Virginia legislative panel rejects assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An article published November 8 in the Virginia Mercury by Katie O'Connor, informs us that a Virginia legislative committee rejected a legislative proposal to legalize assisted suicide. The article reported:

Del. Kaye Kory, D-Fairfax, requested that the Joint Commission on Health Care study the medical-aid-in-dying debate, in which a patient with less than six months to live obtains lethal drugs through a physician to end his or her life. 

The commission’s staff developed several options, including a few related to adding a new end-of-life decision-making tool to Virginia’s code, called the “Physicians Orders for Scope of Treatment,” or POST, form. 

It would encourage patients to decide on their treatment preferences with their doctors, and it would then be added to their medical record or a state registry so everyone from first responders to emergency physicians knows the patient’s preferences. 

But all the options were killed, with all the committee’s Republicans, as well as Sen. Rosalyn Dance, D-Petersburg, voting not to make any recommendations on the topic.

The article confirmed that Kory will not be introducing legislation to legalize assisted suicide in Virginia this year.

Virginia will be the first of many states to reject assisted suicide during this legislative cycle.

Better Fed than Dead

The following article was written by Cathy Ludlum and published by the disability rights group Not Dead Yet on their blog.

By Cathy Ludlum

We in the disability community have a stronger appreciation than most people of the opportunities technology can bring.  Power wheelchairs and vans offer us mobility. Voice-activated software and screen readers unleash the power of computers. Environmental control systems allow us to manage things around the house, like opening doors and answering the phone.

But some technologies make it possible for our lives to continue so that we can participate in these activities and more.

Feeding tubes are a lightning rod of controversy throughout our society. People go to court over having them taken out or kept in. There are tearful discussions about life and death, and quality of life. When someone cannot speak for him- or herself, family and medical providers speculate about the person’s wishes.

Typically, advanced care planning programs, including National POLST Paradigm affiliates, describe the risks of tube feeding while minimizing or ignoring the benefits. How can people be expected to make a decision about this life-sustaining technology when so much of the available information is biased? Clearly, more awareness is needed.

People are always shocked when I say that the quality of my life improved dramatically when I got a feeding tube. They are expecting to be supportive around my feelings of loss from the progression of my disability, inability to enjoy table food and eat socially with friends, and the physical discomfort of having a tube in my belly.

I’m sure there are people who have those experiences, but for me getting a feeding tube was a profound relief.

John Kelly, from Not Dead Yet, speaks out on disability and assisted suicide.

John Kelly, a regional director for Not Dead Yet and the founder of the disability rights group: Second Thoughts, who lives with quadriplegia, spoke about disability rights and assisted suicide at the recent Euthanasia Symposium in Toronto Canada.

John Kelly speaking in Toronto

This Youtube video covers the main points from his rousing speech at the Symposium.

Link to the Youtube video.

The talk by Kelly at the Symposium was influenced by his experience with a serious medical emergency the previous night.

Kelly compares his experience with a medical emergency to the recent case of Tim Bowers. One day after a severe accident, Bowers was brought out of sedation and asked if he wanted to die.

Kelly then discusses how his POLST form would affect him in a medical emergency. POLST is the Physician Orders Life Sustaining Treatment form that Americans are being urged to sign.

Kelly then speaks about how our culture demeans people, such as himself, who live with significant disabilities. He discusses current movies that depict, people like himself, in a negative light and then comments on his experience in relation to social attitudes towards people with disabilities.

Kelly concludes his talk by saying:

"That's the way they try to smear us. We're the trouble making disabled people, not the peaceful death loving disabled people that everyone likes to have around"

Please share this Youtube video with everyone who is concerned about issues related to disability and assisted suicide. Link to the Youtube video.

Links to similar articles:

John Kelly responds to online medical survey.

"Assisted suicide: a chilling prospect for disabled people"

Bill 52 is bad medicine for Quebécers with disabilities.

POLST: What is it and why should you oppose it?

By Julie Grimstad

The POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) form is a standard document that, when signed by a designated healthcare professional, dictates whether to withhold or administer certain forms of medical treatment and/or care. POLST is known by different acronyms in various states (MOST, MOLST, POST, etc.). 

A brightly colored form that is very visible in a patient's medical chart, POLST has boxes to check off indicating that a patient does or does not want cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), antibiotics, nutrition and hydration, etc. Trained "facilitators"—usually not physicians—discuss treatment options with patients. After filling out the form with a patient, the facilitator presents it to be signed by a designated healthcare professional—someone who may never have seen or talked to the patient. The completed POLST form is not simply an expression of a patient’s treatment preferences; it is a set of physician's orders which must be followed.

POLST medical orders travel with the patient from one healthcare setting to the next and even home to be followed by EMT's in the event of a medical emergency. The first order in many POLST-type forms is "FIRST follow these orders, THEN contact Physician, Advanced Practice Nurse, or Physician Assistant for further orders if indicated."[i]

POLST is tilted toward non-treatment and can encourage premature withdrawal of treatment from patients who, but for the denial of treatment, would not die. Facilitators present options for treatment as if they are morally neutral, even though certain decisions may lead to euthanasia by omission. Groups that promote euthanasia and assisted suicide, such as Compassion & Choices (formed by the merger of Compassion in Dying—a Hemlock Society spin-off—and End of Life Choices), strongly endorse POLST. This is a big RED FLAG.