By Moe Wosepka, Executive Director
Montana Catholic Conference

Compassion & Choices, formerly known as the Hemlock Society, is the organization promoting physician-assisted suicide in Montana. You may have seen their television commercials and newspaper advertisements, or heard representatives speak at events, advocating PAS as every Montanans’ end-of-life “choice.” But how much of a “choice” is physician-assisted suicide, really?

In Oregon and Washington, where physician-assisted suicide is legal, several cases strongly suggest this “choice” is not true choice, but the result of persons being steered toward suicide. Coercion to commit suicide may come from a family member, a friend, an insurance company or even a doctor, but under the guise of the legalized “choice” of physician-assisted suicide.

Consider the following instances from Oregon: Kate Cheney1 was an 85-year-old with early stage dementia. When her physician declined to give her a prescription for lethal drugs, under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, her managed-care provider found another physician willing to do so. Counseling to determine her capacity was then sought, to ensure the patient was competent in making her request. The psychiatrist concluded Ms. Cheney was not eligible for assisted suicide because she was not explicitly seeking it herself, but rather her daughter seemed to be coaching her request. Nevertheless, Kate Cheney soon received and used the lethal drugs, dying of assisted suicide under Oregon’s law.

Barbara Wagner2 is another patient steered toward physician-assisted suicide, this time by her insurance provider. She was an advanced lung cancer patient in need of costly new medication. Instead of simply declining coverage for the necessary medication, a letter from her insurer, the Oregon Health Plan, administered by the state of Oregon, explained that in lieu of covering the medication, it would cover drugs for physician-assisted suicide. Fortunately, Ms. Wagner continued her fight and did not succumb to the coercion to kill herself.

Dr. Charles Benz, a physician in Oregon, wrote about his experience with physician-assisted suicide for the Hawaii Reporter online edition on Feb. 13, 20093. Dr. Benz cared for a 76-year-old man who had a sore on his arm that was diagnosed as malignant melanoma. Dr. Benz had known this patient and his wife for over a decade.

The patient was an avid hiker and as the disease progressed, he was not able to pursue his outdoor activities. He then became depressed, which Dr. Benz noted in his charts. The patient asked his cancer specialist to provide the drugs for physician-assisted suicide. The specialist in turn asked Dr. Benz to provide the second opinion required by Oregon law. The specialist told him she knew from considerable experience that “barbiturate overdoses work very well for this type of patient.”

Dr. Benz adamantly refused to provide a second opinion because “assisted suicide was not appropriate for this patient, and I did not concur.”

He told the cancer specialist that he was concerned about the patient’s mental state and suggested addressing the patient’s “underlying issues.” The specialist, however, went elsewhere to get the required second opinion, and within two weeks the patient was dead of an overdose of barbiturates.

The death certificate listed the death as melanoma, which Dr. Benz says is “…not accurate. My patient did not die from his cancer, but at the hands of a once-trusted colleague.” He says the decision has affected his trust of his colleagues, raising the question, “If your doctor and/or HMO favors assisted suicide will they let you know about all possible options or will they simply encourage you to kill yourself?”

Did Dr. Benz’s patient truly have a choice, as his cancer specialist, seemingly eager to address his needs via physicianassisted suicide, did not address his underlying depression? Did Ms. Cheney truly have a choice, given her daughter’s influence?

Legalizing physician-assisted suicide in Montana is a prescription for abuse and coercion. It does not provide an end-of- life choice, but gives away the choice, to another.


Footnotes
  • 1 Erin Barnett, “A family struggle: Is Mom capable of choosing to die?” Oregonian, Oct. 17, 1999. See also /www.dredf.org/assisted_suicide/18_Oregon_abuses.pdf, “Some Oregon Assisted Suicide Abuses and Complications.”
  • 2 Susan Donaldson James, “Death Drugs Cause Uproar in Oregon” ABC News, Aug. 6, 2008, available at http://abcnews. go.com/Health/story?id=5517492&page=1. See also Susan Harding, “Health plan covers assisted suicide but not new cancer treatment” KVAL-TV, July 31, 2008, available at http://www.kval.com/news/26140519.html
  • 3 Charles Benz, M.D., “Don’t Follow Oregon’s Lead: Say No to Assisted Suicide,” Hawaii Reporter, Feb. 13, 2009, available at www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?4048b066-5612-4ede-86d6-c7fd385703d1.



Moe Wosepka is the executive director of the Montana Catholic Conference. He may be reached by phone at 406-442-5761 or by e-mail to director@montanacc.org.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 5, May 21, 2010.