Washington St. Sees First Doctor Assisted Suicide Under "Death With Dignity" Law
By Logan Murphy Friday May 22, 2009 4:00pm
OLYMPIA, Wash. – A 66-year-old woman with terminal cancer has become the first person to die under Washington state's new assisted suicide law, an advocacy group said Friday. Linda Fleming, of Sequim, died Thursday night after taking drugs prescribed under the "Death with Dignity" law that took effect in March, said Compassion & Choices of Washington.
The organization said Fleming was diagnosed last month with advanced pancreatic cancer. She would have had to have been diagnosed by two doctors as terminal in order to qualify for assisted suicide.
The group said Fleming died at home with her family, her dog and her physician at her bedside.
"The pain became unbearable, and it was only going to get worse," Fleming said in a statement released by the organization. Read on...
A good friend of mine died recently from pancreatic cancer and I know how devastatingly painful it was for her. I can't even begin to imagine her suffering. Regardless of what side of the debate you're on, the subject always seems to stir a lot of emotions, most recently brought to the surface during the political and media circus surrounding Terri Schiavo's life and death.
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Why can't the GOP embrace this?
Everyone would be so much better off.
once they see the bills rolling in from Medicare, Medicade, and Social Security.
not everyone agrees Kevorkian's solution and they're view point is a valid as those who think suicide is OK. Personally I won't take that exit should the time come.
If you don't like suicide, very simple don't have one.
But please leave other people who want out of their missery alone.
VegasRage has every right to "choose life" for himself if he wants to, but there are people with terminal (and in some cases "just" chronic) illness for whom the pain is just unbearable, with out any chances for a cure much less pain relief. Who are we to tell them they have to keep on suffering, especially if we *don't* truly know the kind of pain they are in.
I actually go as far to sort of believe that suicide for the chronically mentally ill who are in so much pain yet all forms of medication, therapy, etc. can't treat, while not encouraged, should at least be decriminalized. I think that may even save lives! If people who are suicidal either from mental or physical illness know they can make themselves vulnerable and go to the hospital without having police hovering around, they will be more likely to open themselves to help/treatment.
I'm rambling, but in 2002 I was taken to hospital for suicidal thoughts. I had a plan and the whole nine yards. It's hard to describe, but having a police officer there questioning me (and IIRC, accompanying the ambulance to the other hospital) made the situation that more painful and traumatizing. I felt like a criminal. No one who is in so much pain that they want to die should be treated like a criminal. Attitudes like "it's reprehensible" do nothing to help people in terminal or chronic physical and mental pain.
I don't know what it's like to be terminally ill with a physical illness, but I know enough from the experience of having a life-threatening psychiatric illness to know I can't judge people with cancer, AIDS, etc. when they want to die with diginity.
They can't embrace it because they are a bunch of hypocrites. They want the government out of their lives but they want laws that govern personal choices, death with dignity, abortion, gay rights.
just watched this on my local news. Whats weird about this law in WA. is that Dr. can prescribe the drugs but pharmacy's once again don't have to fill them.
Like plan b.
I thought they all wanted less government? Yet they want to make the decision on your suffering and life? I agree with them on this one. Less government. My life my decision.
Huzzah! My vote counted for something that relieves pain.
...at least not for myself where I live. In Clallam County some 60% supported the measure, but the Olympic Medical Center has apparently decided that dying in pain is everyone's God-given right.
Maybe if they can keep you alive longer, they make more money.
go to the hospital today, that's different from ending it on your own. Personally that's how I'll do it if I still have my faculties at that time. I will simply let nature take it's course, preferably at home sucking up the sun and a glass of lemonade on my porch as I pass away. At least I hope it ends like that.
...has decided that they will not grant terminal patients the dignity of choosing the time of their own deaths.
Sixty percent of the county residents voted in favor of this law, but the hospital has decided it will stick to the delivery of substandard care rather than honor the wishes of dying people.
It would be appropriate to boycott the hospital, but it is the only such facility within forty miles. Still, I'm going to take any and all non-emergency medical needs I have elsewhere.
Tell them your thoughts, they might come to their senses. And write to your local paper. Its amazing the pandering people will do to the religious right. There should be no other concern than helping people out of their pain. Information is the best defense of an enlightened way to end ones life with dignity
Who cares what they "chose" it is the f*cking state law... a terminal patient should sue them if they refuse to comply with it.
If you've ever had anyone look you in the eye and say they are tired, and tired of pain, and want to go, you'll know they mean it. The light of their soul has burned out.
75% doctors refuse chemo
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14150181/Why-Doctor...
We're allowed to put our beloved pets down in a humane manner when they are suffering with a terminal illness ...
We live, we die. It's a fact of life. If a person wants to end his/her suffering in a 'premature' manner, so be it.
The Netherlands leads the way in such things. Euthanasia for the terminally ill is legalized.
And let's not forget The Hague. Maybe Cheney et al will be appearing there soon ...
cancer. And a great-aunt from a brain hemhorrage (sp!). Between that, and the Terri Schiavo debacle, I believe in the importance of allowing euthanasia, and allowing people who are going to pass away to make the decisions themselves (if they can of course - my Mom, Uncle, and Aunt make the decision to not continue treatment for my Grandma's cancer because she originally came into the hospital for a stroke and she was in and out of the present and past).
Sometimes everyone just needs to let someone they love go...
decrying this as a sad day in WA State. Funny how a doctor wouldn't understand how awful the end can be. Funny strange, not funny haha.
Anyone who knows anything about cancer knows that pancreatic cancer is one of the fastest and one of the most painful to deal with.
May God have mercy on her soul and greet her at the gate to welcome her from her suffering.
I am very happy such a service is available in my state of Washington. I hope I never have to use it, but it's a comfort knowing that it's there if need be.
Just now I'd been angry as hell at a conservative SOB in political forum. Truth be told, I felt what I guess would be a 'violent anger' toward the guy. Then I read this story and I realized how petty some things can get.
I hadn't heard of their Death With Dignity law; Washington state definitely has the moral high ground here. The state respecting this woman's choice is to be commended; it's the most upstanding government principle I've seen in a long time.
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