Providing compassion to the terminally ill

Credit goes to the General Assembly’s Joint Public Health Committee for once again raising a sensitive, divisive, important issue — How much control should a person legally hold about the hour of one’s death?

At a hearing this week on House Bill 5898 — An Act Concerning Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill — dozens spoke passionately for and against allowing terminally ill individuals to request life-ending medication from their doctor.

Similar bills have been raised six times in the past decade, but never moved out of committee. This year it should progress to a full vote and be approved.

Though we understand religious objections, we believe it is compassionate to allow those who face a painful death with no hope of recovery to determine their end-of-life options.

In Gallup polls, 72 percent of Americans say they favor right-to-die policies. Seven states and the District of Columbia already have such policies.

The bill before Connecticut, co-sponsored by five Democrats including Jonathan Steinberg of Westport, Joseph Gresko of Stratford, Jack Hennessy of Bridgeport and Josh Elliot of Hamden, appears to have many safeguards against misuse.

The request to a primary care doctor for life-ending medication must be made twice by the mentally competent patient, and not by anyone who would stand to gain from the estate.

The “incurable and irreversible medical condition that will, within reasonable medical judgment, result in death within six months” must be confirmed by the patient’s primary doctor with a second opinion from a consulting physician.

The life-ending medication must be self-administered by the terminally ill patient.

Compelling arguments were made by palliative care providers that they are trained to ease suffering of the terminally ill and work with families to accept the inevitable.

“In Connecticut we have excellent hospice providers who daily provide compassionate care to those who are terminal. Palliative care has improved remarkably over the years,” Sister Suzanne Gross, the administrator of Franciscan Home Care and Hospice Care, testified.

The focus should be on “access and promoting palliative care education,” Karen Mulvihill, chairman of the Palliative Care Advisory Council, said.

Palliative care and hospice certainly have a place in helping the seriously ill, but for some having the ability to control their end gives comfort and dignity.

With a Connecticut health care proxy and a living will, individuals can direct their medical care, such as by refusing a respirator or feeding tubes to sustain life when permanently unconscious or close to death. The aid-in-dying act would go one step further and enable the terminally ill to request lifeending medication.

Previously the Connecticut Medical Society opposed the bills, but last month revised its policy to “engaged neutrality;” it would leave the decision to each physician’s “personally held values, beliefs and ethical standards, including the decision whether or not to write a prescription for a lethal dose of medication, if legalized in Connecticut.”

When the only path ahead is a slow, painful death, enabling choice is compassionate.

We believe it is compassionate to allow those who face a painful death with no hope of recovery to determine their end-of-life options.