The night before my wife, Janis, passed away (Aug. 23, 2011), she pleaded with the hospice nurse to give her something to help her die. She was suffering from lung cancer and was terminally ill.

The nurse said, “I really want to help you, but I can’t. It’s illegal.”

That evening, Janis aspirated, coughed continuously and a loud crackling sound resonated from her lungs each time she took a breath.

Before the nurse left for the day, she instructed my daughter and me to give Janis morphine periodically to control her pain and keep her asleep and comfortable.

The next morning when I entered her room, her chart indicated that it was time to give her more morphine, which I did. She appeared agitated and was laboring with her breathing.

Thinking she was struggling with pain, I gave her more morphine. I observed her for 10 or 15 minutes as she lay there gasping for air. She continued looking agitated and started to open her eyes; I gave her the rest of the morphine in the container. It occurred to me that since she couldn’t swallow, some of the morphine was probably making it even more difficult for her to breathe.

I can remember feeling quite anxious. I looked at the clock; it was 7 a.m., and she died a few minutes later.

I later learned that giving Janis that much morphine in such a short period of time likely caused her death. Even though she wanted to die, I didn’t want to be the person who gave her the lethal dose.

I’m sure our situation is not unique and that other terminally ill patients and their caregivers have gone through similar situations, if not worse.

It doesn’t have to be this way. If the End of Life Choices Act had been in effect, Janis could have had a choice of when and how she died instead of having to suffer to the very end.

Please vote “Yes” on Proposition 106, the End of Life Options Act, in this November’s election. Give the terminally ill a choice.

Whitey Powers

Durango