Support passage of medical aid-in-dying law
Opponents of medical aid in dying, the end-of-life care option that allows terminally ill patients to end unbearable suffering, argue this option isn’t needed, the safeguards aren’t enforceable and there are better alternatives.
The tearful, gut-wrenching testimony of supporters before the legislature’s Public Health Committee last month about the painful deaths of husbands, wives, mothers, fathers and loved ones says otherwise.
Proven track records of medical aid-in-dying laws in Washington, D.C., and 10 states across the country, including nearly 25 years in Oregon, show no evidence of misuse or malfeasance.
Supporting medical aid in dying doesn’t preclude supporting palliative and hospice care. All are valued and much-needed end-of-life care options. In fact, Connecticut lawmakers also are considering a hospice improvement bill ( SB 1075) to direct the Department of Public Health to establish, in collaboration with a hospital in the state, a Hospice Hospital at Home pilot program to provide hospice care to patients in the home through a combination of in-person visits and telehealth.
At last month’s public hearing on both that hospice improvement bill and an Act Concerning Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients ( SB1076), supporter after supporter, some of whom have testified repeatedly over the years, told their heartbreaking stories.
Farmington resident Jill Hammerberg had promised her late husband, who was terminally ill with prostate cancer, that medication would lessen his pain. On the last night of his life, it was not nearly enough.
“The powerful medication given to me to administer when such a time came provided no comfort for a seeming eternity. Holding him close, trying to absorb some of the agony, I whispered ‘I’m sorry I broke my promise. I thought it would be enough,’” Hammerberg said.
Others spoke for themselves.
Bridgeport resident Lynda Bluestein, who is living with a terminal cancer diagnosis, said end-of-life options are no longer a theoretical question for her, and she prays that lawmakers will pass the bill this year.
“I want to be able to look forward to an end of life where I will be able to remain in my home, surrounded by my husband, my children, and grandchildren, as well as my neighbors, friends, caregivers, and members of my faith community,” Bluestein said.
Connecticut’s proposed legislation is modeled after the time-tested Oregon law, with even more safeguards, that would make it the strictest in the country, including requiring two written requests, two witnesses to both requests, and a mandatory mental health evaluation.
Experience across the country with medical aid-in-dying laws has shown that fears of abuse have never been realized. If there had been any documented evidence of abuse, why have there been no arrests or convictions for abuse?
Among those fears, its availability would prompt overuse. But the opposite has proven true.
Since its passage nearly 25 years ago in Oregon and following that in 10 other jurisdictions, less than 6,400 people across the country have utilized this end-of-life care option.
At the same time, the use of hospice care among Medicare recipients has more than doubled over the past two decades. And reports from the jurisdictions that have implemented medical aid-indying laws show that the vast majority — more than 87 percent — of the people who utilized it, were receiving hospice care at the time of their deaths. In Oregon, 98 percent of the people who used aid in dying in 2021 were receiving hospice care at the time of their death.
Medical aid in dying does not replace hospice and palliative care. It is a complementary, additional option available to the small number of people who desperately need to end unbearable suffering at the end of their lives.
An overwhelming 75 percent of Connecticut residents support medical aid in dying, including 69 percent of Catholic voters. It’s time for lawmakers to consider the data, the safe record, and the desire of Connecticut’s voters. Terminally ill people across the state deserve to have this gentle dying option.
Medical aid in dying and hospice care are complementary, not mutually exclusive.