Earlier this month, Washington State released its report on the first 10 months of its brand-new assisted suicide law. You can read a pretty typical press account at this NY Times link.
However, neither the Times nor most of the media gets at some of the troubling information that emerges from this report – limited as the information is. The best analysis I’ve read so far is at Bad Cripple, the blog maintained by Bill Peace.
Here’s an excerpt from his analyis and comments from his blog essay “Assisted Suicide in Washington: Death Toll 36“:
Why are people choosing to die? Here is where we get into why assisted suicide is so dangerous. I am opposed to assisted suicide as are many others with a disability (though not all) because of the reasoning involved and justifications used to make it legal. So, why did people choose to die in Washington: from the executive report.
Table 3. End of Life Concerns reported from the After Death Reporting From. Data is available for 44 of the 47 participants in 2009 that died.
- Losing autonomy, 100%
- Less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable, 91%
- Loss of dignity, 82%
- Losing control of bodily functions, 41%
- Burden on family, friends/caregivers, 23%
- Inadequate pain control or concerns about it, 25%
- Financial implications of treatment, 2%
I am not terminally ill but have experienced or felt every single one of the above feelings. I do not have the ability to walk and hence have lost some individual autonomy in certain circumstances. There are activities I once enjoyed that I can no longer do that made life enjoyable. I have lost a degree of dignity. I am certainly socially inferior, less dignified, to those who are bipedal. I have lost control of many bodily functions. I do worry about being a burden to my son when I am old. I do worry about the financial implications of my disability. I would be a fool if I thought otherwise considering that I am sitting on a $400 wheelchair cushion designed to last two years at most (insurance does not cover such luxuries). I have in the past experienced gut wrenching pain that made me wish I was dead. Yet here I sit at my desk and cannot help but be perplexed. Why does my crippled body command so little respect. Why is my existence so easily called into question?
Please go and read the rest of the blog entry here. –Stephen Drake