Assisted suicide media love fest continues even as body count increases

Five assisted suicides in Washington State thus far. And counting.

Tragically, we can expect the body count to continue. That’s because pro-suicide advocates have ramped up their PR campaign to normalize assisted suicide as just another ‘end of life care choice’ and sell the lethal practice to an ever growing number of vulnerable ill people and families through subterfuge, clever media marketing, and raw exploitation of end of life fears. Gone is the limited number of carefully selected ‘white wealthy men with above average control needs ’ policy we saw in Oregon. Now, it’s a full-press ‘everybody and their mother needs assisted suicide;’ and ‘it’s the best thing since sliced bread’ kind of engagement, complete with tailored human interest news stories and misinformation about pain control, natural death, and real end of life dignity.

In the last few weeks alone, local, national, and international media have picked up (or been offered) several stories sympathetically featuring victims and family members and sugar-coating the ugly reality of assisted suicide.

Just last week I was interviewed by KOMO TV in Seattle, who was doing a feature on Linda Fleming’s family’s response to her assisted suicide. (Linda Fleming, a disabled and low-income woman with pancreatic cancer, was Washington’s first assisted suicide victim. See previous blog entry.) The segment, which aired on local TV news, featured many tragic minutes of Linda Fleming’s daughter speaking about what a good thing her mother’s assisted suicide was, still more time interviewing the doctors who assisted in her suicide and also thought it was a good thing, a statement from Rob Miller from Compassion and Choices speaking still more positive words on Linda’s unnatural death by unnatural means, and several old photos of Linda and her daughter, accompanied by a moving musical soundtrack, totaling, for the TV segment, perhaps 10 minutes (for the internet version of say six minutes).

And, then, as a stark reminder of continuing media imbalance on the issue, about 30 seconds were extracted from a 45 minute interview of me discussing the adverse effects of the media attention glorifying Flemings death by assisted suicide and how the wrong message is being sent to vulnerable ill people and their families, causing many to believe they ‘should’ commit assisted suicide. Hmm. Let’s see. Four people in favor, plus a moving photo tribute, and some really nice music. Opposed? One voice. Less than a minute. And a few truncated quotes.

In another media story, KING TV in Seattle is following a man by the name of Tory Plaisance, who wants to sign up and receive a lethal overdose under Washington’s so-called Death with Dignity Act. Just one unexpected problem turned up in the glowing feature: Tory Plaisance isn’t actually terminally ill after all (at least right now). Turns out that perhaps Tory used to qualify for the Act but doesn’t any longer. Apparently a recent CT scan shows his tumor decreased and his condition improving. Tory’s situation showcases one of the law’s major problems: the unreliability of terminal diagnoses for determining who qualifies to receive a lethal prescription. According to KING 5, “his plans” (for a death by assisted suicide) “have been complicated by a recent positive diagnosis.” Tory’s response to this news: “That’s just how I’m kind of torn right now, like ‘Yay I could live’ and ‘Damn I could live.”

Let’s review this: even with all the nifty-stricty safeguards in the Act, Tory could’ve already received and taken a lethal drug overdose, in which case he’d be way dead—without even being terminally ill. And yet he’s alive, working five days a week, watching his softball team, taking care of his cat, and living life, albeit with serious illness and some limitations.

Tory’s tragic story—one in which the good news of not being terminally ill is described as a complication impeding his wish to receive assisted suicide—should alert us the horrific abuses involved marketing assisted suicide as the only ‘peaceful’ death alternative to people who are ill, vulnerable, and alone. People who are ill experience depression and discouragement at times. As do the rest of us. Life, after all, is not easy or without struggles. Ambivalence, fear, and loneliness are also a part of life—including the lives of people who are ill and their caregivers—which is exactly why people who are ill and their loved ones are so vulnerable to the exploitation and subtle coercion of this lethal new law and to the media marketing campaign surrounding it’s use.

Glorifying death by intentional barbiturate overdose while setting up natural death as the ‘straw man’ of horror and agony is as manipulative as it is just plain wrong. And Washingtonians—and people everywhere deserve ‘the rest of the story.’ But we aren’t getting it—not in the least.

What else aren’t we seeing in the media?

Well, there sure aren’t a plethora of features on ill people and their families who are choosing natural death, news crews ‘following’ those who choose not to participate in assisted suicide or those who give or receive excellent end of life care and community and hospice support. Nor are they interviewing poor and disabled people who feel they have ever fewer care options aside from assisted suicide, especially with Washington State’s draconian cuts to basic health care and caregiving assistance. They are not interviewing those unfortunate ill persons who feel they might be a burden to their families and thus should ‘get out of the way’ via a sacrificial suicide or those who may be coerced by people who’d rather they die than live. In short, the real story of assisted suicide in Washington State and elsewhere has yet to be told.

And people continue to die as a result.

The legalization of assisted suicide is both a tragedy and a travesty, not only for Linda Fleming and Tory Plaisance, but for all those in Washington State and elsewhere who are, or who will be, victimized by the marketing of assisted suicide as compassion and choice, rather than what it really is, exploitation and coercion. I feel abiding sorrow that Linda Fleming was a victim of this merciless and lethal  law.  And I offer my condolences and sincere regret for all those in Washington, Oregon, and elsewhere who have thus far died unnaturally, prematurely, and unnecessarily by assisted suicide violence masquerading as choice.

1 Comment

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  By Jack, July 13, 2009 @ 11:14 am

  Nice job Eileen!

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