Page 9 - Delaware Medical Journal - April 2018
P. 9
PRESIDENT’S PAGE
RICHARD W. HENDERSON, MD
MSD President Richard W. Henderson, MD is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist who practices at Saint Francis Healthcare.
Options ... at the End of Life
Each year since 2015, legislation addressing a particular option for those at the end of life has been
the legislation would make it lawful for
a patient with a terminal condition and the prognosis of dying within a short period of time, to request and be given
a prescription by a physician for a lethal dose of medication. This medication would be taken voluntarily by the patient to end her/his life. HB 160, the Delaware End Of Life Options Act, is the legislation being considered this year.
Historically, this practice has been termed physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Today, in an effort to move away from the negative connotations and perceptions associated with the word suicide, other terms such as death with dignity, medical aid in dying (MAID), lawful physician- hastened death (LPHD) or physician aid in dying (PAID) may be used. However, both the intent and the outcome remain unchanged.
to pass legislation permitting PAS and
it has been in effect since 1997. In that same year, this issue came before the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) in the case of Washington v. Glucksberg. The SCOTUS ruling included the following
elements that remain in effect today: there is no constitutionally protected right to PAS, states banning PAS do not violate the constitution, and the ruling left the constitutionality of the right to PAS to be determined by each state.
Currently, four states (California, Colorado, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia have passed legislation allowing PAS that are based on the Oregon model. In two states, Montana and New Mexico, PAS is available through actions of the courts. In Montana, the state Supreme Court
in 2009 broadened the state’s existing Rights of the Terminally Ill Act to include PAS. In 2014, the Second District Court in Albuquerque, New Mexico ruled that physicians in the state may legally prescribe lethal drugs to assist terminally ill individuals with suicide. HB 160, as proposed in Delaware, is also based on the Oregon legislation.
The issue of PAS has been carefully and thoughtfully reviewed by the Medical Society’s Committee on Ethics since
in 2015. The recommendation of the Committee on Ethics to both continue use of the term PAS, as well as to oppose legislation promoting the concept, remains the current policy of
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