To Board: Assisted suicide "kills the very person under the physician's care"

To: DLI BSD Medical Examiners
Subject: Position Statement No 20

To whom it may concern,

Please vacate position statement no. 20 as assisted suicide is neither legal, consistent with established American Medical Association statements, the Hippocratic oath, puts the vulnerable and elderly at risk, and kills the very person under the physician’s care.

Respectfully submitted,
Samuel J. Reck, MD

To Board: "Even Sen. Blewett & Dr. Speckart have admitted that assisted suicide is not legal"

Subject: PLEASE Vacate Position Statement No. 20

I have written you before and I continue to request that you vacate your Position Statement No. 20. Even Sen. Blewett & Dr. Speckart have admitted that assisted suicide is not legal in Montana (see http://maasdocuments.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/blewett_speckhart_trans_001.pdf ) How can the Board make it legal?

Sandra A Wedel Great Falls, MT

Board: "Please do not go down Washington's path"

Subject: Position Statement No. 20

To the Board of Medical Examiners:

I am an attorney in Bellevue, Washington.

My law practice emphasizes elder law and probate matters. I am writing to urge you to VACATE Position Statement No. 20.

Instances of elder abuse have risen significantly in recent years. Assisted suicide provides an easy cover for an abuser who coerces a vulnerable adult into “signing up” rather than “burdening” the expectant heir. Warning signs of financial abuse often go unrecognized by physicians and others.

You are undoubtedly aware that assisted suicide is unfortunately legal in Washington. I support the position of Montanans Against Assisted Suicide. Please do not go down Washington’s path.

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. Thank you.

Theresa Schrempp
theresas@lawyerseattle.com
Sonkin & Schrempp, PLLC
12715 Bel Red Rd Ste. 150
Bellevue WA 98005
425 289.3444 direct

Ted Friesen: "They would be dead before their time"

As published in the Senior News for August/September 2012:

I was glad to see the advertising in your publication by Montanans Against Assisted Suicide & For Living with Dignity.  Assisted suicide is an important topic for Montana where  proponents are wrongly claiming that the practice is legal and the majority of the population are senior citizens (over 50 years of age).

I retired from the Motion Picture Pension and Health Plans in Studio City, California, as the Chief Financial Officer.  One reason that I retired to Montana was that I had the perception that it was senior citizen friendly, unlike Oregon and Washington, which have adopted laws allowing doctors and family members to assist people in killing themselves.  That was repugnant to me. 

The proposed legalization is for terminally-ill persons.  “Terminally-ill” is a term that I am all too familiar with.  In my previous employment, one would need to be terminally-ill to qualify for a pension if they had not attained a specified age.  Many, many times doctors deemed someone terminally-ill and they wound up outliving their care-givers, not really but they lived many years.  If these persons had instead been applying for a lethal dose and used it, they would be dead before their time.

Ted Friesen, Big Fork

To Board: " The representatives of the people did not chose legalization"

Subject: Statement 20

July 19, 2012

Dear Members of the Montana Board of Medical Examiners,

Please add my name to those requesting that you vacate Position Statement Number 20. During the last legislative session Senator Anders Blewett stated that suicide was not legal in Montana. His Senate Bill 167 died in committee. The representatives of the people did not chose legalization.

Assisted suicide is too often legalized elder abuse. Suicide is already a problem in our state.

Representative Janna Taylor
House District 11

"The Board is both misleading physicians and endangering patients"

To the Montana Board of Medical Examiners:

Not Dead Yet is a national disability rights group with members in Montana. This letter is to urge you to rescind the position statement that the Board of Medical Examiners formulated entitled "Physician Aid in Dying" (Position 20).

First, it is incorrect to state that the Baxter decision will "...shield a physician from liability for acting in accordance with a patient's end-of-life wishes if an adult, mentally competent terminally ill patient consents to the physician's aid-in-dying." The Montana Supreme Court merely stated that if the physician can show that he/she acted in accordance with a person's wishes and consent, then such consent can be raised as a defense to a charge of homicide against the physician. Once raised, a judge or jury may or may not find the defense valid after considering all the facts and circumstances of the case.

For example, a judge or jury could reasonably expect a doctor who assists in a patient’s suicide to take practical steps to ensure that the patient’s request to die is voluntary and not coerced by others who might benefit from the death financially or by being relieved of care giving responsibilities. The potential for coercion is fraught with risks for physicians.

It is estimated that there are 21,265 cases of elder abuse annually in Montana, reported and unreported. http://www.eadaily.com/15/elder-abuse-statistics/ Statistically, 90% of elder abusers are a family member or trusted other. Similarly, people with disabilities are up to four times more likely to be abused than their same-age nondisabled peers.

A relative who is willing to abuse an elder or disabled person might be equally willing to bring up assisted suicide as an option for an ill relative. An abuser might take their relative to visit the doctor to request assisted suicide. An abuser might pick up the lethal prescription at the pharmacy. Even if the abuser went so far as to administer the drugs without the person’s actual consent at the time of death, who would know?

It is simply naïve to suggest that assisted suicide can be added to the array of medical treatment options, on a par with palliative care, without taking into account the harsh realities of elder abuse and the related potential for coercion. The Montana Supreme Court overlooked the public policy implications of elder abuse in its analysis, but in individual cases this issue is likely to become a factor that physicians could only ignore at their peril.

In stating that physicians have a shield against liability for assisted suicide when either a judge or a jury may view a case very differently, the Board is both misleading physicians and endangering patients.

We urge the Board to reconsider and rescind its position on assisted suicide.

Sincerely,

Diane Coleman, JD, MBA
President/CEO
Not Dead Yet