Searching for a swifter, gentler death
As a practicing physician for the past 32 years, I have witnessed countless people and their families grapple with a terminal diagnosis, navigate the medical system (consultants, treatments, hospice and palliative care) and finally die.
Sometimes the course is peaceful, but sometimes it is horrific, in spite of all of the current services and medications we have to offer. These patients and families have told me that the most important thing that I have done for them is to take the time to talk, show compassion and, most of all, respect their wishes.
That’s the reason for my testimony before the Connecticut Public Health Committee to endorse the state’s medical aid-in-dying bill Friday; I did the same two years ago in support of New Jersey’s Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act. This New Jersey law took effect in April 2019. Since then, I have devoted my professional time to the advocacy, teaching and the practice of medical aid in dying.
These past 19 months have solidified my commitment to medical aid in dying. Every patient I have met has demonstrated strength, courage, resolve and immense gratitude. Letters from their surviving loved ones describing the events surrounding the planned deaths consistently express feelings of peaceful elation. Families are brought together, and life is celebrated. I feel humbled and honored to have known all of these patients and families and to have felt that I fulfilled my oath as a physician as I performed the ultimate act of compassion.
I have evaluated 43 patients for medical aid in dying. Of those, 27 received prescriptions for aid-in-dying medication, and 14 went through with their planned deaths. What I found remarkable about all of these terminally ill people, with no exceptions, was that they were all extremely clear in their requests; their decisions were made after weeks of discussion and introspection. There was absolutely no evidence of coercion, and all had clear-cut terminal illnesses confirmed by their treating physicians.
In addition, there were no barriers in taking the prescribed medications. We are now prescribing compounded powders easily mixed with liquid to ingest, unlike in the past, when a patient had to open and empty 100 capsules and mix the powder with liquid. All in all, the process has gone smoothly and peacefully in all of the planned deaths.
New Jersey’s positive experience with medical aid in dying mirrors that of the nine other jurisdictions that have authorized medical aid in dying. According to a Journal of Medical Ethics report about the nation’s oldest medical aid-in-dying law, the 1994 Oregon Death with Dignity Act: “Rates of assisted dying in Oregon ... showed no evidence of heightened risk for the elderly, women, the uninsured ... people with low educational status, the poor, the physically disabled or chronically ill, minors, people with psychiatric illnesses including depression, or racial or ethnic minorities, compared with background populations.”
Yes, there are those who leave their deaths to the decisions of their doctors, family or their faith. There are those who fight until the end. But all too many wish for a swifter, kinder and gentler death than they are experiencing.
I believe that those who wish to take autonomous control of their imminent deaths, to decide how and when they will die, should have the right to do so.
I also believe that those physicians who are inclined to support it should be able to offer this compassionate gift to a terminal patient who requests it.
I urge Connecticut lawmakers to pass this bill for anyone in Connecticut with a terminal disease who wishes to decide how and when to die. Time is running out for them.
Terminally ill Connecticut residents should not be forced to move to other states, like nearby New Jersey, Maine or Vermont, that have authorized this compassionate end-of-life care option.
Your ZIP code shouldn’t determine if you have to suffer needlessly at life’s end.