What the Numbers Don't Tell Us

The right to kill yourself became the law of the land in Washington state in 2008. In year two since enactment of the Death With Dignity Act (DWDA), which allows adult residents of the state whom doctors have diagnosed with a terminal illness to take their own lives, a total of 87 people were prescribed “lethal doses” of medication by their physician (“death by doctor” once removed being the only legal method of suicide thus far) and a total a 72 actually died, either by the drugs or by some other means.

What the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) was able to report in its 2010 summary of the law’s impact is that only 51 of the 87 actually succumbed to the deadly drugs they supposedly asked for, while 15 others died without having taken the drugs. For the six others confirmed dead, the state isn’t quite sure whether the drugs killed them or something else.

While that lack of certainty is troubling enough, there are still 15 other individuals who were prescribed lethal medication for which the state Department of Health (DOH) has not accounted at all, and that has one Washington state life group raising some sobering issues.

Eileen Geller of True Compassion Advocates, a life ethics organization that monitors the issue of assisted suicide in Washington — as well as Oregon, the only other state that has legalized the practice — said that the group is deeply disturbed that Washington health officials can’t locate the documentation or facts on what happened to the individuals who were prescribed lethal doses of medication so they could kill themselves — but apparently have since disappeared off the state’s radar.

She also related the story of a seriously ill paralyzed woman who was discharged prematurely from a Seattle-area hospital and worried about being a burden to her family. With no financial resources and feeling she had no other choice, the women “requested doctor prescribed death via the DWDA,” said Geller.

Or how about the nephew who worried that his uncle’s untreated depression and lack of financial resources led him to choose doctor-prescribed suicide, or another depressed gentleman with no insurance who — with the not-so-gentle nudging of family members — requested the “death with dignity” option?

Full Article and Source:
Legalized Suicide: What the Numbers Don't Tell Us