03 April 2000 Media release Doctors For Life issues urgent call to Minister of Health The Oregon Health Division recently released the statistics of the second year (1999) of legalised physician assisted suicide (PAS). The report confirms that the "slippery slope" argument is again applicable to the Oregon scenario as well, in spite of all the so called "safeguards" that was built into the legislation. It is easy for the horror of euthanasia to become hidden behind the statistics, but reports on the absolute inhumanity of the law are already filtering through. There is for instance the case reported by attorney Cynthia Barrett at the Portland Community College. In this case, an unknown man took the drugs, supplied by a doctor in order to commit suicide. He then started developing symptoms (?convulsions) which his wife could not handle. In desperation she called Rescue 911 for help. A rescue squad came, resuscitated him and took him to the local Portland hospital. He was revived and transferred to a nursing facility but still died some time after that. Time and again DFL has warned that voluntary euthanasia does not remain voluntary but gets abused to include non-voluntary euthanasia. Also, originally Oregonians were promised that PAS would only be allowed within the context of a long-term relationship between a doctor and his patient. Yet, last year Kate Cheney was euthanased. She was an 85-year-old woman with growing dementia, who was originally declared not eligible for assisted suicide because of her cognitive impairments and because she appeared to be pressured by her family. According to an Oct. 17, 1999 article in "The Oregonian", Mrs. Cheney couldn't remember recent events or people she knew, including the name of her doctor, nor could she remember when she was diagnosed with cancer, even though it was only a few months earlier. But, when the doctor said she was not eligible for assisted suicide, neither his diagnosis nor his opinion was able to protect this impaired, vulnerable woman from falling victim to family pressure. Mrs. Cheney's daughter simply sought another opinion. The second evaluation also acknowledged memory deficits and said the "choices of the patient may be influenced by her family's wishes" and that the daughter was "somewhat coercive." Nevertheless, the doctor approved the suicide and she was euthanased. One wonders just how demented and how much pressure must patients be under, before they will be protected from assisted suicide? Indeed the official statistics showed that, in 45% of cases, the family’s opinion played a role in the making the patient request suicide. As predicted, there is no protection for the depressed, demented or those under pressure, once killing in the medical setting is legalised. Indeed the Health Devision’s report also found that "Doctor shopping" is rampant: 56% killed themselves only after being turned down by at least one doctor; 44% were first turned down by two or more doctors. The subtle pressure, which the family members may have, was confirmed by the report when it found that, in 47% of the cases one of the motivations for assisted suicide was "concern about being a burden to others." Lastly there is the case of Patrick Matheny's. Matheny’s brother-in-law told The Oregonian in a March 11, 1999 article, "I think the process needs to be looked at. If we're going to do this, then it needs to be set up in a way in which each individual can accomplish it. It does not go smoothly for everyone...For Pat, it was a huge problem. It would not have worked without help." The brother-in-law would however not say what happened in the trailer that morning and how he "helped" Patrick die. We will never know how Patrick Matheny died? The body was cremated the next day and the case was not investigated. This proves what DFL warned about in the past, that record keeping is inadequate because only the perfect cases get reported. In the light of these shocking reports from the second year of legalised physician assisted suicide (PAS), Doctors For Life wants to issue an urgent call to the Minister of Health to exclude the options that would legalise active euthanasia and PAS in South Africa. We would also like to request that she remove the numerous loopholes for active euthanasia from the rest of the bill. Doctors For Life is an organisation of 640 medical doctors, specialists and professors of Medicine from medical faculties across the country. Even if the euthanasia legislation should go through, DFL undertakes to safeguard the lives of our patients and will refuse to co-operate with the death legislation. For more information contact Dr. M. Thindisa at (011) 926-3726 (w) or (011) 920- 2783 (h). |
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