The wrong answer to a good question

This is an issue I have always been interested in, but I had never really looked into it until initiative 1000 became likely to pass. Then I realized that this was being dealt with entirely wrong. The law that should be passed is one requiring better palliative care (i.e. pain treatments). This type of care is not taught nearly well enough in medical schools, according to Ira Byock, director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

People promoting physician-assisted suicide say that it is an option for suffering people to alleviate their suffering. However, this could be done through a better use of palliative care. From what I have read and learned, as much as 98 percent of terminal and suffering patients could be easily relieved through today’s medicine and technology if it were properly applied.

In addition, even if a patient’s suffering cannot be relieved, it is very easy for the patient to end his or her own life without the physician’s help. This could be done many ways, including not forcing themselves to eat or drink when they don’t feel hungry or thirsty, as the body will accept death long before the mind in most cases, or by not taking the medication that is prolonging their life. In most cases, physician-assisted suicide is only truly requested by patients who are looking for the doctor’s prescription for a lethal medication as a sort of approval that their feeling of helplessness is justified. Passing laws that allow for this sort of thing to continue not only will not solve the true problem that patients are not receiving palliative care, it will also set a precedent that could lead down a very dark path very quickly.

Matthew Giddens

Marysville