“I predict that as more people suffer from dementing illnesses, we will undoubtably cross a threshold and finally witness significant changes.” — Lewis Cohen, MD
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A family practice physician explains why she changed her mind about Medical Aid in Dying.
“Opponents of Death-with-Dignity (DWD) laws use several falsehoods in their attempts to prevent legislation from passing. We believe policy decisions affecting people with terminal illness should be made based on evidence and the actual content of the legislation.”
“New legislation and court judgments are further expanding access to MAID, some bringing new and different twists.”
“One facility used the term “provider-hastened death” and stated that it encompasses euthanasia.”
It’s time that we revise and refine our cultural lexicon around this emergent end-of-life practice. A medically assisted death definitively warrants a linguistic and conceptual category of its own.
In 2019, three community women asked to meet with me about a compelling community education concern. The spouses of these women had all struggled to use the VSED end-of-life option because our county’s only hospital, and associated hospice program, had religious affiliations and, therefore, was unable to support VSED.
After he died, Jean and her sister both looked at one other and said, “That’s how I’m going to die.”
I hope others might be inspired to hold frank and open conversations about fundamental questions most of us will face. It would be so much less lonely for us all.
“Medical aid in dying should not be proscribed by society’s laws or condemned by its mores.”
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