Compassion & Choices: In Thought and Action July 2007

UCC Calls for Groundbreaking Study of Aid in Dying
The United Church of Christ (UCC) moved to begin an in-depth study and
discussion of supporting a terminally ill patient’s right to request
medication to hasten death at its General Synod 26 in June.
A resolution to affirm aid in dying with safeguards similar to
Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act was introduced by the Northern
California Nevada Conference and the Congregational Church of Belmont,
Calif. Rev. John Brooke, a dedicated advocate for aid in dying
including support for California’s AB 374, called for a study of the
issue after it met with opposition from the UCC Disabilities Ministry.
“The church really hasn’t looked at the issue of end-of-life
choices,” says Brooke. “I’m very pleased that the United Church of
Christ, at every level, will be encouraged to expand discussion of
end-of-life issues and consider physician aid in dying in the very
limited circumstances we have described.” Brooke also sees the study
as a way to move ahead religious and moral dialogue on the issue.
A report on aid in dying will be presented to the General Synod 27 in 2009.
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Katrina Doctor Not Indicted
This week an Orleans Parish, La. grand jury opted not to indict the
physician accused of killing four gravely ill patients by injecting
them with morphine and the sedative midazolam hydrochloride in the days
following Hurricane Katrina.
Dr. Anna Pou, an ear, nose and throat surgeon, gave up her practice
after being arrested last summer along with two nurses. Charges against
the nurses were dropped last month.
In a 2005 interview about the days after Katrina, Pou said some
patients had “do not resuscitate” orders in place. “In other words,
if they died, to allow them to die naturally, and to not use heroic
methods to resuscitate them,” Pou told WBRZ-TV. “We all did
everything in our power to give the best treatment that we could to the
patients in the hospital to make them comfortable.”
Though the grand jury cleared Pou, she fears the case will have a
chilling effect among physicians seeking to aggressively ease
end-of-life suffering.
• Read The New York Times
article:http://capwiz.com/compassionandchoices/utr/1/NTSMHLVHPM/NKOFHLVRPM/1324493711
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Florida Woman Prepares for a Peaceful Death
Compassion & Choices member Marcelle Jones spoke frankly to the
Lakeland, Fla. Ledger about her wish for a humane, dignified death.
Jones, 82, suffers from a serious medical condition and plans to stop
eating and drinking when it becomes terminal.
“It does not have to be a matter of taking chemicals or being
injected. It can be easy and peaceful,” Jones said of her decision.
“I’m grateful for the idea of having some control over that end of
life.”
• Watch Marcelle speak about her
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On My MindBy Barbara Coombs Lee
Marcelle Jones has a plan, and one that would not have worked a few
years ago.
In 1994, the same year Oregon decriminalized aid in dying, the idea of
patients choosing to stop food and water broke into medicine’s
consciousness. In a touching piece in the Journal of the American
Medical Association, David Eddy, a Wyoming physician, told of his
mother’s decision to “end her life gracefully” at the age of 84.
Eddy so masterfully portrayed his mother’s intelligence, her love of
life and his love of her, that the option quickly gained acceptance
among hospice and palliative care specialists.
Today many people, even in Oregon, choose VSED (voluntarily stopping
eating and drinking). One study reported almost twice as many
Oregonians choose VSED as choose aid in dying. It is one among many
options Compassion & Choices considers safe and peaceful and we
have coached hundreds of people throughout the nation safely through
this process.
The choice of VSED is an extension of the right to refuse treatment and
general bodily invasion, and it’s arguably legal in every state. But
dogma clouds reason and muddies the legal landscape. We’ve seen
hospice personnel and physicians refuse to support a VSED patient with
a claim that it would violate the prohibition on “assisting a
suicide.” We learned of another such harsh abandonment, of a cancer
victim, just this week.
Once again, it becomes clear that ethics and morality can’t depend on
arbitrary distinctions like “withholding versus withdrawing”,
“active versus passive”, “knowing versus intending” and other such
poppycock. They depend on honoring a decision the patient makes, and
easing her suffering in the process. There is no better moral compass.
Mrs. Eddy charged her son with a task. “Write about this, David,” she
said. “Tell others how well this worked for me. I’d like this to be
my gift. Whether they are terminally ill, in intractable pain, or, like
me, just know that the right time has come, more people might want to
know that this way exists. And maybe more physicians will help them
find it.”
With continuing encouragement, maybe they will.
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In the Next Compassion and Choices Magazine
The delicate work of our Client Support Program is highlighted in the
summer 2007 issue of Compassion and Choices Magazine that hits
supporter mailboxes the first week of August.
Topics include planning for the care of your pet when you are gone or
incapacitated, finding a health care representative (proxy) and the
healing potential of grief. It also features an interview with
photographer Taryn Simon, whose recent book “An American Index of the
Hidden and Unfamiliar” features former Compassion & Choices
spokesperson Don James.
If you don’t receive our magazine, become a member today. As a
benefit, you’ll get three issues per year, including our annual
report, with information and advice for facing end-of-life issues
proactively and features on the passionate people who are working
across the country to reform laws and change policies to decriminalize
aid in dying.
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