This past legislative session, I was one of the thousands of Delawareans urging our legislators to pass The Ron Silverio/Heather Block Delaware End of Life Options Act, which would authorize the end-of-life care option of medical aid in dying. Medical aid in dying would allow mentally capable, terminally ill Delawareans with a prognosis of six months or less to live the option to request, obtain and self-ingest medication to die peacefully in their sleep if their suffering becomes unbearable.
As an oncology nurse for over 20 years, and someone who witnessed the suffering of my stepfather as he was dying and who asked me to unplug him when there was nothing to unplug, autonomy in end-of-life care is an issue I am very passionate about.
Since 1991, we have had the ability to make our advance care wishes known here in Delaware through the Death with Dignity Act which passed in 1991 and was later amended as the Health Care Decisions Act.
As we continue to advocate for the expanded option of medical aid in dying, new federal legislation has emerged that threatens all the progress we have made. In June, three senators introduced the Patient Rights Act (S. 1993). If enacted into law, this outrageous bill would eliminate federal funding to any healthcare facility that does not protect and preserve the lives of all patients from conception to natural death, regardless of the patient’s preferences.
Virtually no healthcare facility can function without access to federal funding. If this bill is enacted into law, hospitals and healthcare entities that respect a patient’s expressed preferences for end-of-life care could be stripped of federal funding - including Medicaid and Medicare. As a result, patients in Delaware as well as every state will lose precious autonomy and dignity at life’s end.
It would make it virtually impossible for a terminally ill person to end their suffering and die peacefully, even when life-sustaining treatment violates the patient’s explicit stated wishes verbally or in writing.
Furthermore, this bill will punish healthcare entities that honor a healthcare decision that intentionally shortens or ends life, including discontinuing life support and medical aid in dying. It also encourages individuals to report any doctor or health system they suspect of not meeting the strict mandates for life-sustaining treatment to the Health and Human Service Office of Civil Rights, the entity responsible for enforcing the law.
It is not acceptable for decisions about how and when we die to be placed in the hands of a punitive government mandate. These decisions are deeply personal and are best left to patients, in consultation with their doctor and their loved one.
The personal ideologies of a few legislators have no place in America’s end-of-life care system. Why would anyone want to go backward in providing dignity at the end of life?
Lorraine Anderson
Milton
-
A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.
To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to newsroom@capegazette.com. Letters must be signed and include a telephone number and address for verification. Please keep letters to 500 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content and length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days. Letters restating information and opinions already offered by the same author will not be used. Letters must focus on issues of general, local concern, not personalities or specific businesses.
