The Slippery Slope of Physician Assisted Dying/Suicide

I’ve been reading (pro and con) articles, blogs, opinions, press releases, news stories, surveys, law suits, legislation, etc. about Death With Dignity Laws and the attempts to pass them from all over the world for the past year and as a result of all I’ve learned I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a slippery slope when it comes to physician assisted dying. In all of the states in the U.S., Canada and other countries where such laws have been passed (in no particular order):

1. There is an increase in palliative and hospice care, and services have expanded and improved to include transitions

2. Medical students are now being trained in pain management and end or life care

3. More doctors are having conversations at the request of their patients about end-of-life care, regardless of whether they get paid

4. More people are having conversations with their families about what they want at the end of their lives

5. More people are talking about death and dying as if it is part of life not as a tragic event nobody wants to think about or plan for

6. More people are getting to die at home in their own warm bed surrounded by their family as they wish instead of in a cold, impersonal ICU hooked up to machines and tubes, surrounded by strangers who wear masks

7. More people are dying peacefully rather than being scared to death about death

8. More people are filling out Advance Healthcare Directives

9. More people are working on their Bucket List, reconciling their lives, asking forgiveness, expressing gratitude, and preparing themselves mentally, emotionally and spiritually for their journey out of their body

9. More emergency room physicians are complying with Advance Healthcare Directives and life or death situations are handled the way even the unresponsive patient wants not the way protocol dictates

10. More people are filling out POLST (physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) forms with their primary physician and are being spared drastic resuscitation measures they don’t want at end of life

11. More chronically disabled people are expressing optimism that they will have more control over their end of life decisions

12. More people are meditating, eating healthier and exercising to improve the quality of the rest of their lives instead of subjecting themselves to invasive life-prolonging, often futile, medical treatments in their last days

13. Fewer people are accumulating huge medical bills at end of life for unwanted invasive medical procedures

14. Fewer dying people are resorting to drastic, messy, inept suicide attempts or homicide/suicide acts that often end in failure and horror for the whole family

15. Physicians are accepting responsibility for being with their patients until the end of their lives instead of abandoning them when there is nothing more they can do medically or when the patient decides to stop medical treatment but wants to continue to be monitored

16. Fewer people are trying impose their morals and values on other people about their end of life choices

17. More people who are near death are requesting assistance from their physicians in case their dying process becomes unbearable… fewer of them actually take the medication because palliative and hospice care are keeping them comfortable longer and allowing more people to experience a more peaceful transition

Good laws need to be written to protect physicians from prosecution and the dying from being killed against their will while allowing release from their body by their consent.

We have to guard against extremes but abide by reason and compassion.