Peninsula Daily News News Sources
SEATTLE — An opponent of the state’s new assisted suicide law said he was saddened by the death of Linda Fleming, 66, of Sequim, who was suffering from stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
“Well, we knew it was inevitable [that a terminally-ill patient would use the law], but it just turns my stomach,” said Dan Kennedy, CEO of Human Life of Washington, which opposed the “Death with Dignity” law.
The law was passed as an initiative with a nearly 60 percent yes vote by the state’s voters last November. It went into effect in March.
Washington is the second state, after Oregon, with an assisted suicide law.
Since the law was adopted by Oregon voters in 1997, about 400 people have used it to end their lives.
“When we, as a culture, have come to glorify assisted suicide as a legitimate option for people suffering, it’s a sad day in the state of Washington,” Kennedy told KOMO-TV News.
“We are all opposed to unnecesssary suffering. And if she was suffering, there are certainly drugs and methods and means available to alleviate that.
“So no one who is opposed to assisted suicide is in favor of any kind of suffering, and there’s no need for it.”
Robb Miller, executive director of Compassion & Choices of Washington, a Seattle-based nonprofit that advocated for the Death with Dignity law, told KOMO-TV that the law was an improvement over the way terminally ill patients in Washington had to deal with death in the past.
“Prior to legalization, there was no way to know how many people wanted the option, how many persuaded their physicians to help them,” he said.
Dr. Tom Preston, a retired cardiologist and board member of Compassion & Choices, said Washington’s law adds another option for patients like Fleming.
“The prescribed medication gives patients peace of mind that they can use to take control of their dying if suffering becomes intolerable,” he said in a written statement.
Miller said one positive side effect of the similar law in Oregon has been the increase in use of hospice care for easing pain at the end of someone’s life.
He told KOMO-TV that he expected that the same improvement will be seen in Washington state.
“What this law has really done is allowed people to talk to their physicians about the option of death with dignity — and jump start the conversation about end of life,” Miller said.
But Kennedy of Human Life of Washington told KOMO-TV that he didn’t see it that way.
“There will be a lot of spin by Compassion & Choices and others to try to say what a great thing this is, and I just have to shake my head,” Kennedy said.
In December, a district judge in Montana ruled that doctor-assisted suicides are legal in that state.
That decision, based on an individual lawsuit rather than a state law or voter initiative, is now before the Montana Supreme Court.
While doctors in Montana are allowed to write prescriptions for life-ending drugs pending the appeal, it is unknown whether any actually have, because there is no reporting process in place.
