First death under new Washington suicide law
OLYMPIA, Wash. – A 66-year-old woman who had stage 4 pancreatic cancer is the first person to die under Washington state’s new assisted suicide law.
Linda Fleming of Sequim died Thursday night after taking drugs prescribed under the “Death with Dignity” law that took effect in March. Assisted suicide group Compassion & Choices of Washington announced Fleming’s death Friday morning.
The organization says Fleming was diagnosed last month with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
The new law was approved in last November’s election with a nearly 60 percent vote. It is based on Oregon’s measure which passed in 1997. Since then, about 401 people have used the Oregon law to end their lives.
Washington and Oregon are the only states to allow assisted suicide.
Full Story Here:
First death under new Washington suicide law
This is a topic that will illicit strong feelings from people. Strong pro and con opinions. It’s a topic that I have written about in the past, Washington weighs lethal meds for terminally ill, and one that I personally have very strong feelings on.
One of the more powerful comments made on the story that I wrote back in October came from Bloviating Zeppelin, and I want to share it with you.
comment number 7 by: Bloviating Zeppelin
October 12th, 2008 at 6:03 PM
I watched my wife’s mother pass away last year of pancreatic cancer, diminishing week by week and day by day, in a small room completely by herself, 350 miles away from us, in a nursing facility. We could only visit on weekends and even then it was an extensive trip. Her last days consisted of her back arched in bed, nasal cannula affixed but still struggling for every breath, mind not present, eyes open and staring — staring for so long and not seeing, that they were completely dry and fixed, like the eyes of someone dead already.I concur, and I likewise have told my wife I don’t want to spend my last days in an artificial, sterile room — someone else’s room. I want to be up in my cabin, my last sight that of my bed, my room, the surrounding pines. And if there’s no one home upstairs well, then, do as I’ve asked.
There are many on the religious right that would be completely against this and will quite likely castigate Bloviating Zeppelin and myself, and a few others in the comments of the original post, but as I said prior, I am NOT trying to push MY beliefs off on others, but I’ll be damned if I am going to allow the American Taliban to push theirs off on me.
Death With Dignity is, in MY opinion, a right and an option that should be extended to ALL terminally ill Americans. It is not something that should be left up to the American Taliban to decide based simply on their beliefs and/or teachings. We are guaranteed the right of freedom of religion in this nation, we also need to be assured that we can live our lives with freedom FROM religion as well.
Perhaps this is where my libertarian side comes out to play. I will defend your right to stand and say a prayer or recite the Pledge of Allegiance, your right to ask me, ASK me to join you in such, but if you demand that I stand and join you, that is when we do battle! It’s that simple.
I may very well have NO choice regarding the manner in which I die, that decision is simply up to God. I may meet death in an accident, a natural disaster, a violent confrontation with libber moonbats, who knows. But if I’m on my death bed because of a terminal illness, I don’t want to lie there and become a cause celeb like Terry Schiavo. That is MY choice. It is MY body. It is MY life. If I am in a state of being unable to recover and live life with some degree of dignity, it is MY death and MY choice.
I know that I’m not going to persuade anyone to support this “Death with Dignity” for terminally ill patients that isn’t already pretty well convinced, but I will ask ALL of you to do this. If you don’t have a living will or an advanced directive on file with your doctor(s), a lawyer, a family member or someone that can act in your stead in your time of need, GET IT DONE NOW! Make your own decisions and make YOUR wishes known! Don’t put that responsibility off on loved ones that may be more inclined to act from the heart.
A living will could not be more important. My Grandpa had a stroke and was in a comma until he died. My Dad told us he wouldn’t want to live that way if it happens to him, so no machines. It’s a tough choice to make, but it’s his.
As I typify myself, I am a Conservative with a dash of Libertarian mixed in as I see fit. Both my parents were lucky in terms of their deaths; they passed away relatively quickly, in a hospital for only a few days. They did not pass on in the fashion of my mother-in-law — which, as I describe above, was torturous; she was horribly jaundiced, roughly a THIRD of her original weight, eyes yellow as well. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, couldn’t blink. She was in a nursing home/hospice situation, completely depersonalized, and her local family came by to visit very infrequently. We came every weekend from quite some distance. Her last week her back was arched in an unbelievable permanent positional rictus, and she had gone without blinking so long that her eyes, fixed open, were visibly drying and wrinkled. She appeared dead but her heart still beat, barely.
All I know is this, TF: I do NOT want to exit this life like that.
And here is what I finally want: to be cremated. I want my ashes put in a coffee can and placed in an open boxcar on the local Union Pacific railroad. I want to spend a few miles going from state to state in that boxcar.
BZ
I may be a member of the religious right but this subject is where I must raise my hand and insert a big “BUT!”
Yes, death is not our call. But then again, “living” when the mind has already left is not life but an artificial exercise in medical technology, saying “See? We can keep the body alive indefinitely!” And that, in effect, is thumbing your nose at the Creator, saying that He no longer controls death (or, the end of life).
When it is apparent that “life” is merely hanging on to a body that is no longer any use to the (former?) occupant, then the body should be allowed to cease functioning. In this case, a “No Heroic Measures” note on the chart along with the living will of that person should be adhered to and honored.
My wife knows that the end of my life will come without any mechanical aids – that is, nothing extending my life. Yes, it’s a tough choice, but I don’t want to be an exhibit that people come to visit and ogle while I am trying to exit with dignity.
Living in the Northwest and being surrounded by libbers gives me pause when looking at the death with dignity acts in both WA and OR. The left coast is deeply immersed in liberal BS and self gratification no matter who it hurts.
If you can get at least 3 doctors of different offices to confirm the terminal diagnosis, then I would have some level of acceptance. Doctors are often wrong and we are talking about your life. Don’t make a decision on an emotional whim. Verify! Verify! Verify!
Cary points out the obvious: one should most definitely possess a living will and a medical power of attorney ascribed to an immediate loved one. My father had the “no heroic measures” and a DNR attached to his chart. The individual should be making the determination, ideally, quite some time prior to the final event.
BZ
If the County won’t let me have a “viking funeral” on my pontoon boat in Cedar Creek Lake, then, I approve medically induced supervised death, then cremation, and someone can spread my ashes from the pontoon boat.
Well said Fred. I have a living will, am an organ donor, and will defend the right to do both for anyone who wants to. I pray that when God calls me back to his loving embrace, it will be with dignity and comfort surrounded by my loved ones in joy. Is that too much for one to ask for during an illness or pending death?
This is an issue that I was very involved in when I lived back in Colorado. We, as in Libertarians, and Republicans that had evolved into libertarianism, fought like hell for the Living Wills Act and the DNR law.
I would fully support a “Death with Dignity” law.
That’s about all this retired Paramedic has to say on the subject…
Like most people, I’ve had to grapple with mixed feelings about this issue. I’m very hard line in my personal beliefs about both abortion and euthanasia. However.
Both my parents went relatively quickly–not exactly painlessly, but they didn’t linger. NEITHER of them had wills or funeral plans and only my father had a DNR, but he died at home, 45 minutes after my plane landed when I went to see him. Nor were these uneducated people–they were very well educated, but neither wanted to “think about such morbid subjects”.
Since that time, I have written out what is known as “holographic” instructions–down to the last detail of my funeral, my lots are paid for, my will is reviewed every six months to a year–I’m an organ donor (with specified limits) and a marrow donor. I have advance directives–NOT A DNR THEY ARE DIFFERENT–in place and my family knows exactly, EXACTLY where the documents are and just when to “pull the plug” because I’ve spelled it out for them.
I did my research as well into donating my organs (some people don’t realize your organs can be used not to save someone’s life but for mechanical tests like crash limits, etc by car companies–UNLESS YOU SPECIFY EXACTLY HOW YOUR ORGANS ARE TO BE USED). I did my research into the advance directives and my family knows I am NEVER to be left alone and randomly given “pain medication to ease my suffering” without someone in my family overseeing the dosage (again, doctor “overdoses” are common so they can get those organs quicker).
The point is, I don’t want to be a burden on anyone. I also want my organs and ‘gifts” being used for PEOPLE who need them, not for industry to test. I don’t want to be “accidentally” overdosed to open up that bed for the next wallet the hospital needs to rape. So I took a deep breath, did my research, compiled and planned my estate, review it periodically, make sure all who need to know DO know where the documents are (including duplicates if they lose their copies). I faced that morbid thought. After all, we all will die–there’s no getting out of life alive. I want it to be on my terms without my family suffering needlessly.
It’s the height of irresponsibility not to plan this for yourself–each and every one of us. I can only speak for myself on this, though–I can’t speak for others.
Just my two cents worth.
Just another comment, after 25 years of working around probate,estate, and tax issues. DO NOT keep these documents in a safety deposit box at the bank! Have many copies and tell a few of your friends where they can be found. Your spouse or close relatives may not be available when you need them.
Another detail- when my father passed I took the docs to the hospital -no “extrordinary measures” -DNR These CYA idiots didn’t find the medical instructions ’cause it was on the back of the page. Financial stuff on the front – medical stuff on the back. They said there was no medical instruction so they were going to hook him up to all the machines. I turned the page over. They
then said “OK, he can die now”. No apologies for that stupidity.
Make sure the people who read the papers can actually read. I might think this story was funny if it wasn’t true, and hadn’t happened to me.
I certainly do not want any “heroic measures” taken to extend my life in a situation like BZ described. I had a friend who was in the last stages of terminal colon cancer when it was diagnosed. She chose not to have any treatment at all …only something for the pain. She died four weeks later having been in hospice care for the last two weeks.
My question is, when a person who has Alzheimers doesn’t recognize anyone she has known for years and cannot dress or feed herself but her body is still quite healthy … If that person made it clear when her mind was sound that she doesn’t want to live that way….should she be given something to make her die? Or, is that different? There is no recovering from Alzheimers as I understand it. Just asking.
Bluebonnet Sue, I would think that in it’s literal interpretation, IF a person has expressed a certain regimen of medical *do and don’t do* for themselves while still very much able to do so, then once that person became mentally infirm those wishes should be carried through in MY opinion…
I am sure that many are thinking about a *moral* issue, a God issue, many things, but you know, I really don’t give a damn what those folks have to say. If they have ever watched, helplessly, as a loved one died in excruciating pain, or having lost all control of their faculties, or BOTH, and all they could do is wring their hands and say, “We’re praying for him”, those are the idiots I don’t want anywhere near me and mine…
If I am of reasonably sound mind and I have made my wishes known to my family, my doctors, my lawyer, made those wishes crystal clear, I expect them to be carried out and I expect to be allowed to die with some degree of dignity, not laying there in a pile of shit or pissed all over myself, in great pain and unable to do and/or care for me in any way with a tube feeding me and a machine breathing for me.
That is NOT living, and here’s the real deal in MY opinion, I know we’re NOT God, but if some of these folks that are so set against euthanasia are SO believing, why are they so afraid to turn loose and go on to the next level?? If they are the believers they claim to be, isn’t a dignified death and then that supposed afterlife in heaven the ultimate payoff??
Only some sick minded, delusional Catholic would sit back and say some shit like, “Well, he’s paying for all his sins in life now, he is serving penance through his pain and suffering, I don’t know what he did to make God punish him so, but he’s paying for ALL of his wrongs”, and those are words I have heard said… When my father was dying…
That is the kind of ridiculous bullshit statement that turns so many away from RELIGION, the asshats that use the all inclusive, “It’s God’s will” as if that’s supposed to make it better when some poor bastard is dying of massive burns to his entire body, or is lying there eaten up with cancer.
Yeah, it’s “God’s will” if the poor son of a bitch is suffering but to the moral hypocrites YOU are a murderer if you do anything to alleviate that suffering…
Since there seems to be some confusion:
Charley, I’m one of those “idiots” so bear with me…
Putting final wishes into an AD is all fine and dandy, but, a separate DNR needs to be made out. If you are ill, and near death, keep it near your bed. In all states it has to be signed by you. In most states it also has to be signed by a Physician.
Please note that resuscitation has to be NOW, not later, and that Paramedics are required to follow protocols, by law, that side on the side of life. Bury the information on page 43 of 155 and you just might be waking up with a tube in your throat. So follow the KISS rule. Just have it say, something like “I (name) desire that in the event that I stop breathing or become pulse less no CPR or advanced life support be provided. Near the bottom should be your signature and that of your attending Physician, dated, and notarized if possible.
Now, for Charley: Don’t be running around waving life insurance papers while screaming at the “Idiots” not to bring the person back. I had that happen on three occasions, and two of those involved later went to prison. I was an “idiot” and followed my instincts as well as the law.
Fred! Please don’t lump all of us Catholics in with the bad ones! I’m a staunch Catholic myself, BUT I tend to drive my priest (an absolute good man, total exception to the evil in the priesthood) absolutely bonkers with all my questions and situations and such. I love my faith, but I have a tendency to question a whole lot. I know you don’t mean to put down ALL Catholics, and you’ve had some HORRIFIC experiences, there’s no denying that at all, nor would I even attempt to minimize them in any way. But please–some of us are decent! And, some of us, like me, DO question and think and struggle with issues like this because they are REAL issues not hypothetical mental masturbation. They effect so many people on so many levels. I don’t trust doctors and hospitals and that’s why I’ve specified things the way I have. I also don’t want my family to go through their own personal hells of “what if” and “should I or shouldn’t I”–that’s not fair to THEM and them continuing in their lives. So I did what I did for my own selfish reasons and to alleviate THEIR suffering when I’m gone.
I had to put aside “God’s Law” and think in terms of human law, human emotions and feelings and try NOT to do to my family what my parents did to us and what they put us through, albeit unintentionally. And that’s just ONE of the ways I drive my priest totally NUTS.
@Patrick Sperry,
The living will I mentioned in my comment was drafted by my father himself.
He was an attorney and knew how to do it correctly. His was one many of hundreds he drafted during his career. I have nothing but the utmost respect for first responders like yourself.
The point I was trying to make was that the hospital administrative people didn’t look at the back of the page. No EMTs were involved in this at all. There also was no life insurance motive in any of what I related. If you have had to deal with something like that I’m very sorry. Your implication is extremely insulting.