Class warfare – out-of-state rich people fund Washington State Assisted Suicide Initiative

assisted suicide, class warfare, Our News & Commentary Blog, Washington state

This election year has brought money into sharp focus for many people in the USA. We’ve all seen how the greedy and unregulated behavior of some of the richest corporations have succeeded in bringing our whole economy to near-collapse.

Money has also been a topic when it comes to the presidential campaigns. Barack Obama amassed a huge war chest, but unlike most candidates, his war chest has relied heavily on relatively small donations from individual donors – many giving in amounts less than 100 dollars. In any case, donations to presidential candidates are limited to 2300 dollars per individual.

When it comes to campaigns for a referendum, however, there are no donation limits. In Washington State, the people pushing for legalization of assisted suicide have managed to build a much larger war chest than the opposition. But it isn’t coming from small donors and a lot of it isn’t even coming from within the state.

Columnist Joel Connelly writes:

Out-of-state donors have given life to the campaign for assisted suicide.

Judy Sebba, an educator at the University of Sussex in England, gave $253,555. Loren Parks, a Nevada businessman, put in $250,000. Compassion in Choices, based in Denver, has given $185,000. Oregon Death with Dignity put in $100,000.

A Compassion & Choices political action committee turned over $626,500 to the campaign — all of it from out of state. Andrew Ross, described as a Columbus, Ohio, inventor, put in $400,000.

If ever there was a time to ask if the rich have the interests of the rest of us at heart, now is the time. What do these rich people get out of this? It isn’t their state. At a time when people lack access to health care, are facing foreclosure on their homes, and loss of their jobs, this is what these “compassionate” individuals are choosing as their favorite charity – a campaign to make it easy for old, ill and disabled people to commit suicide.

I think it’s fair it ask what they expect to get out of this and just what kind of agendas they have. –Stephen Drake

More on this from Wesley Smith.

Migraines really screw up my work schedule

excuses, Our News & Commentary Blog, whining

Apologies for the unannounced and unplanned hiatus here.

I had a totally uplanned migraine that lasted for over a week, resulting in lots of unplanned moaning in bed in a dark room. It lasted for over a week – and was still with me when I had to drive to Toronto to catch a flight to Winnipeg for the National Symposium on Death Making, which was put together by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. (more on the conference later)

A merciful palliative care physician at the conference helped me out with some alternative medication which successfully ended the ordeal. I will be talking to my own physician about having a back-up medication when my primary medication fails. –Stephen Drake

Catching Up: McCain Gives Us Fair Warning on Medicare and Medicaid Cuts

Our News & Commentary Blog, policy, politics

There are other ways to promote the premature deaths of old, ill and disabled people other than assisted suicide, euthanasia, and “futility” policies. One way is to chop away at their health care.

From the Wall Street Journal:

John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs.

The Republican presidential nominee has said little about the proposed cuts, but they are needed to keep his health-care plan “budget neutral,” as he has promised. The McCain campaign hasn’t given a specific figure for the cuts, but didn’t dispute the analysts’ estimate.

John McCain arrives at a town-hall meeting Friday at Colorado State University. In the months since Sen. McCain introduced his health plan, statements made by his campaign have implied that the new tax credits he is proposing to help Americans buy health insurance would be paid for with other tax increases.

But Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain’s senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. Those government health-care programs serve seniors, poor families and the disabled. Medicare spending for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 is estimated at $457.5 billion.

To be fair, the McCain camp claims this will be done through getting rid of fraud and waste and improving services to those who depend on Medicare and Medicaid:

Mr. Holtz-Eakin said the Medicare and Medicaid changes would improve the programs and eliminate fraud, but he didn’t detail where the cuts would come from. “It’s about giving them the benefit package that has been promised to them by law at lower cost,” he said.

I think most people would find it pretty doubtful that you can cut 1.3 trillion dollars from Medicaid and Medicare even if you eliminated all fraud and waste. Unless, of course, you start redefining “waste.”

However this election turns out, disability advocates and activists will have our hands full. We’re in the midst a financial meltdown, record deficits, declines in tax revenue, etc. We should all be justifiably concerned about the very real danger that government and society will find new justifications to save money by cutting resources to segments of the population perceived as “nonproductive.”

At the very least, this economy will provide plenty of encouragement for increased promotion and implementation of “futile care” policies. I’m curious to see if the economic drivers behind these policies become more openly discussed in the new reality. –Stephen Drake

The Onion: Financial Planner Advises Shorter Life Span

humor, Our News & Commentary Blog

The news these days is mostly cruddy. We’ll get into that in the days to come. In the meantime, leave it up to The Onion to show us that no situation is so horrible that it can’t be laughed at – even if it’s pained laughter.

Financial Planner Advises Shorter Life Span

TUCSON, AZ—After reviewing his client’s income, assets, and personal budget Tuesday, Morgan Stanley financial adviser Henry Dalton determined that Jason
Hutchinson, 43, could make the best use of his portfolio by dropping dead at the age of 62. “Taking account of inflation and the rising cost of living versus the projected direction of the economy in the coming decade, I told Mr. Hutchinson that he could significantly reduce his spending by simply living less,” Dalton said. “After looking at his investments, I calculated that he really shouldn’t live a day over 62—or 59 if he wants a funeral.” In order to help his client plan for his financial future, Dalton presented Hutchinson with several of the company’s comprehensive suicide packages.

New Study in BMJ Indicates People with Clinical Depression Getting Lethal Prescriptions in Oregon

assisted suicide, Oregon, Our News & Commentary Blog, policy, reality check, research

Hot off the press, first from an article from today’s US News & World Report, carefully titled “Oregon’s Assisted Suicide Law May Overlook Depressed Patients“:

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 8 (HealthDay News) — Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law may not adequately protect the one in four terminally ill patients with clinical depression, a new study says.

The Death with Dignity Act was passed by the state in 1997, and there’s been intense debate about the extent to which potentially treatable psychiatric disorders may influence a patient’s decision to hasten death, according to a news release about the study, published online Oct. 8 by the British Medical Journal.

The act does contain several safeguards to ensure patients are competent to make the decision to end their life, including referral to a psychologist or psychiatrist, if there’s concern that a mental illness may be impairing a patient’s judgment. However, depression is often overlooked in mentally ill patients.

In 2007, none of the 46 people in Oregon who used physician-assisted suicide were evaluated by a psychologist or psychiatrist, the news release said.

For the new study, researchers at Oregon Health and Sciences University checked for depression or anxiety in 58 terminally ill patients who’d requested physician-assisted suicide or had contacted an assisted death organization. Fifteen of the patients met the criteria for depression and 13 for anxiety.

By the end of the study, 42 patients had died. Of those, 18 received a prescription for a lethal medication, and nine died by lethal ingestion. Of those who received a prescription for a lethal medication, three met the criteria for depression. All three died by lethal ingestion within two months of being assessed by researchers.

The article in question is freely available online. Here’s the conclusion from the abstract of the article:

Although most terminally ill Oregonians who receive aid in dying do not have depressive disorders, the current practice of the Death with Dignity Act may fail to protect some patients whose choices are influenced by depression from receiving a prescription for a lethal drug.

This is a very restrained conclusion. A closer look at the data in the paper reveals that levels of anxiety and depression were reported in an even larger number of participants, even if the levels didn’t reach the standard for clinical depression.

Given the larger context, namely that no one obtaining a lethal prescription in 2007 was referred to a psychologist or psychiatrist, it’s fair to question just how much care and support these individuals are given when thinking about suicide.

The study authors also note that “in 2006 Compassion and Choices gave information to or attended the deaths of three quarters of patients who choose aid in dying.” I’m going to take a leap here and assume that Compassion and Choices has its own list of doctors it sends people to – doctors who don’t tend to be too concerned about giving patients any kind of support other than a lethal prescription. (i.e. Could anxiety and depression be reduced in these individuals, making them less likely to want to kill themselves? Do the doctors care?)

Predictably, Compassion and Choices has already come out and put its “spin” on the study.

On the left side of its main page, under “top stories” is the headline:

“10.7.2008 New Study: All Patients Using Oregon Death with Dignity Act Were Mentally Competent to Make Informed Choice.”

The “spin” in the comments on the Compassion and Choices website is provided by two medical professionals with a long history of advocating euthanasia and assisted suicide. Compare their comments against the article in the BMJ.

I find it curious that this study was published in the BMJ rather than an American publication. I don’t know what – if anything – to make of that. –Stephen Drake