Fortunately, Colorado voters have the opportunity to approve Proposition 106, the End-of-Life Options Act (ELOA), after it was twice rejected by the Legislature despite being favored by a majority of Colorado voters. This law will provide an option for actively dying, mentally competent adults if suffering becomes unbearable despite maximal hospice and palliative care intervention.
Experience in Oregon and Washington, where it is called Death with Dignity, has shown that 35 percent of patients who obtain a prescription for secobarbital (a barbiturate taken orally in high dose to induce terminal sleep) never take it. Simply having the option alleviates a great deal of fear and anxiety.
This month, the Colorado Medical Society reversed its former opposition to ELOA after 56 percent of member physicians registered their support and only 35 percent their opposition. This legal medical procedure is incorrectly referred to by opponents as “physician-assisted suicide,” and the medical society opposed it as such. This is not suicide. These patients would choose to live but have exhausted treatment options. Euthanasia is illegal in all 50 states and will remain so.
Sadly, this most sacred and inevitable of life’s experiences, the dying process, has become politicized. Ideally, the doctor-patient relationship is the framework for discussion and decision-making regarding end-of-life issues; patients deserve the autonomy to determine how their final days are spent.
Some physician opponents argue that all suffering can be alleviated by palliative care, making this bill unnecessary. Even if pain can be alleviated, which isn’t always the case, loss of dignity and loss of hope cannot. Opponents who do not believe in medical intervention at the end of life, often on religious grounds, want to prevent others from using this legal medical option.
Many supporters of ELOA shared their testimony before the Legislature about the devastating experience of enduring the needless suffering of a loved one at the end of life. Any physician or patient who does not believe in the law simply does not have to use it.
Opponents also say that there is “no data from Oregon” where Death with Dignity has functioned beautifully and without a single abuse for 19 years, and is used by less than 0.4 percent of dying patients (991 total). It has similarly functioned in Washington since 2009, and detailed reporting for both states is available on their health department’s websites. Three other states have passed similar laws and several more are considering doing so.
This law does not apply to the elderly or the disabled or any other potentially disenfranchised group. It applies only to mentally competent adults who are actively dying. A very few choose to use it to end their suffering, and they have completed a legal medical process in order to do so.
This should not be a political issue; it is a personal medical issue. Vote “yes” on Proposition 106 to make Colorado the sixth state to allow its residents to make their own choices at the end of life!
Lauri Costello, MD, lives in Durango. She is a retired family physician from Washington state where Death with Dignity became legal in 2008. Reach her at lauricos@gmail.com.
There are many reasons to oppose Proposition 106, “End-of-Life Options Act.” One reason it should be voted down is that it is based on a series of lies.
First the title: This is clearly physician-assisted suicide, but also could be labeled “The Hopeless Act.” This act only provides one option and that is death by suicide. Second, it’s based on the assumption that the patient has only six months to live. Physicians make mistakes and people outlive their diagnosis by months or even years. In today’s rapidly advancing technology, what may seem hopeless now may be treated with brand new therapies, procedures and drugs just a month or two later.
Another lie is that medication can be used to end your life. The purpose of medicine, by definition, is to heal and to prevent illness, not to end life. Some think by voting for this, they are being compassionate by ending someone’s suffering, but that is at best a false compassion. True compassion will give the suffering individual loving attention, including professional palliative care, which reduces suffering and pain of the patient. True compassion seeks to kill the pain, not the patient.
The fact is, to intentionally seek to destroy human life is always wrong. The murder of a human being should always be illegal, and making suicide more acceptable in our culture will only degrade human life. It will actually take away the dignity the proponents wish to provide. In essence, “you are too weak and sick to contribute to society so you should just end it now.” Assisted suicide is an opportunity to promote a distorted independence and individualism, which devalues human life.
Another issue is that the health care industry is profit-driven. People will die needlessly when insurance companies refuse to pay for necessary medication and equipment that would extend life and instead offer to pay for a cheaper lethal prescription.
The proposition doesn’t require a psychological evaluation, so people suffering from depression could be incompetent to make this decision. In Oregon, 78 percent of last year’s suicides were people that had no health insurance, had no partner, and 95 percent of them weren’t given any psychological evaluation to determine if they were depressed. People who requested suicide are those that don’t have support networks. This should be an opportunity for us as a community to help those in need, not to give them a way to kill themselves legally!
The disabled and terminally ill are already vulnerable, and legalizing assisted suicide puts these people at risk. Most disability organizations oppose this proposition. The American Medical Association says this law is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.
Lastly, suffering is unavoidable. Some of the greatest periods of growth are in suffering. Even in death, we can have hope and grace-filled final days. It is our duty as citizens to protect the weak, the elderly, the ill and those who are most vulnerable, children. Please let the medical community promote life, healing and health!
Shelley Gundrey is a Colorado native who has lived in Durango for over 20 years. She is self-employed and a LifeGuard board member. Reach her at gundrey@gmail.com.
