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Death with Dignity
by Rosemary
Musachio, columnist for Sun Newspapers (Cleveland, Ohio)
and editor of Ability Age (www.ability-age.com)
Last July the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) celebrates its tenth anniversary. To
millions of persons with disabilities including myself, The ADA has represented better
lives for us. It has opened the door to more job opportunities, better access to
businesses, improved housing options, and fewer attitudinal barriers. Unfortunately,
the ADA also has given us an equal right to die.
That's right, it's ok for persons with disabilities to take their own lives under
the ADA, at least in Oregon. In 1997, this West Coast state enacted
the Death with Dignity Act that allows terminally ill patients to request, from their
physicians, lethal medication to be self-administered. Under the act, the patient
must make two oral and one written requests for the prescription. He or she also
must have an illness with a six-month life expectancy. If patients are incompetent
to make the decision to die due to psychological impairment, they then receive counseling.
Patrick Matheny decided to take advantage of the Death with Dignity Act because he
could no longer live with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). His ALS caused
Matheny great difficulty in breathing and swallowing, apparently so much difficulty that
he couldn't tolerate it anymore. His ALS also affected his muscles and coordination,
which prevented him from self-administering the lethal dosage. So, when he received
the barbiturates from the Oregon Health Science University, his brother-in-law helped him die.
Because authorities didn't bother to investigate further-perhaps because they place
little value on persons with disabilities-we can only speculate that Matheny's
broth-in-law gave him a lethal injection or "held the straw" for him while he
drank the dissolved dose. Up until now, no charges have been filed against the
brother-in-law.
Because the Oregon death law is based on the patient's
self-administering the lethal dosage, the law discriminates against persons who cannot
self-administer the drugs and thus defies the ADA. According to the disability act,
persons with disabilities cannot be denied access to state programs and services tha are
available to others. So, the Oregon Death with Dignity law must provide reasonable
accommodations as mandated by the ADA. In this case, reasonable accommodations
means letting someone else give the patient a lethal injection as Matheny's brother-in-law
could have done.
Even though proponents of the ADA are correct in saying that the Oregon Death
with Dignity Act discriminates against persons with disabilities, they are opening the
door to ways to give up on them more easily. In the Matheny case, for example, the
patient could have taken medications and treatments to lessen his breathing difficulties
and make the remainder of his life livable; that is, if Matheny's doctor even consulted
him about these options. He could have used cough suppressants, mucolytics,
bronchodilators, inhalation and mist treatments, or respiratory therapy to make his lungs
clearer.
Since the Oregon Health Plan for the poor and the disabled places restrictions on pain
treatment, however, he couldn't be treated with any of those. Of course, they could
afford to give Matheny a lethal dose of barbiturates at a cost of $30 to $60 to help kill
him. But the state couldn't afford to prolong his life as comfortably as possible at
a cost of hundreds of dollars per day. Considering that the Oregon Health Plan
denies payment for 171 services, Matheny probably had insufficient personal care, too.
Apparently, this state doesn't think lives of disabled persons with terminal
illnesses are worth maintaining.
To date, Oregon has reported forty-two assisted suicides
among persons with disabilities. But that number may be much higher since Oregon's Registration Unit Center for Health Statistics restricts employees from
reporting the actual number of physician-assisted suicides. Furthermore, even though
Oregon's Death with Dignity Law requires doctors to
submit a form when a physician-assisted suicide occurs, there is no penalty if the doctor
fails to report on the death.
Of those assisted suicides, many were probably unwanted by the patients themselves.
Take the case of Kate Cheney, for instance, who had dementia and terminal cancer at
85. Although she was not eligible for the Death with Dignity Act because of her
cognitive impairment and because her cancer was discovered only a few months previously,
her daughter pressured a doctor to administer a lethal dose to Mrs. Cheney.
If supporters of the ADA continue to fight for equal access to
assisted suicide laws, then we risk not having access to the benefits of life.
Instead of promoting access to a death law, advocates of the ADA should denounce Oregon for their inaccessible health care policies.
They should also ardently support the passage of the Pain Relief Promotion Act,
which allows the use of federally controlled substances to alleviate suffering and not to
perform euthanasia. Access to better lives should be ADA's focus, not a resolution to die.
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