A renewed push for physician-assisted suicide

A few weeks ago, Ellen Gilland, a 76-year-old retired special education teacher, was charged with murder, accused of shooting her husband in a desperate and chaotic scene in a Daytona Beach hospital where she said her terminally ill spouse of 53 years had asked her to end his suffering.

The police chief called it “a tragic circumstance.” The arrest report said Gilland’s husband loaded the gun and held her wrist near his head before firing and that the plan was for Gilland to then kill herself as well, but she said “she could not bring herself to do so.”

Even the judge in the case described the situation as “extremely sympathetic” but said: “I don’t get to question the law.”

And the law in Florida is quite clear: Assisted suicide is illegal.

But there’s a renewed push to change that — if physicians are involved.

State Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, has filed the “Death with Dignity” act, which would allow Florida to join 10 other states where some kind of medical assistance in dying is permitted.

“Why would we force people to suffer?” Book asked. “You have this poor 76-year-old woman facing the rest of her life in prison. That’s not dignity.”

Even the grand jury seemed sympathetic, reducing Gilland’s original charges from first-degree murder to assisting self-murder/manslaughter.

But she could still spend the rest of life behind bars.

This is an issue bigger than this one case in Volusia County. And it’s complex.

I know that if I were diagnosed with a terminal illness and facing a long, painful death that would require constant attention from my wife and drain our family’s finances, I’d want to spare them that.

But I also know the issue is intensely personal with smart and faithful people on both sides.

Republican legislators have typically dismissed the idea. Book, whose own grandfather suffered a prolonged death from pancreatic cancer, suggested that may be partly because many haven’t experienced the slow, painful death of a loved one begging for mercy. “Unless you have an experience in your family of someone suffering a horrific, painful, extended death, you don’t know,” she said.

Some sort of aid in dying is already permitted in 10 states — a mix of blue and red. Most states that allow such a thing have serious guardrails in these laws.

Book stressed that before patients could end their own life under her proposal (SB 864), they would have to make two verbal requests of their doctor 15 days apart and an additional written one as well. It requires the involvement of two physicians, one of whom must give patients the opportunity to rescind their request. It also includes provisions to protect physicians from lawsuits.

“We euthanize our pets because we don’t want them to suffer,” Book said. “But we don’t give the same consideration to our family members.”

It’s worth noting that there’s a big difference between euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (or “medical aid in dying,” as advocates call it). Euthanasia means one person deciding to end another’s life. Physician-assisted suicide or death means an individual wanting to end their own life with the help of a doctor. “This wouldn’t be anything anyone has to do,” Book said.

Debates on this topic date back to ancient Greece. Most organized religions formally oppose the practice. A few support it. And a few have decided not to take a stance.

“Everybody has their own faith and their own relationship with God,” said Book, who is Jewish. “To each his own.”

There have also historically been concerns among advocates for disabled citizens. The National Council on Disability, for instance, has expressed concerns that such laws could “be misapplied to unnecessarily end the lives of people with disabilities.”

Book, however, notes that her law puts the onus of the request on the dying patient, not anyone else. And advocates for what they call “compassionate choices” note that, even in states where assisted suicide is legal, only a few people — often those in extreme situations — ever choose to do so.

I’ve seen people die naturally under the care of a doctor or hospice. It can be a spiritual, even beautiful thing. But watching someone suffer through pain for weeks, months or years is usually not.

Book’s bill probably won’t get much traction in Tallahassee where red-meat issues are the orders of the day. But I agree with her that the issue is worth thoughtful debate. It has been for years — even if it took the arrest of a 76-yearold woman and a sympathetic judge and police chief to raise awareness.