[Right_to_die] Bad preparation for Washington's new Death With Dignity law

[World right-to-die news (nonprofit)]

The Tri-City Herald.com in Washington State, US, carried this editorial 
comment on 19 Apl 09.  But they're wrong in saying that participating 
doctors will have their names revealed publicly.  It has not happened in 
Oregon unless the doctor has chosen to announce it. D H

	Health care community should have been ready

If a law makes money for the government, all the arrangements to collect 
the dollars seem to be in place the day it takes effect.

So it's odd to learn the voter-approved Death With Dignity Law that took 
effect last month has yet to have a path to fulfillment in our community.

Yes, it's now legal to obtain a prescription for a life-ending drug if 
you are an adult of sound mind and have been diagnosed with a terminal 
disease that will kill you within six months.

The idea is to allow you to take a lethal dose of prescribed pills and 
pass peacefully from this life on your own terms, rather than spending 
your dying days in pain and deteriorating health.

Our law is modeled after a similar one in Oregon, which has been in 
place for 11 years. Fifty-nine doctors there prescribed the life-ending 
drugs to 88 people last year, though not all the patients took the poison.

For some, it's just comforting to know that it's an option if what 
remaining life they have becomes unbearable. It's a model that has been 
in place for years, and should be easy to copy.

But so far, there's no way to take advantage of the law in the Tri-Cities.

One man found out the hard way. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 
two days after the law took effect in March.

This type of cancer is one of the worst. It usually kills, and kills 
quickly after diagnosis.

Seventy-six-year-old Stephen Wallace of Benton City knew the score. And 
he knew the law. He felt his fate was sealed, and he wanted to be the 
one who called the final shot in the comfort of his own home.

So his family spent many frustrating days trying to fulfill his dying 
wish. But Wallace didn't have many days left. And despite the fact that 
the Kadlec Health System and Kennewick Public Hospital District boards 
had voted to let their physicians participate in the program, no one 
could help.

Not local doctors, not politicians, not the state Department of Health. 
The Wallace family was referred to Compassion and Choices of Washington, 
a group dedicated to helping with end of life issues. But the Seattle 
group could offer no help in locating a Mid-Columbia doctor to fill the 
prescription.

Even advocates acknowledge the law is too new for the option to be 
widely available.

Conditions on doctors choosing to participate are onerous, requiring 
them to file paperwork with the government, essentially making their 
participation in the program public record and possibly making the 
physician a target for the law's opponents.

Some doctors also say they object to the legal requirement to list the 
cause of death as the terminal disease, rather than the prescription.

Some public officials believe that there are doctors in the Tri-Cities 
who would like to assist, but the reporting requirements of the law may 
deter them from participating.

All that should have been worked out in the months after voters approved 
the new law, and hospitals should have had adequate procedures in place 
from outset.

Declaring doctor participation in the program acceptable, but then not 
at least having a referral system in place when someone requests the 
service was an avoidable mistake.

Surely, the decade-old Oregon law provides a time-tested model that 
could be adapted here.

Time for Stephen Wallace ran out. The cancer spread to other organs, 
bringing his life to a painful close as he could no longer speak, stand 
or eat.

He died within a month, in a manner he certainly didn't want. Voters 
approved the law to provide another way out for people like Wallace.

If it had been an increase in car tab fees or sales tax, the state 
certainly would have started collecting the second it went into place.

In the end, the law and our health care system failed Wallace, just as 
his body did.

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