A Rose is a Rose By Any Other Name – Or Is it?

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To my surprise, as well as others closely watching California legislation, physician aid in dying became legal last week when Governor Brown signed “The End of Life Option Act.” It all happened quickly and unexpectedly behind closed doors. California became the 5^th state to pass this legislation. The five states in order of legalization are: Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and California. As states continue to put such legislation in place, let’s review the language, or terms, that have been used over time.

We love to consider a rose is a rose by any other name, but is it? Do the words alter your perception of what you are looking at or how you perceive a process? Years ago, as this debate began, the term used was “euthanasia.” But on a closer look we realized it was not appropriate, given that euthanasia is how we end the suffering of animals, and animals have no ability to speak their minds. A person should have the right to make their own choices. The term “physician assisted suicide” came into use (no one knows how it was coined) because having a qualified physician aids in legalizing the process and adds a safeguard for patients. In 2007, Oregon decided to change the language to eliminate the word “suicide” to “physician aid-in-dying,” or PAD, to properly reflect the legal action.

Credit: etonline.com

It’s important to note that there is a distinction between physician assisted suicide and aid in dying, since the patient actually administers their own medication – not the physician. Is a rose a rose by any other name? I will let you mull this over for yourself.

With the recent addition of California under the list of aid in dying states, let’s look closely at the aid in dying laws. To qualify for aid in dying, a person must have a terminal illness that will lead to death in six months or less. Some who are terminally ill are dealing with unbearable pain. When dealing with pain due to a terminal illness, the first course of action is palliative care, or what’s also called comfort care, where medication is administered to ease pain. But in some rare cases certain terminal conditions are so unbearably painful, some elect to choose aid in dying rather then suffer through the pain. There are other reasons a person may choose to elect aid in dying and based on a 1998 study in Oregon, they are:

1. Loss of Autonomy (91%)

2. Loss of Enjoyment (88/9%)

3. Loss of Dignity (80.9%)

4. Loss of Bodily Functions (50.3%)

5. Being a Burden to Loved Ones (40%)

6. Pain (23.7%)

7. Financial Concerns (2/9%)

Safeguards have been put in place for a person with a terminal prognosis to actively elect for aid in dying. In Oregon, the state with the longest physician aid-in-dying history, 2.3 out of 1,000 people receive aid in dying. If you’d like to know the specifics around each state’s physician aid-in-dying laws, here’s a great link to check out.