Aunt Margaret died last month at the age of 93, wise and beautiful and stubbornly independent to the very end.
She was always a trailblazer, a professional woman with advanced degrees and ambition in an era and a family that viewed her as a wee bit eccentric.
When she was working on her Ph.D., my worried grandmother advised her to be sure to learn type because “A woman can always find a job if she knows how to type.” My auntap cheeky response was to hang a poster in her Chicago apartment that had a picture of Golda Meir and said, “If only she could type.”
She smiled every time she looked at it.
When she was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in her stomach a few months ago, Aunt Margaret listened carefully to the doctors and then rejected medical intervention in favor of palliative care. Life was too beautiful to have what was left desecrated by surgery and chemotherapy.
I wasn’t at all surprised.
Over dinner in Florida a few years ago when she was healthy and vital, she had told me that she would not be victimized by a health care system that charged ahead when things were hopeless. She told me she was assembling the ingredients for a final cocktail should she ever need it. If she was suffering and had no hope of recovery, she wanted that option. Ultimately, she didn’t need it.
In this regard, my wonderfully iconoclastic aunt was far from exceptional. In fact, she was downright mainstream.
A poll by the Pew Research Center in 2015 found that 68 percent of Americans believe that persons with terminal illnesses who are suffering extreme pain should be allowed by law to seek physician aid in dying. Last fall, Colorado overwhelmingly approved such a law.
That didn’t stop the sanctimonious Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, from mobilizing Republicans in an attempt to obstruct the will of the people by denying the $44,041 required to compile data on the use of the law. He demagogued and called the measure “morally offensive” before the Senate came to its senses and narrowly approved the spending.
Dr. Charles Hamlin, a retired physician and advocate for aid-in-dying laws who gave 74 talks around the state on the measure last fall, said Coloradans are thoughtful, engaged and well-informed on the issue. They appreciate the facts.
He said concerns have eased and support has grown across the country as the data continue to mount on Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. In the 20 years since Oregon implemented its law, 1,749 people have sought prescriptions for life-ending drugs and 1,127 have used them. Not a single case of abuse has occurred.
“Physician aid in dying is a small but important piece of end-of-life care,” Hamlin said.
While aid in dying is still rarely used, bringing the debate to the forefront has encouraged people to discuss their last wishes and has opened lines of communication with doctors who often hesitate to be up-front with patients when further medical intervention is futile.
The laws have inspired patients to make informed choices rather than being swept along in a health care system built on the fee-for-service model that creates incentives for endless, cynical treatment.
“It has really elevated the use of hospice and palliative medicine,” Hamlin said.
Itap a dramatic change in approach, he said, and even though Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch is a prominent opponent of physician aid in dying, Hamlin isn’t concerned about the future of the law.
“Keep in mind, we aren’t talking about euthanasia. This is not a third party making the decision,” he said. “We’re talking about drugs that are self-administered by people of sound mind who are close to death and seek a peaceful end.”
Support for the concept is growing rapidly, he said. Colorado is one of seven states that have enacted aid-in-dying laws.
“The movement is unstoppable.”
So, who could blame the 65 percent of Colorado voters who approved the aid-in-dying law for taking Lundberg’s insults personally?
As Hamlin said, “A good death is not a partisan issue,” and voting for it is not a matter of politics.
Itap a matter of conscience.
Diane Carman is a communications consultant and a regular columnist for The Denver Post.
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