Don’t ask/Don’t tell who’s committing assisted suicide
From Bellingham, Washington: Don’t ask/Don’t tell which doctors are committing assisted suicide.
Hmm. Let’s see if we have this straight…
Whatcom County Medical Society President David Lynch said at a recent panel held at the Bellingham Club, “It’s a question of don’t ask, don’t tell,”apparently a reference to physicians assisting suicides under Washington State’s new so-called Death with Dignity Act. According to Lynch, the Whatcom County Medical Society has asked opposing physicians– those who will continue to provide excellence in end of life care but will not help their patients kill themselves — to identify themselves on a list. “Many have done that,” he said. But at the same time, the Medical Society is intentionally not keeping a list of those willing to prescribe lethal barbiturate overdoses.
One wonders: in this brave new world of legalized assisted suicide, are some doctors more equal than others? Strange as it may seem, the Whatcom County Medical Association asks physicians who advocate caring for their patients, rather than killing them, to be listed publically. Yet those MD’s who are actually committing assisted suicide will continue to overdose patients under a veil of medical and state- sanctioned secrecy.
And how about patients? Do some deserve clear information and above-board reporting with regard to physician care practices, while others are kept in the dark, unaware and uninformed that a trusted family physician is prescribing lethal medications to loved ones rather than compassionate and competent end of life care?
Besides, why the shroud of secrecy? If providing lethal barbiturate overdoses is such a groovy new (albeit lethal) medical service, what’s there to be ashamed of? If, as Compassion and Choices spokesperson Arlene Hinkley said, the new law is “a fact of life and we have to live with it,” then why can’t patients and family members in Whatcom County and elsewhere know which physicians, facilities, and providers do and don’t participate in assisted suicide, which ones are compatible or incompatible with their own philosophies of care? (I can’t help but issue a distorted language alert at the preceeding vernacular: The new law isn’t ‘a fact of life’, but rather a direct cause of death. And the whole problem is that we can’t live with it–it’s killing us.)
After all, most of Whatcom County knows that Peace Health and St Josephs Hospital are improving and enhancing end of life care, building a new hospice center, and opting out of involvement with assisted suicide. In other words, according to Nancy Stiger, former cancer nurse and St Josephs CEO, the hospital is “living our mission, which is relieving pain and suffering.” Amen to that.
Certainly it’s well and good—even essential—for patients and families to know which doctors, hospitals, and facilities they can trust with their lives. True Compassion Advocates, and all those who oppose assisted suicide and advocate for improved end of life care, strongly favor making such information available and accessible everywhere. But it’s also important for people to be able to freely choose not to go to a provider who commits assisted suicide on vulnerable ill people.
I mean, it’s all about choice, isn’t it? At least that’s how the slick I-1000 bill of goods sold last November was marketed. Suicide proponents trumpeted enhanced choices and marketed assisted suicide as a valid health care choice, all the while whipping up voters into a end of life fear frenzy. (Twisted language alert: this ‘health care choice’ is more than a little weird–it’s designed soley to ensure a prematurely and unnaturally dead patient. And there still aren’t any safeguards ensuring that it’s actually the patient and not someone else making the lethal choice.) Now it looks like suicide promoters don’t even want people be able to choose an assisted suicide free physician to provide their medical care.
‘Choice, choice, and more choice’ seems to have morphed into: not my choice, not your choice, not our choice. Turns out the so-called ‘choice’ of assisted suicide is nothing but a rent-a-wreck careening down a dark and slippery slope, detouring into a Dead End.
Uncategorized | Eileen | 
June 30, 2009 1:41 am
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By D Goss, July 1, 2009 @ 6:41 pm
Do the persons concerned about someone under care know what
medicines they are getting? Do they know exactly everything
that medicine does? Example: Morphine is good for pain, yet
it also slows down breathing. Not so good for somebody that
has some respiratory difficulties. Find out what those
medicines do and all the side effects.
By Eileen, September 1, 2009 @ 11:19 pm
It can indeed be difficult to wade through the side effects of medications, to know what is helpful in a particular circumstance vs. harmful. Sometimes, some medications such as morphine can also be helpful vs. harmful for persons with respiratory difficulties, as long as the dose is appropriate and the patient is monitored appropriately. Nevertheless, having patients and their loved ones become well acquainted with the potential positive or negative effects of medication is essential, as is learning to vociferously advocate for all in your care.