Just about every other week a reader writes in with some version of the same question: Who, in the event of an unbearable terminal illness, has the right to shorten a life?
And just about every other week that question sent me scrambling for answers.
Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to find myself at the Funeral Consumers Alliance conference in Seattle where Kathryn Tucker spoke, and some of those questions were answered. Tucker is not only a law professor, she also successfully defended Oregon’s Right to Die law before the Supreme Court, which is pretty narrow and applies, as its name might imply, only to Oregon residents.
Here’s the gist of what she told us:
A mentally competent patient with a terminal illness wants a feeding tube removed, which would precipitate death. Does she have that right? The Supreme Court says, Yes.
A patient has lost cognitive function and is in a vegetative state. Her family is in complete agreement that her ventilator be removed. Do they have that right? Yes.
The same patient in the same vegitative state — only this time, the family members can’t agree on what should or should not be done. And the patient has left no Living Will. The result? You very likely already know the answer.
Disaster. And perhaps years of protracted legal wrangling.
And finally: a patient, dying of lung cancer in unrelieved pain. Does he have the right to aggressive pain management? The answer, at least in California, is now: Yes.
These instances might not provide a lot of solace in all cases for the terminally ill who reside outside of Oregon or California. But they do indicate that slowly (very slowly) the law is siding with the wishes of the patient. And they also prove once again that the smartest thing all of us can do while we’re still healthy is to make legal provisions for the day when we are not.
So make a Living Will. Spell everything out. And tell your family.
Today.
