Death and Dying

Today, I spent an emotional afternoon in our Health and Human Services Committee room up in Augusta. Our legislators were listening patiently to several people who were testifying on LD 1065, "An Act Regarding Patient-directed Care at the End of Life". 

This bill would allow a patient who is terminally ill to make decisions regarding the care she receives at the end of her life. Together with her physician or the medical director of the hospice care provider, the patient will sign documents that will carefully instruct the provision of health care she wishes to receive and the provision of care at the end of life. 

The ACLU of Maine believes that each of us should have the right to die in a humane and dignified manner. The exercise of this right is central to personal autonomy and bodily integrity, and this includes refusal or termination of life-saving medical treatment.

You'll hear about this bill in the media as an "assisted suicide" bill. Much of the testimony this afternoon focused on this point. Obviously, no one should be coerced into making decisions about their care at their most vulnerable time, when they are approaching certain death. But there is a difference between suicide and making the decision to hasten death when it is near and suffering is great.

It is hard to know how any of us would handle the death of a loved one until we are in that moment ourselves. The subject of death and dying is intensely personal and even more intensely emotional. I often wish I will die a peaceful death in my sleep after a life well lived --- but my life thus far has included witnessing people I love die due to suicide, illness and old age. Hard as it is sometimes, I understand that we all make choices in life and in death that not everyone understands or accepts. 

I was proud to deliver this testimony today to support this legislation's intent.