Does a state’s criminal statute governing "assisting a suicide" reach the conduct of a physician providing aid in dying to a terminally-ill, mentally competent adult?
Dr. Gary Blick with Compassion & Choices Legal Director Kathryn Tucker
This is the question posed to the court in Blick v Connecticut.
Last wishes? Ha! From Compassion and Choices; Blick v. Connecticut.
In Connecticut, a patient is unable to request that a doctor die with dignity. So the patient either has to turn to friends or family, or have either find them later sitting in a closed garage with the car running.
Connecticut has seen a series of widely covered and tragic cases in which a dying patient asked a family member or friend to help the patient precipitate death. If the patient had been able to turn to their physician and request aid in dying, these tragedies could have been avoided. In 2004, John Welles was dying of cancer and ready to end his suffering. While he struggled outside with his walker, he asked his friend Hunt Williams to carry his loaded .38 caliber revolver. Hunt did what his friend asked, walked down the road and called out "God bless," before he heard the blast that ended John’s life. A year later, Hunt was convicted of "assisting a suicide."
At a press conference held October 7, 2009, Mr. Williams states why this case is of importance to us all:
"I’m here today to support the lawsuit to have the court declare that a physician who aids a terminally ill, mentally competent adult in their dying not be regarded as assisting a suicide. John Welles should not have had to shoot himself. John Welles was dying of cancer and should have been able to have his doctor prescribe medication to ease his dying.
Friends, family and neighbors should not have to be put in the position that I was placed in.
Medical professionals should be able to provide medical assistance for a peaceful end, and ease the dying of cancer and leukemia patients.
The lawsuit is being brought by two Connecticut doctors: Gary Blick and Ron Levine.
Connecticut physicians Gary Blick and Ron Levine are asking a Connecticut court to rule that the state assisted suicide statute does not reach their conduct in providing aid in dying. Dr. Blick is the Medical and Research Director of CIRCLE Medical, LLC in Norwalk, Ct.
Dr. Blick redefines the term 'assisted suicide'; rather than overseeing a suicide situation, a physician is helping the patient die with dignity.
From Medical News:
Dr. Blick said that since he started practicing in 1987, he has received numerous requests for lethal prescriptions from terminally ill patients with "agonizing pain" and poor quality of life. "I always tell them I can't do that -- I could be tried for manslaughter."
"For anyone who is terminally ill, who is mentally competent, for whom we know there's no hope, who has lost quality of life and is in chronic pain, we can help them to die with dignity," said Dr. Blick, medical and research director of the HIV/AIDS clinic Circle Medical. "That's what we call aid in dying. This is not assisted suicide."
The lawsuit seeks the legal answer to whether doctor-aided death constitutes assisted suicide. State law says a person is guilty of second-degree manslaughter if "he intentionally causes or aids another person, other than by force, duress or deception, to commit suicide."
Only Oregon permits physician- assisted suicide.
Compassion and Choices first sounded the alarm concerning the Catholic Bishop's directive to enforce feeding tubes.
This story was picked up by DailyKos and and Firedoglake.com:
In the new directive, the bishops state that it is unethical and immoral to withhold or withdraw a feeding tube from patients, whether in cases of permanent unconsciousness, comas, or even cases of advanced dementia when the patient is unable to feed themselves.