6301 Pali Highway Kaneohe, HI 96744-5224 Phone: 808-203-6704 Fax: 808-261-7022 http://www.hawaiifamilyforum.org

DOCTOR-ASSISTED SUICIDE - BAD FOR HAWAII
Reasons to Oppose Doctor-Assisted Suicide

DUTY TO DIE: The practice of doctor-assisted suicide creates a duty to die. Escalating healthcare costs, coupled with a growing elderly population, set the stage for an American culture eager to embrace alternatives to expensive, long-term medical care. The so-called "right to die" may soon create a dangerous "duty to die" that leads our senior, disabled, and depressed family members into being pressured or coerced into ending their lives. Death may become a reasonable substitute to treatment and care as medical costs continue to rise.

SEEK COMPASSIONATE ALTERNATIVES, NOT DEATH: There are better medical alternatives. Terminally ill patients do not need to suffer a painful death. Today's pain management techniques can provide relief for up to 95 percent of patients, thus offering true death with dignity. [ K.M. Foley, "The Treatment of Cancer Pain," The New England Journal of Medicine (1985): 313, pp. 84-95. I.R. Byock, "Kevorkian: Right Problem, Wrong Solution" [Letter to the Editor], The Washington Post, January 1994, p. A23. D. Colburn, "Assisted Suicide: Doctors, Ethicists Examine the Issues of Pain Control, Comfort Care and Ending Life," The Washington Post, 14 September 1993, p. Z7. ] In addition, these same techniques can lessen pain and other symptoms for all patients. Another alternative is palliative care through hospice, which addresses the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of dying patients and their families.

TREAT DEPRESSION: Doctor-assisted suicide ignores what may be a legitimate cry for help. Suicidal thoughts often indicate the presence of severe depression. A study of terminally ill hospice patients found only those diagnosed with depression considered suicide or wished death would come early. Patients who were not depressed did not want to die. [S. Barakat, J.H. Brown, P. Henteleff, C.J. Rowe, "Is It Normal for Terminally Ill Patients to Desire Death?" American Journal of Psychiatry (1986): 143:2, pp. 208-211. ] Depression can and should be treated.

DESTRUCTION OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PATIENT AND DOCTOR: The practice of Doctor-assisted suicide threatens to destroy the delicate trust relationship between doctor and patient. Every day patients demonstrate their faith in the medical profession by taking medications and agreeing to treatment on the advice of their physicians. Patients trust that the physicians' actions are in their best interest with the goal of protecting life. Doctor-assisted suicide endangers this trust relationship.

OPENING THE DOOR TO ABUSE: Doctor-assisted suicide opens the door to euthanasia abuses. Allowing physicians to cross the line into killing does not stop with willing patients who request it. A case in point is in The Netherlands where doctors have practiced doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia for more than a decade. Two Dutch government reports, conducted in 1990 and 1995, found that, on average, 26 percent of euthanasia deaths in Holland were "without the explicit consent of the patient." In 1995, 21 percent of the patients who were killed without consent were competent. [P.J. Van Der Maas, J.J.M. Van Delden, L. Pijenborg, Euthanasia and Other Medical Decisions Concerning the End of Life (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers, 1992), pp. 73, 75, 181-182. ] [ P.J. Van Der Maas, G. Van Der Wal, I. Haverkate, et al. "Euthanasia, Physician Assisted Suicide, and Other Medical Practices Involving the End of Life in the Netherlands, 1990-1995," New England Journal of Medicine (1996): 335, pp. 1699-1705. ]

BROAD COALITION AGAINST DOCTOR-ASSISTED DEATH: This coalition includes much of Hawaii’s medical community, disability rights community, and those who care for Hawaii’s elderly and dying citizens. On record as being STRONGLY OPPOSED to doctor-assisted death – Hawaii Medical Association, Hawaii Nurses Association, all Hospitals, Nursing Homes, and Hospice Hawaii.

HPACC members are:

• Hawaii Medical Association
• Hawaii Nurses Association
• Healthcare Association of Hawaii
• Hawaii Cancer Pain Initiative
• Not Dead Yet (Disability Rights Organization)
• Disability Rights Hawaii
• Hawaii Centers for Independent Living
• Hawaii Family Forum
• Hawaii Catholic Conference
• Hawaii Right to Life

6301 Pali Highway
Kaneohe, HI 96744-5224
Phone: (808) 203-6704
Fax: (808) 261-7022
hpacc@hpacc.org