned much about the troubling aspects of providing care to terminally ill patients, especially those in end-term stages of cancer and AIDS.

Perhaps even more troubling, however, has been the cavalier attitude toward these suffering people when discussing “solutions” for easing their pain. One of the most mentioned solutions is to allow for physician-assisted suicide, which became the law of the land in Oregon last year.

“Dignified death” is the reason right-to-die activists claim to promote physician-assisted suicide. So, let’s delve into the methods these activists push. There is a 10% to 20% failure rate associated with suicide by prescription, the only legally recognized form of physician-assisted suicide in the United States. There is another method that the right-to-die folks know is much more successful but dislike discussing or defending publicly. The Hemlock Society, founded by euthanasia pioneer Derek Humphrey, runs advertisements in its newsletters for “Exit Bags,” devices to assist people to commit suicide. They are similar to a turkey bag with a convenient strap to ensure that the victim suffocates or chokes on vomit if the body repulses pills. These deaths are often violent, painful and drawn out.

There is a compassionate alternative to death by suicide: genuine treatment of the intense pain associated with many terminal illnesses. The fact is that medical professionals can effectively treat nearly everyone suffering from intense pain.

Defenders of physician-assisted suicide often cite polling data as evidence that Californians desire to move in this direction. Many Californians have taken out living wills to prevent doctors from unnaturally preserving their lives, such as by putting them on life-support systems, in the event they are mentally or physically incapacitated.

When these people hear “physician-assisted suicide,” they tend to equate this with living wills. However, doctors making extraordinary efforts to save or preserve the life of a patient who no longer wants to live and allowing doctors to actively take a patient’s life are radically different.

The vulnerable in our society, primarily our elderly, disabled and terminally ill, will be the first to be negatively impacted by a move in this direction. Rather than advocate physician-assisted suicide, we should promote lifesaving alternatives and treatment of pain.

It would be far more ethical to change restrictions that prohibit access to effective pain medication than to simply propose legalizing physician-assisted suicide. Physician-assisted suicide is but one step down the path of active euthanasia resulting in greater pressures upon our elderly and disabled to commit suicide.

Additionally, the cost-control measures consistent with Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) are another lubricant on the slippery slope to the death culture.

We live in a society with a dollar-driven health care system that rewards doctors and hospital administrators who provide the most cost-effective treatments. Unfortunately, in this area a “prescribed suicide” is clearly the cheapest solution--but it is not the compassionate care that should be expected.

Although I believe most doctors and hospitals will keep the best interests of patients in mind, some health plan administrators may pressure caregivers to cut costs for the terminally ill or disabled.

The solution must be to arm caregivers with the ability to provide every possible pain management therapy and to better educate the medical profession about what is available.

I have introduced Assembly Bill 2305, which would require HMOs to provide access to pain management medications deemed appropriate and lawfully prescribed for patients determined to have terminal illnesses. I have also coauthored Assembly Bill 2693, which would eliminate a major barrier to appropriate pain management for terminally ill patients by exempting them from the triplicate prescription form requirement for pain medicines.

Compassion is not bumping off suffering patients. Compassion is about helping these individuals effectively deal with pain. We need to develop laws that protect the vulnerable members of our society. Any law advancing physician-assisted suicide is contrary to that concept.