In the Netherlands, where euthanasia is legal, reports circulate
regularly about elderly people refusing to go to the hospital for fear
that a physician will deem their life unworthy. The “right to die” quite
easily becomes the “obligation to die” once physicians start becoming
judge and executor.
James A. Avery, MD, The Daily Progress.
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http://www.dailyprogress.com/starexponent/opinion/reader-s-views-physician-assisted-suicide-is-a-bad-idea/article_b7904700-a6fc-11e4-9979-f3c89d8d588b.html
READER'S VIEWS: Physician-assisted suicide is a bad idea
Posted: Thursday, January 29, 2015 12:00 am
READER'S VIEWS: Physician-assisted suicide is a bad idea James A.
Avery, MD The Daily Progress
In the dark ages of medicine, physicians routinely ended the life of
their patients. However, since the time of Hippocrates 2500 years ago,
physicians have promised their patients that they will not intentionally
terminate a life.
When, as he wrote in the Decorum, “patients become overmastered by their
disease,” physicians agreed to not hasten or prolong death. “Cure
sometimes, treat often, comfort always” was the basic strategy. Of
course, since that earlier time and, up to today, physicians have always
been tempted to help desperate and despondent patients kill themselves.
Time and time again, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide causes
were championed – only to be ultimately rejected by the medical
profession and almost all cultures.
G. K. Chesterton once said, “Don't ever take a fence down until you know
why it was put up.” Since the time of Hippocrates, medicine has made huge
advances in our ability to control and manage pain. So, I ask, why has
there been a recent effort to take down this fence?
Certainly, the recent highly publicized case of Brittany Maynard, a
winsome and attractive 29 year-old newlywed, has renewed the old tiresome
arguments. Diagnosed with a brain tumor, Brittany moved from California,
where she was born and raised, to Oregon where right-to-die laws are
legal. On November 1, 2014, physicians prescribed a massive dose of
life-ending barbiturates so Brittany could kill herself before many of
the symptoms she feared and imagined could develop. It’s a sad and tragic
story but the conclusion that suicide was the compassionate solution was
even sadder.
As a board-certified hospice physician, I have personally taken care of
many young people with brain tumors. I have found that once the hospice
team addresses their suffering in all dimensions – physical, emotional,
social, and spiritual – and reassures them about the future, anxieties
are reduced and a peaceful death is the norm.
There are many reasons why I oppose physician-assisted suicide but let me
focus on one of them here: it will change the medical profession in a
dramatic and negative way. I don’t believe it is commonly known by most
people that physicians in almost all countries are forbidden from
participating in capital punishment. And, when physicians are inducted
into the military, they do not bear arms. There are fundamental reasons
for this and these go to the heart and soul of medicine: physicians heal
and comfort – they do not kill.
In the Netherlands, where euthanasia is legal, reports circulate
regularly about elderly people refusing to go to the hospital for fear
that a physician will deem their life unworthy. The “right to die” quite
easily becomes the “obligation to die” once physicians start becoming
judge and executor.
Patients want their physicians to care for them without pondering and
considering whether “they are worth the effort”. Taking care of seriously
ill and dying patients is hard work - just ask any physician who does
hospice or palliative medicine. “Assisted suicide is the easy way out for
doctors,” said Johns Hopkins physician, Paul McHugh, “physician-assisted
suicide tears down the time-honored barrier protecting patients from
physician mischief.” Patients want a caring physician who tries his best
to cure, comfort always, reassure them when they are despondent, honor
reasonable wishes, and labor for their good.
So … back to our original question: was poisoning Brittany the best
response a physician can offer a sad, desperate, and frightened young
girl? I, like almost all physicians for the last 2500 years, emphatically
say “no.”
Thirty-seven years ago, I entered medical school with the goal of
reducing human suffering; the years have taught me that the
physician-assisted suicide is not the answer for compassionate end of
life care. The answer, in my view, is skilled compassionate hospice
care.
James A. Avery, MD is the CEO of Hospice of the Piedmont.
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