EuthaNEWSia (www.euthanewsia.ca)

Discussion with doctors are not frank. Patients are reluctant to be blunt in their requests, and doctors evade the issue. Patients do not realize that any answer from a doctor but "yes" means "no". This often results in a frantic last-minute search when patients realize their regular doctor is not going to help.

Doctors typically over-estimate how long the patient has to live.

Some hospices and hospitals, particularly Catholic ones, will not allow any staff or facilities to be involved at any stage.

Many patients do not realize the process takes four to six weeks, if all the paperwork and permissions go well.

[Note: Some other recent stories related to this topic are in the Links: section below.]

http://tinyurl.com/y9282tg

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011277544_deathdignity07m.html

Also see:

The Washington voter-approved Death With Dignity Act is working [The Seattle Times]
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2011269677_guest08miller.html

Robb Miller, the executive director of Compassion & Choices of Washington, writes about his partner's very bad death, and how the Death With Dignity Act now gives people a chance to avoid such an end. He comments on the anti-choice reaction to the recent statistical reports from the state of Washington: Anti-choice activists will use the occasion of the Health Department's annual report to make the same fabricated, undocumented claims they made during the campaign. They will excoriate the report and the process. But take their statements with a grain of salt. The real, rarely acknowledged reason for their opposition to the law is, and always will be, moral judgment.

Don't be fooled by their supposed "concern" for the dying. These are the same people who believe that patients in a persistent vegetative state should be kept alive by medically administered artificial nutrition and hydration, even when it is contrary to the patient's legally documented wishes and the wishes of their families.

Opponents will also repeat that hospice and palliative (comfort) care can manage any and all suffering, making Death With Dignity unnecessary. Compassion & Choices of Washington believes that hospice and palliative care are essential components of excellent end-of-life care, but some suffering is beyond their ability to relieve.

The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine agrees, stating, "Excellent medical care, including state-of-the-art palliative care, can control most symptoms and augment patients' psychosocial and spiritual resources to relieve most suffering near the end of life. On occasion, however, severe suffering persists … "

Anti-Euthanasia Groups Blast New Washington State Report on Assisted Suicide [LifeNews.com]
http://www.lifenews.com/bio3066.html

Among the anti-choice groups criticizing the performance of the Washington Death With Dignity Act is Alex Schadenberg of the Canada-based Euthanasia Prevention Coalition who said: "The majority were 65 years old or older, and educated. Nearly half had private insurance. These factors are consistent with their being individuals with money. Older people with money are prime targets of abuse," he said. "Washington's act is, regardless, coercive: An heir who will benefit from the death, is allowed to help the person sign up for the lethal dose; there is no requirement of consent at the time of death."

assisted suicide

Death With Dignity Act

Washington

U.S.A.

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