I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked
…
~ The Oath, Hippocrates, 400 BC
I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked …
~ The Oath, Hippocrates, 400 BC
Lisa Pampuch, in her column of Feb. 7, says that personal faith should not be used as a basis for making laws. I wonder if she has considered the implications of such a constraint.
One of the Ten Commandments says “Thou shalt not steal.” Shall we then overturn all laws against robbery, theft, and embezzlement on the grounds that no one’s personal faith should dictate law? After all, not every culture forbids stealing.
Let us acknowledge that just because a religion or faith has a particular tenet does not mean that tenet should be barred from being replicated in public policy.
The issue under discussion is Physician Assisted Suicide. Should California, like Oregon, adopt a law that allows a mentally competent adult to request from a physician a lethal dose of barbiturates?
Suicide is not illegal: not in California, not in any of the 50 states. What is illegal is for someone to assist in a suicide, to, in short, kill someone else. I very much approve of this prohibition.
I do not think that grandchildren should be able to assist Grandma to leave them her inheritance a little early, or that parents should be able to decide that their cerebral palsied kid does not have a good enough quality of life, or that an HMO should consider a lethal dose a cost effective alternative to pain meds and nursing care. If you think any of these examples are overblown, think again. All have happened.
I am suspicious of euphemisms. If a person cannot just say what they mean, if they have to prettify it with words, perhaps they are trying to hide something. Proponents of assisted suicide use many euphemisms to describe the practice. (A handicapped group that opposes euthanasia, on the other hand, calls themselves Not Dead Yet. I like that.)
Proponents talk about death with dignity. They name their bills and their advocacy groups things like Compassionate Choices. Even mercy killing and euthanasia (“good-death”) are euphemisms: nice sounding words that mask a sordid reality, though these terms have been in use for so long that they are hardly recognized as euphemisms any more.
Proponents paint a picture of a dignified exit, pain free, surrounded by loved ones. But what really happens in an assisted suicide? What instructions does the Hemlock Society, reborn as End of Life Choices, publish in their handbook, Final Exit?
First, in addition to the dose of barbiturates, they recommend the use of a heavy duty plastic bag. This is to be fastened over the head of the suicide with rubber bands. Simultaneously, they warn that the overdose of barbiturates, and the sweet syrup or milk shake used to mask the bitter taste, may be vomited up.
Use of a plastic bag by itself is not recommended because the patient might try to pull it off. So barbiturates should be administered as well. Carbon monoxide, helium, and other poisonous or inert gases are also recommended.
The proposed Australian bill recommended that if lethal dugs were used for the euthanasia death, family members should be warned that they might wish to leave the room when the patient was being killed since the death might be very unpleasant to observe, involving violent convulsions and muscle spasms. Doesn’t that sound peaceful and dignified?
But what about the poor patient suffering an agonizing death? Should he be forced to stay alive? Should he not have the option of choosing when and how to die?
No, and no.
Pain meds, hospice care, kith, kin, and do-gooders: these are the palliatives that help a person have a good death, a death with real dignity. Pain meds for pain and suffering. No one can be forced to accept medical care, or even food and water if they choose to refuse it.
And no, a person does not have the right to decide when to die. Some people do not have the right to decide to live: car crash victims, for example. No one has the right to decide to die. They have the power to die. It is not illegal. But no one has the right.
