ISLAND VOICES
Assisted suicide deserved a hearing

Roland L. Halpern is with Compassion In Dying of Hawai'i.

I just had the rather unpleasant task of contacting my clients to let them know that Hawai'i's "death with dignity" bill did not get a hearing this year.

My clients, all of whom are dying, had been hoping that Hawai'i, like Oregon, would finally pass a law that allowed a competent and terminally ill adult the right to ask for a lethal dose of medication to hasten their death and thus end what is often prolonged suffering.

What might have happened if the law passed?

Rather then speculate, we can look to Oregon. In its five years of experience with assisted dying, there has not been a single documented case of abuse, nor did opponents' claims that Oregon would become a suicide haven ever materialize. What did occur was a tremendous improvement in end-of-life care.

The terminally ill began receiving better treatment through increased use of pain-relieving drugs, increased hospice referrals and the creation of more special-care units. Lifting the stigma of assisted dying made patients more comfortable in approaching their physicians about end-of-life concerns.

Physicians reported that following the required counseling, which includes presenting patients with other options such as hospice, palliative care and better pain management, roughly 46 percent changed their minds about wanting a hastened death. Of those patients who actually received the medication, less than half used it.

It was also no coincidence that following passage of the Oregon law, surveys showed that 88 percent of physicians claimed they had made efforts to improve their knowledge of the use of pain medication, 76 percent sought to improve their ability to recognize psychiatric illnesses such as depression and 86 percent reported that their confidence in the use of pain medication had improved.

For the second year in a row, polls showed that over 70 percent of Hawai'i's voters believe a competent and terminally ill adult should have the right to ask a physician's assistance in hastening their death.

But for now, at least in Hawai'i, many of our terminally ill must either endure the pain or find some clandestine means to end their lives. "There's always next year," I say, trying to reassure another client. "I'll be dead by then," was his reply.