Analysis
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
In a letter to Catholics last year, Bishop Larry Silva pointed out the striking irony of a law that would permit what has been genteelly called “death with dignity.”
“Proponents speak of the autonomy of the individual to make his or her own choice about when to die,” the bishop wrote. “Yet now, in the name of ‘autonomy’ one must have the permission of one’s doctor, lawyer and legislature. Seeking such societal approval betrays full autonomy and exposes the fact that, deep down, people know this is not something good.”
“The authority of others is being sought to give permission for what is against our human nature.”
After two decades of tempting Hawaii citizens with the lure of state-authorized suicide for dying people, lawmakers seem ready to grant that “permission.”
A bill currently making its way through the State Legislature goes further down the euphemism path, labelling the proposed law the “Our Care, Our Choice Act.”
The Catholic Church has long and vigorously fought such legislation, calling it what it is — “physician-assisted suicide.”
Last week, two committees of the state House of Representatives advanced to the full House HB2739 HD1, a bill that would allow a terminally ill adult resident to obtain a prescription for a lethal dose of medication from a physician to end his or her own life.
Deacon Walter Yoshimitsu, director of the Hawaii Catholic Conference, in testimony Feb. 27 before the Health and Human Services Committee and the Judiciary Committee, said physician-assisted suicide “can undermine the physician’s role as healer, forever alter the doctor-patient relationship, and lessen the quality of care provided to patients at the end of life.”
Quoting from the American Medical Association, which also opposes such efforts, Yoshimitsu said that assisted suicide is “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role” and would be “difficult or impossible to control.”
The practice “can blur longstanding medical, moral and legal distinctions between withdrawing extraordinary medical assistance and taking active steps to destroy human life,” Yoshimitsu said. “One lets people die a natural death; the other is the deliberate and direct act of hastening death.”
He warned that it could “lead to psychological, financial and other pressures for vulnerable persons to end their lives.”
With the escalating cost of health care today, “assisted suicide could easily rise to the level of the most acceptable, and even expected, ‘treatment’ for terminal illness,” he said.
“Assisting in a person’s death is not medical treatment, no matter how it is spun,” Yoshimitsu said. “In Hawaii, everyone, especially our kupuna, deserves better than a doctor who dispenses pills to intentionally cause death.”
Patients are better served, he said, with support and care, pain management and treatment for depression, and “not lethal doses of drugs.”
14,000 signatures
Last month Bishop Larry Silva asked Hawaii parishioners to sign a petition in support of efforts to both oppose physician-assisted suicide and significantly reduce all suicides in Hawaii.
According to Eva Andrade, communications director for the Hawaii Catholic Conference, more than 14,000 signatures have been collected, mostly from Catholic churches, but from other churches as well.
Besides the Hawaii Catholic Conference, organizations submitting testimony against HB2739 HD1 included Concerned Women for America of Hawaii, American Nurses Association, National Association of Pro-Life Nurses, Hawaii’s Partnership for Appropriate and Compassionate Care, Patients’ Rights Action Fund, Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor, Not Dead Yet, Emmanuel Lutheran Church and Schools of Maui, A Place for Women in Waipio, St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii, Choice is an Illusion, Hawaii Family Forum, Marana tha Ministries Inc., Hawaii Life Alliance, Advocates for the Mentally Ill, and a large number of individuals.
HB2739 HD1 requires “confirmation by two health care providers of the patient’s diagnoses, prognosis and medical decision-making capacity, and the voluntariness of the patient’s request.”
It also demands that a counselor determine the patient is “capable, and does not appear to be suffering from undertreatment or nontreatment of depression or other conditions which may interfere with the patient’s ability to make an informed decision.”
A patient must be a Hawaii resident, make two oral requests for the drugs at least 20 days apart, and submit a signed, written request witnessed by two people, one of whom is not a relative or beneficiary of the patient.
The bill calls for “strict criminal penalties” for anyone who coerces a terminally ill person to request a prescription.
The bill states that the patient is under no obligation to fill the prescription or use the drugs, and may cancel the request at any time.
The proposed legislation was scheduled for a vote by the entire House on March 6, after which it would move over to the Senate for committee hearings and a vote.
If approved by the Senate the bill would proceed to the desk of Gov. David Ige, who promised to sign it.
“It’s time for this bill to become law,” the governor said in a Feb. 27 statement. “Mentally competent, terminally ill people who are in pain and who are suffering should be given the choice to end their lives with grace, dignity and peace. I would be proud and honored to sign this bill into law if our state legislators pass this measure this session.”
At least 30 states have considered physician-assisted suicide laws, but only five have passed such legislation. They are Oregon, Washington, California, Vermont, and Colorado, plus the District of Columbia
