News in brief – May 21, 2012 – amednews.com: Georgia has enacted legislation to outlaw physician-assisted suicide, replacing a law the state Supreme Court struck down in February on First Amendment grounds. The law makes it a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for any licensed Georgia “health care provider” to knowingly and willfully assist in the commission of a suicide.
Burlington Free Press: For nearly two hours Thursday afternoon, the Vermont Senate focused on legislation that would allow people with fewer than six months to live to opt for a lethal dose of medication. From the start, it was clear the legislation wouldn’t pass — and it didn’t, failing on a procedural vote. The point, though, was just to have the debate, supporters said. The Senate Health and Welfare Committee had earlier this week attached the end-of-life legislation to a bill that would prohibit those under age 18 from using tanning salons.
Daily Beast: Peter Goodwin is dying. He has corticobasal degeneration, a condition that resembles Parkinson’s disease, but takes a much more aggressive and lethal course. And so, in the very near future—maybe weeks, maybe months—Goodwin, a resident of Oregon, will use that state’s controversial Death With Dignity Act to end his own life. That Goodwin should find himself in this situation is a novelistic twist, considering that he was one of the doctors responsible for getting the law passed in the first place.
The Death With Dignity Act became legal in Oregon in 1997. Since then, more than 500 terminally ill patients have used its provisions to end their lives with their doctor’s help. The number of patients who opt for this course has increased every year since the law went into effect.
“I’ve been sort of surprised and disappointed by how slowly this process has grown, mostly because, of course, it runs in the face of most religious faiths. Because death really is the territory of the religious hierarchy, and the religious hierarchy is very intolerant to this new idea,” Goodwin says. “But why it hasn’t caught on with the mass of people is surprising for me.” And he does seem genuinely surprised. For Goodwin, this is a simple issue of personal freedom and autonomy. “And that’s what our country is based on,” he says. Since the law went into effect, Goodwin himself has assisted in the death of many patients.
AP: Georgia’s top court struck down a state law that restricted assisted suicides, siding on Monday with four members of a suicide group who said the law violated their free speech rights. It means that four members of the Final Exit Network who were charged in February 2009 with helping a 58-year-old cancer-stricken man die won’t have to stand trial, defense attorneys said.
Georgia law doesn’t expressly forbid assisted suicide. But lawmakers in 1994 adopted a law that bans people from publicly advertising suicide, hoping to prevent assisted suicide from the likes of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the late physician who sparked the national right-to-die debate. The law makes it a felony for anyone who “publicly advertises, offers or holds himself out as offering that he or she will intentionally and actively assist another person in the commission of suicide and commits any overt act to further that purpose.” The court’s opinion found that lawmakers could have imposed a ban on all assisted suicides with no restriction of free speech, or sought to prohibit all offers to assist in suicide that were followed by the act.
Obama administration halts troubled long-term health plan – Washington Times: The Obama administration, admitting that a key part of its health care law is unworkable, has abandoned the long-term care provision for the elderly and infirm in its health care law because it could not certify that the program would ever pay for itself. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said the agency would not continue with the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, effectively confirming months of analysis showing the program to be financially unsustainable.
New Attention to the Role of Home Care A national association believes the right to be cared for at home is “America’s last great civil rights battle.” Read on »
Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease Today, brain imaging and blood tests allow for earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, and may even predict who will develop the disease. Read on »
Car Designers, Architects Put Themselves in Seniors’ Shoes A new empathy-building exercise helps young engineers and architects experience old age. Read on »
Since Oregon became the first to legalize physician assisted suicide, this issue has come up in several other states. Many have passed laws prohibiting physician assisted suicide, while others are currently debating this issue.
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