Washington Post Puts the Spotlight on Hospice/Palliative Care Abuse

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Choice is an Illusion, President

Below and finally, a comprehensive article in a major paper describing what a lot of us know already, that non-consenting, non-dying people are being killed with morphine and other drugs under the guise of hospice/palliative care.  The article, excerpted below from the Washington Post, describes cases in the US. There are similar cases in Canada and the UK (e.g, the former "Liverpool Pathway").

There are a myriad of reasons why these cases occur, including mistakes and negligence, which is described in the Post article.  The wishes of heirs interested in a speedy inheritance and/or to get dad out of the way before he changes his will, can also be at play.  For a particularly egregious example, see William Dotinga, "Grim Complaint Against Kaiser Hospital," at http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/06/43641.htm

With hospice, eligibility is determined by a prediction of less than six months to live.  This is the same eligibility cutoff used for legal assisted suicide in Oregon and Washington State.  This is, however, just a prediction and there are many people deemed eligible who live longer than that and/or who are not dying.  See, e.g., the Washington Post article excerpted below and this article from the Seattle Weekly: "Terminal Uncertainty."  See also this affidavit from Oregon doctor Kenneth Stevens, MD and this affidavit from John Norton.

This hospice/palliative care abuse issue is important for itself, as well, as for its implications in the larger debate over assisted suicide/euthanasia legalization.  Consider, for example, the letter below from Washington State.  The author, the owner of a care facility, describes how since passage of Washington's assisted suicide law, doctors more readily resort to morphine, sometimes without consent.  He states:

Since [Washington's assisted suicide law] passed, we have . . .  noticed that some members of the medical profession are quick to bring out the morphine to begin comfort care without considering treatment. Sometimes they do this on their own without telling the client and/or the family member in charge of the client's care. http://www.choiceillusion.org/2013/12/it-wasnt-father-saying-that-he-wanted.html

He also describes a general devaluation of older people, as follows:

Since our [assisted suicide] law was passed, I have also observed that some medical professionals are quick to write off older people as having no quality of life whereas in years past, most of the professionals we dealt with found joy in caring for them. Our clients reciprocated that joy and respect.  (Id.).

He concludes by asking readers to not make Washington's mistake of legalizing assisted suicide. He states:

Someday, we too will be old. I, personally, want to be cared for and have my choices respected. I, for one, am quite uncomfortable with these developments. Don't make our mistake.  (Id.).

* * *
Below, the excerpt from the Washington Post article.

As More Hospices Enroll Patients who Aren't Dying, Questions About Lethal Doses Arise

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/08/21/as-more-hospices-enroll-patients-who-arent-dying-questions-about-lethal-doses-arise/?

By Peter Whoriskey at peter.whoriskey@washpost.com

Mother was deprived of choice to live; assisted suicide would lead to more patient abuse

http://ravallirepublic.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_09c08760-817c-571a-ada1-d42a0e2a3450.html?comment_form=true

August 18, 2014 6:15 am  

The letter by Gail Bell rang true to my own experience (“Mother’s death provided painful, personal example of need to stop assisted suicide,” Aug. 5).

In 2009, my mother died a painful death. It wasn’t from her condition or a disease. You see, my mother was starved and dehydrated to death with massive doses of morphine after she’d had a mild stroke. It had not mattered that she had been trying to speak and had indicated that she wanted water. The family member holding power of attorney, affirmed by a young doctor, had decided that it was time for her to die.

I watched my mother die, day and night for six days. She tried to fight, to wake up, but to no avail, and she suffered. To use the vernacular of assisted suicide proponents, she did not get her choice.

If these terrible deaths happen when aid in dying (assisted suicide and euthanasia) is not legal, what will happen if these practices are made legal? Doctors will have even more power to take away patient choice. If we can’t stop the abuse now, how will we be able to stop the abuse then?

In 2009, I first published my mother’s story, which can be viewed here www.choiceillusion.org/p/mild-stroke-led-to-mothers-forced.html.

I have since been contacted by adult children in both the U.S. and Canada whose parents were involuntarily starved and dehydrated to death. I hope that this practice can be stopped before it is too late. I offer my heartfelt condolences to Gail Bell.

Kate Kelly,
Delta, British Columbia, Canada

Minnesota prosecutors try to prove man's online chats assisted in suicides of depressed people

http://www.startribune.com/local/270494691.htm

By Associated Press, Updated: August 8, 2014 - 2:20 PM

Nadia Kajouji,

FARIBAULT, Minn. — Prosecutors in Minnesota argued Friday that a former nurse should be convicted of assisting suicide for sending emails and other online communications in which he urged two people to kill themselves and gave them information on how to do it.

William Melchert-Dinkel, 52, of Faribault, was back in court more than three years after he was convicted of encouraging suicides. The Minnesota Supreme Court earlier this year reversed those convictions, saying the state's law against encouraging or advising suicides was too broad.

The high court however upheld part of the law that makes it a crime to assist someone's suicide, and attorneys for both sides returned to Rice County District Court to argue over whether Melchert-Dinkel's conduct qualified.

Melchert-Dinkel was originally convicted in 2011 in the deaths of Nadia Kajouji, 18, of Brampton, Ontario, and Mark Drybrough, 32, of Coventry, England. Kajouji jumped into an icy river in 2008 and Drybrough hanged himself in 2005.

Evidence at that trial showed Melchert-Dinkel was obsessed with suicide and sought out depressed people online, posing as a suicidal female nurse, faking compassion and offering detailed instructions on how they could kill themselves. Police said he told them he did it for "the thrill of the chase."

Montana's Law Protected Me

Lucinda Hardy

I [Lucinda Hardy] have read the guest column, "People living with disabilities support death with dignity" (July 25), which advocates for legalizing assisted suicide and/or euthanasia for the disabled. I could be described as such a person and this opinion does not speak for me. I am strongly against legalizing these practices.

When I was in high school, I was on track to get a basketball scholarship to college. And then, I was in a car accident. The accident left me in a wheelchair, a quadriplegic. In addition to my paralysis, I had other difficulties. Over the next two or three years, I gave serious thought to suicide. And I had the means to do it, but both times I got close, I stopped myself.

Others Dictated For Her

http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/mother-s-death-provided-painful-personal-example-of-need-to/article_3c8a1d98-1a9c-11e4-bb8e-001a4bcf887a.html

The July 25 guest column by Sara Myers and Dustin Hankinson begins with a discussion of pain, “great pain,” specifically. The paragraph goes on to use the phrase “great pain” to justify “death with dignity,” meaning assisted suicide and euthanasia.

With their column, I couldn’t help but think of my mother’s last years and the decision of others that it was time for her to die. Pain was used as a justification for increases in her medication – to get the job done. This happened three times before she finally died in the hospital on Sept. 6, 2010. The coroner’s report, case No. 100906, lists the cause of death as congestive heart failure with oxygen deprivation and “fentanyl therapy.” The manner of death is listed as “accident.”

Fentanyl is reported “to be 80 to 200 times as potent as morphine.” It’s also well known that fentanyl patch problems cause overdoses, injuries and deaths. See www.aboutlawsuits.com/fentanyl-patch-problems-continue-overdose-deaths-55136. A 100 mcg/hour fentanyl patch has a range within 24 hours of 1.9-3.8 ng/mL. Mom’s death result was 2.7 ng/mL on/or about 48 hours.

A complaint was filed by me with the Montana Board of Medical Examiners, No. 2012-069-MED. The screening panel dismissed the complaint with prejudice, which means that the board may not consider the complaint in the future.

Since then, I have talked with other people who have had similar experiences involving the death of a family member via a medical overdose. Please see here: http://www.choiceillusionmontana.org/2013/04/dont-give-doctors-more-power-to-abuse.html

The column by Myers and Hankinson states, “I believe one should have control of one’s life including its ending.“

I agree with that statement. However, my mother did not have that control. Others dictated for her. Please rethink legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia so that we do not give others even more power to kill.

Gail Bell,
Bozeman

Vermont: Repeal physician-assisted suicide, now

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/opinion/comment-debate/2014/07/30/repeal-physician-assisted-suicide-now/13334997/

I'm confused. Years ago we did away with the death penalty in Vermont (and rightly so) because we understood that despite the care and precision of our legal system, mistakes could be made and an innocent person could be wrongly put to death. The Legislature wasn't willing to take that chance and so abolished the death penalty.

Now we have Act 39 (physician-assisted suicide), another law whose only purpose is to result in the death of one of our citizens. Yet this law, with shockingly few protections and no oversight at all by our judicial system, passed the Legislature.

What is the difference here? A wrongful death is a wrongful death is a wrongful death.

Does the Legislature honestly believe our health care system is so perfect that there is absolutely no chance for error? It doesn't appear so since the Legislature is spending almost all their time trying to reform health care. That doesn't leave me feeling confident that the system is working 100 percent perfectly.

So, if the death penalty is wrong because an innocent person might die, why does the Legislature magically believe that no one will ever wrongfully die under Act 39?

Physician-assisted suicide is just as bad a law as the death penalty, and the Legislature needs to repeal it.

Now!

Michele Morin lives in Burlington.

A suggestion that Bishop Tutu confuses assisted suicide with “switching off life support.” If so, perhaps we are to blame.

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA*

www.margaretdore.com

www.choiceillusion.org

An assisted suicide bill is coming up for a vote in the UK House of Lords.  The bill, HL Bill 6, is based on similar laws in Oregon and Washington State, USA.

Assisted Suicide and HL Bill 6

HL Bill 6, like the Oregon and Washington laws on which it is based, applies to patients who have been given 6 months or less to live.  Such patients may, in fact, have years to live.  One reason is that doctors’ predictions of life expectancy can be wrong.  See Margaret Dore, “Falconer Assisted Suicide Bill: ‘Eligible’ Patients May Have Years, Even Decades, to Live,” Choice is an Illusion, July 12, 2014.

Bishop Tutu’s Remarks

I don't know Bishop Tutu, but I have seen him speak and I admire him very much.  He has now, however, voiced his support for “assisted dying”, with reference to the death of Nelson Mandela.

According to a New Zealand blog post, Bishop Tutu may be confusing the withdrawal of life support with assisted suicide.  The post says in part:

Interesting that Bishop Tutu now admits publicly that Mandela was indeed on life support and that “prolonging his life was an affront to his dignity”, according to an article on BBC.com.

Switching off life support is, regardless, different from euthanasia and assisted suicide.  When life support is switched off the patient doesn't necessarily die. Consider, for example, this case from Washington State reported in the Seattle Weekly:

[I]nstead of dying as expected, the man slowly began to get better. [Dr. J. Randall Curtis] doesn't know exactly why, but guesses that for that patient, "being off the ventilator was probably better than being on it.  He was more comfortable, less stressed." Curtis says the man lived for at least a year afterwards. 

With assisted suicide and euthanasia, the patient deliberately kills himself or is killed by another person.  See e.g., AMA Code of Medical Ethics, Opinion 2.21 (defining euthanasia).  Moreover, that patient could have had years to live.

The Blame is on us

Perhaps the blame for the confusion should be placed on us and the language of the debate in which both sides have been referring to assisted suicide and euthanasia as “assisted dying.”  Perhaps it’s time for those of us who oppose legalization to call a spade a spade and eliminate the misleading term, “assisted dying” from our vocabulary. Our very lives may depend on it.

*  Margaret Dore is an attorney in Washington State USA where assisted suicide is legal.  She is also President of Choice is an Illusion, a human rights organization opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia. Her publications include Margaret K. Dore, "''Death with Dignity': What Do We Advise Our Clients?," King County Bar Association, Bar Bulletin, May 2009 (regarding Washington's law).  See also Margaret Dore, Quick Facts About Assisted Suicide, at http://www.choiceillusion.org/2013/11/quick-facts-about-assisted-suicide_11.html

UK: Falconer Assisted Suicide Bill: "Eligible" Patients May Have Years, Even Decades, to Live

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

www.margaretdore.com

www.choiceillusion.org

In the UK, HL Bill 6 is an assisted suicide law proposed by Lord Falconer, which is based on the Oregon and Washington assisted suicide laws.  Bill 6 would legalize assisted suicide for persons with a "terminal illness," defined in terms of a prediction of less than six months to live.[1]  The Oregon and Washington laws have a similar six months to live criteria.[2]

Under all three laws, "eligible" patients may have years, even decades, to live.  This is true for the following the following reasons: 

1.      Predictions of life expectancy can be wrong.  

Patients may have years or even decades to live because predicting life expectancy is not an exact science.  Consider John Norton who was diagnosed with ALS.  He was told that he would get progressively worse (be paralyzed) and die in three to five years.  Instead, the disease progression stopped on its own.  In a 2012 affidavit, at age 74, he states:

If assisted suicide or euthanasia had been available to me in the 1950's, I would have missed the bulk of my life and my life yet to come.  http://www.massagainstassistedsuicide.org/2012/09/john-norton-cautionary-tale.html [3]

2.      The six months to live is determined without treatment. 

Consider Oregon resident, Jeanette Hall, who was diagnosed with cancer and decided to "do" Oregon's law.  Her doctor, Kenneth Stevens, didn't believe in assisted suicide and encouraged her to be treated instead.  It is now 14 years later and she is "thrilled" to be alive.  This is Dr. Steven's affidavit filed by the Canadian government in Leblanc v. Canada, now dismissed, discussing Jeanette.  http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/signed-stevens-aff-9-18-12-as-filed.pdf   This is Jeanette's affidavit, also filed by the Canadian government:  http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/jeanette-hall-affidavit.pdf  

3.      In Oregon, the six months to live criteria is now being interpreted to include chronic conditions such as diabetes.  

Oregon doctor, William Toffler, explains: 

Our law applies to “terminal” patients who are predicted to have less than six months to live. In practice, this idea of terminal has recently become stretched to include people with chronic conditions such as chronic lower respiratory disease and diabetes. Persons with these conditions are considered terminal if they are dependent on their medications, such as insulin, to live. They are unlikely to die in less than six months unless they don’t receive their medications. Such persons, with treatment, could otherwise have years or even decades to live.[4]  

* * *
[1]  See HL Bill 6, Sections 2, at http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2014-15/assisteddying.html (defining "terminal illness" as an "inevitably progressive condition which cannot be reversed by treatment," and for which the patient "is reasonably expected to die in six months.").
[2]  See ORS 127.800 s.1.01(12) and RCW 70.245.010(13) at    http://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Pages/ors.aspx and http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=70.245.010  (both stating:  "'Terminal disease' means an incurable and irreversible disease that has been medically confirmed and will, within reasonable medical judgment, produce death within six months.").
[3]  See also:  Nina Shapiro, "Terminal Uncertainty," Washington's new "Death with Dignity" law allows doctors to help people commit suicide - once they've determined that the patient has only six months to live. But what if they're wrong? The Seattle Weekly, January 14, 2009 http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/terminal-uncertainty.pdf and http://www.seattleweekly.com/2009-01-14/news/terminal-uncertainty
[4]  Letter from William Toffler, MD, to the New Haven Register, published February 26, 2014, 2^nd letter at http://www.nhregister.com/opinion/20140226/letters-to-the-editor-dying-deserve-right-to-choice  See also, Dore Memo at pp 6-7, at http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/nj-a2270-legal-analysis_001.pdf and Margaret Dore, “Oregon's new assisted suicide report: chronic conditions;  people with money and more,” February 19, 2014, at http://www.choiceillusion.org/2014/01/oregons-new-assisted-suicide-report.html 

What results from assisted suicide laws

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-results-from-assisted-suicide-laws/2014/07/11/2704d612-0768-11e4-9ae6-0519a2bd5dfa_story.html

July 11 at 5:42 PM 

As a former three-term state representative in New Hampshire, I was alarmed to see that Maryland is being urged to adopt an assisted-suicide law similar to those in Oregon and Washington state [" Controlling the end of life, Local Opinions, July 6]. 

Four months ago, the New Hampshire House rejected such a law by a 219 to 66 vote. Many representatives in the Democratic-controlled House initially thought they were for the bill but became uncomfortable when they studied the issue further. 

Contrary to promoting "choice" for older people, assisted-suicide laws are a prescription for abuse. They empower heirs and others to pressure and abuse older people to cut short their lives, especially when they have money. No assisted-suicide bill could correct this huge problem.

Nancy Elliott, Merrimack, N.H.

Washington’s ‘Death with Dignity’ law imperils the poor

http://realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/9122

Last week’s article by an assisted suicide/euthanasia advocate struck me as a bizarre article for Real Change, which advocates for the dignity and self-determination of the poor. (“Terminally ill patients face shortage of right-to-die drug amid controversy over capital punishment,” Real Change, June 18)

Washington’s assisted suicide law was passed in 2008 and went into effect in 2009. This was after a deceptive initiative campaign promised us that “only” the patient would be allowed to take the lethal dose. Our law does not say that anywhere. See Margaret K. Dore, “’Death with Dignity,” What Do We Advise Our Clients?,” King County Bar Association, Bar Bulletin, May 2009, available at https://www.kcba.org/newsevents/barbulletin/BView.aspx?Month=05&Year=2009&AID=article5.htm.

In Oregon, which has a similar law, there are documented cases of that state’s Medicaid program using the law to steer patients to suicide. In other words, indigent patients are offered suicide in lieu of desired treatments to cure or to extend life. The most well-known cases are Barbara Wagner and Randy Stroup.  See: Susan Donaldson James, “Death Drugs Cause Uproar in Oregon,” ABC News, August 6, 2008, at http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5517492&page=1; and “Letter noting assisted suicide raises questions,” KATU TV, July 30, 2008, at http://www.katu.com/news/specialreports/26119539.html  See also the Affidavit of Kenneth Stevens, MD, filed by the Canadian government in Leblanc v. Canada, available at http://maasdocuments.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/signed-stevens-aff-9-18-12.pdf.

Finally, consider this quote from a March 8, 2012 Jerry Large column in the Seattle Times. He says that at least a couple of his readers suggested euthanasia “if you couldn’t save enough money to see you through your old age.” http://seattletimes.com/text/2017693023.html  For the poor, this would be non-voluntary or involuntary euthanasia. 

So much for the dignity and self-determination of the poor.

Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA *

Seattle

* www.margaretdore.com & www.choiceillusion.org 

Legal/Policy Analysis Against New Jersey Bill, A2270 (Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia)

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

A legal/policy analysis against New Jersey's proposed assisted suicide/euthanasia bill, A2270, can be viewed by clicking here.

If the analysis is "too big" for your computer, you can view it in pieces, by clicking the following links to: the cover sheet and index; the memo; and the appendices.

There are three main points:

1.  A2270 is titled "Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act."  "Aid in Dying" is a euphemism for assisted suicide and euthanasia.  The title is, regardless, deceptive because it implies that A2270 is limited to people who are dying, which is untrue.  A2270 applies to people who may have years, even decades, to live.  See memo, pp. 5-8.

2. The bill is a recipe for elder abuse with the most obvious reason being a complete lack of oversight when the lethal dose is administered to the patient.  Even if he struggled, who would know? See memo, pp. 8-17.

3. The bill lacks transparency and accountability.  Id., pp. 17-19.

The last part of the memo is a discussion of the "Oregon and Washington Experience," with supporting documentation attached.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns at contact@choiceillusion.org or margaretdore@margaretdore.com.

Margaret Dore, President
Choice is an Illusion, a human rights organization
Law Offices of Margaret K. Dore, P.S.
www.choiceillusion.org
www.margaretdore.com
1001 4th Avenue, 44th Floor
Seattle, WA 98154

Assisted suicide is a mistake

http://www.courierpostonline.com/story/opinion/readers/2014/06/11/letter-assisted-suicide-mistake/10348363/

I am a doctor in Oregon, where physician-assisted suicide is legal. I understand that your Legislature is considering taking a similar step.

I was first exposed to this issue in 1982, shortly before my first wife died of cancer. We had just visited her doctor. As we were leaving, he had suggested that she overdose herself on medication.

I still remember the look of horror on her face. She said, “Ken, he wants me to kill myself.”

Our assisted-suicide law was passed in 1997. In 2000, one of my patients was adamant she would use our law. Over three or four visits, I stalled her and ultimately convinced her to be treated instead. Nearly 14 years later, she is thrilled to be alive.

In Oregon, the combination of assisted-suicide legalization and prioritized medical care based on prognosis has created a danger for my patients on the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid).

Helpful treatments are often not covered. The plan will cover the patient’s suicide.

Protect your health care. Tell your legislators to vote “no” on assisted suicide.

Don’t make Oregon’s mistake.

KENNETH STEVENS, M.D.

Sherwood, Ore.

Arizona Strengthens its Law Against Assisted Suicide

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/04/30/4993778/brewer-signs-bill-targeting-assisted.html

Brewer Signs Bill Targeting Assisted Suicide

PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill that aims to make it easier to prosecute people who help someone commit suicide.

Republican Rep. Justin Pierce of Mesa says his bill will make it easier for attorneys to prosecute people for manslaughter for assisting in suicide by more clearly defining what it means to "assist."

House Bill 2565 defines assisting in suicide as providing the physical means used to commit suicide, such as a gun. The bill originally also defined assisted suicide as "offering" the means to commit suicide, but a Senate amendment omitted that word.

The proposal was prompted by a difficult prosecution stemming from a 2007 assisted suicide in Maricopa County.

Brewer signed the bill on Wednesday.

Attend the New Hampshire Victory Celebration Dinner!

Featured Speaker
John B. Kelly

Former New Hampshire State Representative, Nancy Elliott has organized a "Victory Celebration Dinner" to celebrate the overwhelming defeat of assisted suicide in New Hampshire. The dinner is sponsored by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

The dinner speaker will be John B. Kelly, New England Regional Director for Not Dead Yet.  

The dinner will also celebrate opposition to assisted suicide throughout New England and Quebec.  

Where:  Crowne Plaza Hotel, Nashua New Hampshire, USA

When:    Friday, May 30, 2014

Cost:     $35.00

Book a room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel for $119 under the name "Euthanasia Prevention Coalition."  

Please make payments for the dinner to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Box 611309 Port Huron MI 48061-1309, or contact Alex Schadenberg at: 1-877-439-3348 or info@epcc.ca

Please consider a generous donation to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Not Dead Yet and other groups that were instrumental to defeating assisted suicide in New England and Quebec this year.

To donate to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, click here.

To donate to Not Dead Yet, click here.

I want assistance living, not dying

http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/4465271-i-want-assistance-living-not-dying/

Assisted suicide

I was born with cerebral palsy and I have lived all of my life with pain. I now have scoliosis, which affects my mobility and gives me further pain. My prognosis is living with a wheelchair.

MP Steven Fletcher has introduced euthanasia bills with language that specifically focuses on people with disabilities because his bills are about him dying by euthanasia.

Fletcher seems to be saying that he does not value his life, but I value my life and the lives of others with disabilities. His "right to die" ends at the point where it affects other people. Don't take me down with your death wish.

As a member of parliament, Fletcher has the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities, to work toward improving social supports and living opportunities, but his euthanasia bills say that our lives are not worth living.

People with disabilities are at risk from euthanasia because they are often dependent on others who legally have the right to make decisions for them. Any legislation that lessens protections in law for people with disabilities is very concerning.

I have overcome many physical and social barriers in my life, I am busy wanting to live, but Fletcher's bill directly affects my right to live.

People with disabilities, who live with a positive mindset, show society how to overcome challenges. We see these challenges as opportunities for personal growth.

Fletcher wants your pity. People with disabilities don't want your pity and we don't want your death.

The concept of euthanasia creates great fear for me. Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide abandons me as a person. That society would rather help me die with dignity, than help me live with dignity. We will fight for the right of people with disabilities to live with equality, value and acceptance.

Steven Passmore, Hamilton                             

This woman needed help NOT Dignitas

http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/richard-and-judy/469987/The-tale-of-an-unwarranted-death-this-woman-needed-help-NOT-Dignitas

By: Richard and Judy

Published: Sat, April 12, 2014

IN a week of disturbing stories right across the news gauntlet – Peaches, Pistorius, the political car-crash of Maria Miller – one dark and troubling tale went almost unnoticed: The death of a retired art teacher, only identified as Anne, by assisted suicide at the infamous Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. 

The truly disturbing nature of Anne’s story is this: she was not suffering from any form of terminal disease. True, at 89, she had had her health problems – diseases of the lung and heart, requiring spells in hospital (which she hated). But she wasn’t dying of cancer, or one of the nasties such as Huntington’s Chorea, or multiple organ failure.

Anne simply felt alienated from the modern world. Speaking days before she died – from a lethal dose of drugs provided by the clinic – she said she felt she faced a choice either to “adapt or die”, and announced she was not prepared to adapt to a world in which technology took precedence over humanity. She added that she had become frustrated with the trappings of modern life, such as fast-food, consumerism, and the amount of time people spend watching television.

“They say ‘adapt or die,’” she said, having already made the decision to take the latter option by drinking a deadly dose of barbiturates. “I find myself swimming against the current, and you can’t do that. If you can’t join them, get off... all the old fashioned ways of doing things have gone.”

Now you may or may not agree with Anne’s world view, but judging by her comments (and there were more in the same vein) it sounds very much to me as if the poor woman was suffering from a classic case of clinical depression – feelings of hopelessness, alienation, despair and suicidal thoughts.

Is that a condition Dignitas should be giving itself permission to treat with a lethal cocktail of drugs? I don’t think so. Its own rules state that it will only provide help in cases of “illness which will lead inevitably to death, unendurable pain or an unendurable disability”.

Anne’s niece, Linda, 54, accompanied her aunt to Zurich and was by her side when she died. She has said she “cannot think of a better death”.

Hmm. I don’t doubt her personal belief in that statement and I am sure she genuinely believes she did the right thing by her aunt. But Anne’s death raises disturbing questions. What if she’d been 10 years younger, say, 79, but held exactly the same bleak view of the world? Would she still have been offered assisted suicide?

Or what about 69? Or 59? At exactly what point does the combination of (undiagnosed) depression plus advancing years get the thumbs-up from the Dignitas doctors?

Personally I have always supported the principle of assisted suicide but Anne’s exit from this world has made me seriously wonder if it can ever be properly controlled.

This disturbing story could be the thin end of a very unpleasant wedge.

Late actor Mickey Rooney was a strong voice against elder abuse

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/actor-mickey-rooney-voice-against-elder-abuse-170443794.html
By Nadine Kalinauskas | Daily Brew

As the details of Mickey Rooney's death will make headlines today — he disinherited his eight surviving children and his estranged wife just weeks before his death, leaving his meager $18,000 estate to his stepson and caregiver Mark Rooney — so do claims that the Hollywood legend was a victim of elder abuse.

According to the Associated Press, Rooney said he lost most of his fortune because of elder abuse and financial mismanagement by another of his stepsons, Christopher Aber.

He cut his children out of his will because they were better off financially than he was.

Rooney's lawyer, Michael Augustine, said that an agreement was in place for millions to be repaid to the 93-year-old actor, but it was unlikely the estate will ever collect on it.

[ Related: Five of Mickey Rooney's most memorable movie roles ]

Almost three years ago, Rooney appeared before a U.S. Senate committee that was considering legislation that would crack down on elder abuse.

In March of 2011, then-90-year-old Rooney told the Senate Special Committee on Aging that he had been "stripped of the ability to make even the most basic decisions about my life" and financially exploited by his stepson, Aber, and didn't seek help because he was "overwhelmed" with fear, anger and disbelief.

"But above all, when a man feels helpless, it's terrible," Rooney testified.

Engaging in a war of he said/he said, Aber told the Daily Mail that his younger brother, Mark, and his wife were the real abusers, not him.

"They were keeping him from access to a phone, they kept him hostage," he claimed, making the horrific accusation that Rooney died of choking on his own food with no one there "to pat him on the back."

News outlets have reported only that Rooneydied of natural causes, including complications related to diabetes. Read Aber's messy allegations here.

Elder abuse has been making headlines in Canada this month.

Toronto woman Norma Marshall, 94, was victimized by her housekeeper and her family who systematically spent Marshall's life savings and sold her belongings without her knowledge, confining Marshall to a small room in her own home.

A delivery man for a local pharmacy determined something wasn't right when he dropped off her medications and alerted authorities.

Seniors are particularly susceptible to elder abuse and frauds, and regrettably, there is a great reluctance to disclose these types of incidents. —  Patricia Fleischmann, Toronto police vulnerable-persons coordinator

And earlier this week, we shared Bert Matthews' story.

Matthews claims he was tackled and restrained at a Vancouver Island hospital after he tried to leave. He went to the hospital fearing signs of a heart attack or stroke and was admitted, instead, to a psychiatric ward.

According to a poll commissioned by Bayshore HealthCare earlier this year, one in five Canadians visit their elderly loved ones just twice a year at most, citing distance and busyness as reasons for staying away.

With reports of elder abuse and neglect increasing across the nation, last month, British Columbia became the first Canadian province to appoint a seniors' advocate. Isobel Mackenzie vows to represent seniors, not the government, in her new role.   (Photo courtesy Reuters)

Connecticut Bill Dead!

Assisted suicide bill won't be voted on

[For a legal and policy analysis against the bill, please click here]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 25, 2014 - 7:32 pm EDT

http://www.therepublic.com/w/CT--Assisted-Suicide

HARTFORD, Connecticut — A bill that would allow Connecticut physicians to prescribe medication to help terminally ill patients end their lives won't be voted on during this year's legislative session, the co-chairman of the General Assembly's Public Health Committee said Tuesday.

Windham Rep. Susan Johnson said Tuesday there is not enough time to address various outstanding issues with the bill. This year's short legislative session ends May 7.

"We worked very hard on that bill and there's a lot of work left to do," Johnson said.

This marks the second year in a row that the Public Health Committee has held a public hearing on such legislation and committee members did not take a vote.

Johnson said the Judiciary Committee is better suited to tackle certain outstanding issues with the bill, such as determining a patient's competency, whether they're under any duress, and how they can be protected from people with criminal intentions.

"Those kinds of things need to be ironed out," she said.

Proponents vowed to return with another bill next year, when there will be a longer legislative session.

"I'm very sorry that we're not able to move the bill further this year," said Rep. Betsy Ritter, D-Waterford. "We heard from people who wanted it badly."

Ritter said she was pleased, however, by the attention paid to the issue this year, adding how "the discussion just exploded across the state." Tim Appleton, the state director of the advocacy group Compassion and Choices, said he expects support will grow more between now and next year's legislative session.

Opponents have questioned the level of support for the bill, claiming outside groups are pushing the issue in Connecticut. They've vowed to fight future bills.

"The collateral damage from legalizing assisted suicide — including massive elder abuse, the deadly mix with a cost-cutting health care system steering people to suicide, misdiagnosis and incorrect prognosis, suicide contagion, and disability discrimination in suicide prevention — is simply not fixable," said Stephen Mendelsohn, of Second Thoughts Connecticut.

Assisted suicide is a "prescription for abuse"

http://www.theday.com/article/20140318/OP02/303189999

I am a former three-term state representative in New Hampshire. Just last week, our House of Representatives voted down an assisted-suicide law similar to Connecticut's Raised Bill No. 5326. The vote was an overwhelming 3 to 1 defeat, 219 to 66.

In New Hampshire, the House is controlled by the Democrats. The vote against assisted suicide was strongly bipartisan and included libertarians. Many representatives, who initially thought that they were for the law, became uncomfortable when they studied it further.

Contrary to promoting "choice" for older people, assisted suicide laws are a prescription for abuse. They empower heirs and others to pressure and abuse older people to cut short their lives. This is especially an issue when the older person has money. There is no assisted suicide bill that you can write to correct this huge problem.

Do not be deceived.

Nancy Elliott Merrimack, NH
Publication: The Day

Published 03/18/2014 12:00 AM

Updated 03/17/2014 04:33 PM

Connecticut: Dore Letter and Memo to Committee

Dear Committee Members:

I am a Democrat and a lawyer in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal.  Our law is modeled on a similar law in Oregon.  Both laws are similar to H.B. No. 5326.

Below are highlights to a memo I wrote, providing a legal analysis of  H.B. No. 5326.  To view the memo, please click here.

1.  H.B. No. 5326 is a recipe for elder abuse

• "Financial considerations [are] an all too common motivation for killing someone." (memo, page 7)
• Your heir, who will financially benefit from your death, is allowed to act as a witness on the lethal dose request form.  See  H.B. No. 5326, Section 3 (allowing one of two witnesses to be an heir)
• There is a complete lack of oversight once the lethal dose is issued by the pharmacy.  Not even a witness is required.  Even if you struggled, who would know?

2.  H.B. No. 5326 encourages people to throw away their lives.

•  H.B. No. 5326 applies to patients with a "terminal illness," which is defined in terms of a doctor's prediction of less than six months to live. (memo, pages 4-5).
•  In Oregon, a similar definition is being interpreted to include people with chronic conditions such as diabetes.  (Id.)
• The six months to live is determined without treatment.  Consider, for example, my friend, Jeanette Hall, who had cancer and who was adamant that she would "do" Oregon's law.  Her doctor convinced her to be treated instead.  She is thrilled to be alive today, nearly 14 years later.  (memo, pages 5-6)

3.  H.B. No. 5326 will allow health care providers and insurers to steer people to suicide

• In Oregon, the Oregon Health Plan steers patients to assisted suicide. (Memo pages 17-20).  See also the affidavit of Oregon doctor Ken Stevens, in the appendix at A-24, which is also attached here:  http://maasdocuments.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/signed-stevens-aff-9-18-12.pdf
• See also this letter by Kathryn Judson (describing how she overheard a doctor pitching assisted suicide to her husband)  http://www.choiceillusion.org/2013/12/i-was-afraid-to-leave-my-husband-alone.html
• Do you want this to happen to you or your family?

4.  I have had two clients whose fathers signed up for the lethal dose. 

• In the first case, one side of the family wanted the father to take the lethal dose, while the other did not.  He  spent the last months of his life caught in the middle and traumatized over    whether or not he should kill himself.  My client, his adult daughter, was also traumatized.  The father did not take the lethal dose and died a natural death.  (Memo, page 22)
• In the other case, it's not clear that administration of the lethal dose was voluntary.  A man who was present told my client that the father refused to take the lethal dose when it was  delivered (?You?re not killing me.  I?m going to bed?), but then took it the next night when he was high on alcohol.  The man who told this to my client later recanted.  My client did not want to pursue the matter further. (Memo, pages 22-3)
• Do you want this to happen to you or your family?

5.  Two weeks ago, a similar bill was defeated by a 3 to 1 margin

•  On March 6, 2014, the New Hampshire House, which is controlled by the Democrats, defeated a bill similar to H.B. No. 5326.  
• The vote was 219 to 66. 
•  Please click here. 

I urge you to not make Washington's mistake.

Please vote No on H.B. 5326.

Thank you.

Margaret Dore
Law Offices of Margaret K. Dore, P.S.
www.margaretdore.com
www.choiceillusion.org
1001 4th Avenue, 44th Floor
Seattle, WA  98154
206 389 1754 main reception line
206 389 1562 direct line

Live Free or Die! New Hampshire Obliterates Oregon-Style Death with Dignity Act!

Today, the New Hampshire House of Representatives defeated HB 1325. The bill had sought to enact an Oregon-style assisted suicide law in New Hampshire. The bipartisan vote was an overwhelming 219 to 66.

To view a short testimony against the bill, click here.

New Hampshire: Pro-Assisted Suicide Bills Go Down in Flames!

Today, HB 1216, which sought to decriminalize soliciting a suicide, and HB 1292, creating an affirmative defense for a person who causes or aids another in committing suicide, went down in flames!  The votes were 259 to 45 and 232 to 59, respectively.

"Older people are no longer valued as they were before."

http://www.nhregister.com/opinion/20140304/letters-to-the-editor-time-to-rethink-who-our-leaders-are (second letter)

Dear Editor:  

I am a high school student in Washington state, where assisted suicide is legal. I want to become a doctor. My mother is a caregiver. Sometimes, I help her with her clients.

I am writing to tell you about how older people are at risk in Washington, from doctors and hospitals. I will also talk about how attitudes about older people have changed for the worse. This is especially true since our assisted-suicide law was passed in 2008.

I grew up in an adult family home. An adult family home is a small elder care facility located in a residential home. The caregivers live in the home with the clients.

My parents and two of my brothers lived in the home. With the clients there, it was like having six grandparents at once. It was a very happy environment.

This was true for the clients, too, no matter what their condition was or how long they had to live. My mom could make them happy even when they were dying. The clients’ family members were supportive and seemed happy, too, and never suggested that one of the clients should die.

Today, in 2014, we no longer live in an adult family home. My mother is a caregiver for private clients. She also now fears for her clients, especially in the hospital. She is afraid that the hospital will begin “comfort care” (that’s morphine) and her patient will suddenly die. This has already happened. She tries to never leave her patients alone in the hospital. Either she or a family member will be there.

She has also had one client where a family member wanted the client to do the assisted-suicide.

In short, older people are no longer valued as they were before.

I hope that you will not follow our path.

— Elizabeth Poianna 

The High Financial Cost of (Regular) Suicides.

Dear New Hampshire House Members:

I am an attorney in Washington State where physician-assisted suicide is legal.  Our law is based on a similar law in Oregon.  I previously sent you materials, which can be viewed here

I write to discuss another factor for your consideration: Government reports from Oregon, showing a positive correlation between the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and an increase in other (regular) suicides. Of course, a statistical correlation does not prove causation.  The statistical correlation described herein, is, however, consistent with a suicide contagion (legalizing and thereby normalizing one type of suicide encouraged other suicides).  Please consider the following.

Oregon's assisted suicide act went into effect in 1997.  See top line at this link: http://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Pages/index.aspx

By 2000, Oregon's regular suicide rate was "increasing significantly"  See second paragraph, http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/news/2010news/2010-0909a.pdf ("After decreasing in the 1990s, suicide rates have been increasing significantly since 2000"). 

By 2007, Oregon's other (regular) suicide rate was 35% above the national average. See second page at "A-57) http://maasdocuments.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/oregon-suicide-info_001.pdf

In 2010, the most recent report, Oregon's other (regular) suicide rate was 41% above the national average. http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/oregon-suicide-report-2012-through-2010-pdf.pdf  Moreover and per this report, the financial cost of these other (regular) suicides is huge.  The report, page 3, elaborates:

In 2010, there were 685 Oregonians who died by suicide and more than 2,000 hospitalizations due to suicide attempts.  Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Oregonians ages 15-34, and the 8th leading cause of death among all ages in Oregon.  The cost of suicide is enormous.  In 2010 alone, self-inflicted injury hospitalization charges exceeded 41 million dollars; and the estimate of total lifetime cost of suicide in Oregon was over 680 million dollars.  The loss to families and communities broadens the impact of each death.  (Footnotes omitted).

Oregon is the only state where there has been legalization of physician-assisted suicide long enough to have valid statistics showing this positive statistical correlation between assisted suicide legalization and other (regular) suicides.

The enormous cost of increased (regular) suicides in Oregon, positively correlated to physician-assisted suicide legalization, is a significant factor for the House to consider in its vote on HB 1325, which seeks to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

For this and other reasons, I urge you to vote No in HB 1325.

Thank you.

Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA, President
Law Offices of Margaret K. Dore, P.S.
Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation
www.margaretdore.com
www.choiceillusion.org
1001 4th Avenue, 44th Floor
Seattle, WA  98154
206 389 1754 main line
206 389 1562 direct line

"I hope that Connecticut does not repeat Oregon's mistake."

http://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/march-letters/article_ccb4e384-a2bb-11e3-b9c8-001a4bcf887a.html (second letter)

I have been a professor of family medicine and a practicing physician in Oregon for more than 30 years. I write to provide some insight on the issue of assisted suicide, which is legal in Oregon, and which has been proposed for legalization in Connecticut (raised bill No. 5326).

Our law applies to “terminal” patients who are predicted to have less than six months to live.  In practice, this idea of “terminal” has recently become stretched to include people with chronic conditions, such as “chronic lower respiratory disease” and “diabetes”.  Persons with these conditions are considered terminal if they are dependent on their medications, such as insulin, to live.  They are unlikely die in less than six months unless they don’t receive their medications.  Such persons, with treatment, could otherwise have years or even decades to live.

This illustrates a great problem with our law — it encourages people with years to live, to throw away their lives.

I am also concerned that by starting to label people with chronic conditions “terminal,” there will be an excuse to deny such persons appropriate medical treatment to allow them to continue to live healthy and productive lives.

These factors are something for your legislators to consider. Do you want this to happen to you or your family? Furthermore, in my practice I have had many patients ask about assisted-suicide. In each case, I have offered care and treatment but declined to provide assisted suicide. In one case, the man’s response was “Thank you.”

To read a commentary on the most recent Oregon government assisted-suicide report, which lists chronic conditions as the “underlying illness” justifying assisted suicide, please go here:  http://www.noassistedsuicideconnecticut.org/2014/02/oregons-new-assisted-suicide-report.html

To read about some of my cases in Oregon, please go here:  http://www.choiceillusion.org/p/what-people-mean_25.html

I hope that Connecticut does not repeat Oregon’s mistake.

William L. Toffler
Portland, Ore.