Support for medical aid in dying
Regarding the article “‘Right-to-die’: Is Illinois next to adopt legislation?” (March 5): As a family physician for over 22 years, I disagree with Dr. Kevin Garner, who is quoted in the article, that a physician should only “optimize (patients’) health.” We also must reduce suffering, especially for patients with incurable, terminal illnesses. While hospice sometimes can achieve that goal, studies have shown that nearly 70% of dying cancer patients receiving pain medication still experience breakthrough pain.
Medical aid in dying should be an option for mentally capable, terminally ill Illinoisans with six months or less to live who cannot get relief from any other option. Otherwise, we harm our dying patients by abandoning them when they need us most. I urge Illinois lawmakers to pass the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act (Senate Bill 3499).
This compassionate legislation has a dozen requirements modeled after the time-tested 1994 Oregon Death with Dignity Act to prevent coercion. Contrary to allegations in a 2019 National Council on Disability report, Bob Joondeph, formerly an executive director of Disability Rights Oregon (DRO) for 30 years, an organization that has federal authority to act as a watchdog for people with disabilities and request confidential records, confirmed in 2019: “DRO has never to my knowledge received a complaint that a person with disabilities was coerced or being coerced to make use of the Act.”
While doctors sometimes underestimate how long terminally ill patients will live, studies show they are far more likely to overestimate how long these patients will live because they don’t want to crush hope for a miracle recovery. Oregon Health Authority data shows the average time between the first request for medical aid in dying and death is 30 days — months in some cases — proving terminally ill patients who request it wait until their suffering is unbearable before they take it.
In addition, according to the data, 91% of these dying patients were enrolled in relatively inexpensive hospice care covered by Medicare and Medicaid to manage their symptoms only, so they discontinued expensive, futile curative treatment. No federal insurance programs, including Medicare, the federal share of Medicaid or Tricare, cover medical aid in dying; only some private insurance companies do. That explains why a New England Journal of Medicine study concluded there are no substantial cost savings in choosing medical aid in dying over other end-of-life care options.
A 2021 Medscape/ WedMD poll showed 62% of Illinois physicians personally would want the option of medical aid in dying if they become terminally ill versus only 20% who would not.
I’m among the 62% majority!
— Dr. Debra Stulberg, Chicago