Another lame NYT Op-Ed has popped up against Death With Dignity (DWD). What’s up with the Times? Where are the pieces in support of Massachusetts’ Question 2? So again, it’s time to correct.
This one is by a guy named Ben Mattlin, who’s severely disabled. He is affiliated with the anti-DWD group, Not Dead Yet. His op-ed opposes Question 2 in fear that DWD will harm disabled persons. He admits there hasn’t been any reported abuse under Oregon’s, Montana’s, or Washington’s DWD laws. He’s right. So what’s he do? He relies on his own paranoia to make his point, fearing that abuse goes under-reported.
He worries that patients can designate someone to feed them life-ending medicine. Nope, that’s flat-out wrong. Someone who does this could be charged with homicide. The patient must self-administer. Some patients, being too debilitated, cannot self-administer. But, no exceptions. While patients who cannot self-administer are out of luck, this safeguard ensures that it is ultimately the patient’s choice as to how to end her or his life.
Mattlin, like other antagonists to DWD, contends that vulnerable populations are at risk for being abused under DWD, even though that hasn’t happened. There’s more abuse in routine doctor visits. Terminally-ill does not equate with disabled. There is a world of difference between having a debilitating illness and being in the active process of dying. (Note: “Terminally ill” means a physician has made a diagnosis that a patient has 6 months or less to live.) Being disabled doesn’t qualify Mattlin for DWD. Disability is an incidental. DWD only applies to the terminally ill. I don’t know whether he is, but he’s been disabled since infancy and unless he has an unrelated terminal illness with 6 months or less to live, he would not qualify for DWD. And, regardless, he would have to seek it out himself.
When a person is dying, the question isn’t whether he or she will die, it’s how. Death With Dignity gives patients one of many options for how to control their death. And to be sure, death is already controlled in a number of ways. There are lots of life-extending processes out there. If patients opt against a life-extending treatment, that is one way they already control their death. DWD is just one more option in an array. Who should decide how we die? It seems one person and one alone should sit in the director’s chair: the dying person.
No one tells this guy how to live. His unsupported fears about DWD shouldn’t dictate how others die. If you’re in Mass., vote yes on Question 2.
Reasonablist 