Elder Law Prof Blog

First WA Death with Dignity patient exercises her rights

A 66-year-old US woman with advanced cancer has become the first person to die under a new aid in dying law in Washington State.  The woman, Linda Fleming, died on Thursday night after taking drugs prescribed by her doctor.The "Death with Dignity" law was approved by 60% of Washington State voters in a referendum last year.  It is based on a law in neighboring Oregon, where 400 people have chosen to die over the last 12 years.  The advocacy group Compassion and Choices of Washington said Ms Fleming died with her family, her dog and her physician at her side.  In a statement, Ms Fleming, who lived in the town of Sequim, said: "I had only recently learned to live in the world as I had always wanted to, and now I will no longer be here.  "The pain became unbearable, and it was only going to get worse. I am a very spiritual person, and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death."  She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last month.

Source:  BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8064559.stm

Update: 

Email from Margaret Dore re the above post:

Re:  "First WA Death with Dignity patient exercises her rights."

         I am an attorney in Washington State, who has studied our
new Death with Dignity Act, which was enacted via a voter's
initiative.  During the election, proponents touted it as providing
"choice" for end of life decisions.  A glossy brochure declared:

                 Only the patient - and no one else - may administer
the [lethal dose].

         The Act, however, doesn't say this - anywhere.  The Act also
contains coercive provisions.  For example, it allows an heir who
will benefit from the patient's death, to help the patient sign up
for the lethal dose.  See:  Margaret Dore, "'Death with Dignity':
What Do We Advise our Clients?" at
http://www.kcba.org/newsevents/barbulletin/archive/2009/09-05/article5.aspx .

         Contrary to proponents, the patient's control over the
"time, place and manner" of his death, is an illusion.  "Death with
dignity" is, instead, a recipe for elder abuse and worse.

         You may also be interested in my brief analyzing the Oregon
Death with Dignity
Act.  http://www.margaretdore.com/pdf/amicus_take_3_001.pdf. If you
would like more information, please let me know.

Health Beat blog post on death and dying...

Well worth a read:
Demystifying Death: Compassionate, Practical Advice for Patients and Families

Compassion & Choices on the seven principles of patient-centered care

Compassion & Choices today released its Seven Principles for Patient-Centered End-of-Life Care and urged that they guide health care reform.  “As individuals face the end of life, and try to navigate the health care system, their own values and choices should be paramount. Our seven principles – focus, self-determination, autonomy, personal beliefs, informed consent, balance, and notice - are designed to guide health care providers and policy-makers to place patients’ values at the center of end-of-life care,”’ said Compassion & Choices President Barbara Coombs Lee.

Read more here:  http://compassionandchoices.org/blog/?p=208

Sunny Von Bulow dead after 28 years in coma

US heiress Martha von Bulow, who spent almost three decades in a coma but was still at the centre of 1980s courtroom dramas, has died at the age of 76.Mrs von Bulow, known as Sunny, was found unconscious in her Rhode Island mansion in December 1980.  Her second husband, Claus von Bulow, who is now a society figure in Britain, was acquitted of twice trying to kill her with insulin injections.  The events were turned into a 1990 Hollywood film, Reversal of Fortune.  Starring Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons, the film was based on a book by Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard lawyer who defended Claus von Bulow at his second trial.  The daughter of utilities tycoon George Crawford, Sunny von Bulow died at New York's Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home, her family said.  She is survived by a daughter from her marriage to Claus von Bulow, and two children from her first marriage to an Austrian prince.

More:  BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7769658.stm

Visit Caring Connections to download a state-specific advance directive if you don't want this to happen to you...

Hospice/palliative care visionary dies at age 91

Florence S. Wald, whose vision of bringing the terminally ill peace of mind and, to whatever extent possible, freedom from pain led to the opening of the first palliative care hospice in the United States, died on Saturday at her home in Branford, Conn. She was 91.  Florence S. Wald, right, being inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1998. She was introduced by Lyn Bedell.  Mrs. Wald, who was dean of the Yale University School of Nursing from 1959 to 1966, was the prime mover, in 1974, in starting the Connecticut Hospice, the nation’s first home-care program for the terminally ill. Six years later, a 44-patient hospice — where the dying could be comforted by their loved ones around the clock and where the staff would do what it could to alleviate suffering — opened in Branford.

“This hospice became a model for hospice care in the United States and abroad,” the publication Yale Nursing Matters said this week, adding that Mrs. Wald’s role “in reshaping nursing education to focus on patients and their families has changed the perception of care for the dying in this country.”

There are now more than 3,000 hospice programs in the United States, serving about 900,000 patients a year.

Source/more:  New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/health/14wald.html

Washington State passes Death with Dignity measure

Washington will become the second state to allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication for terminally ill patients seeking to hasten their deaths.  Initiative 1000 was leading in most counties across the state Tuesday.  "I'm elated," said former Washington Gov. Booth Gardner, who filed the initiative and was one of its biggest campaign contributors. Gardner is battling Parkinson's disease, though Parkinson's is not considered a terminal disease that would qualify under the initiative.  Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, a national right-to-die organization based in Denver that has provided financial backing for I-1000, said her group hopes to pass similar initiatives in other states in the future, though it hasn't selected any specific states yet.  "We think the citizens of all 50 states deserve death with dignity," she said.  Eileen Geller, campaign coordinator for the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide which opposed I-1000, said her group would look at various options to continue the fight against the measure.  The hard-fought campaign was "a wake-up call for the state of Washington" that there needs to be improved access and support for end-of-life care, Geller said.  I-1000, modeled on a decade-old Oregon law, permits terminally ill, competent adult residents of Washington, who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician.

Source/more:  Seattle Times, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008352033_1000prop05m.html

Call for papers: deadline

Australian Guardianship and Administration Council
2009 National Conference
Social Inclusion: The Future of Ageing, Disability
and Substituted Decision-Making

BRISBANE : 19-20 MARCH 2009
Hilton Hotel

FIRST & FINAL CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
Closing date for receipt of abstracts: Tuesday 30 September, 2008

Abstracts for papers that address these and related issues are invited and may include a consideration of:
Please note that the acceptance of papers etc.
is contingent on registration for the Conference.

• Assessing capacity
• Use of enduring powers of attorney, advance health directives and
family agreements
• Guardianship, including protection of rights and developing best practice
• Responding to challenging behaviour,
mental illness, personality disorders and homelessness
• Administration and financial protection of the vulnerable
• Medical treatment decisions including end of life
decision-making
• Tribunals - structure, fact finding, confidentiality and procedural fairness
• Promoting human rights
• Engaging with Indigenous Communities
• Responding to the needs of our vulnerable aged

Please ensure that you comply with the following and forward (details below)
no later than 30 September 2008.
Abstracts must be:
• typed in Microsoft Word
• no more than 300 words
• submitted by email as an attachment or by post on a CD or floppy disk
(faxes will not be accepted)
Abstracts should include:
• Name of conference
(“AGAC Conference”)
• Title of presentation
• Author/s name(s), with name of presenting author underlined:
• Authors’ affiliations
• Main author’s address and contact details (postal and email addresses, phone and fax numbers)
Please forward abstracts by email to:
agac@conorg.com.au

or on a CD to:

AGAC Conference
c/- The Congress Organiser
146 Leicester Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053
AUSTRALIA

Receipt of all abstracts will be
acknowledged by email.

Professor Kenny Heglund:: End of life conversations video now online

A new video on intensive care, hospice and the value of candid family conversations is available online. It will be part of a continuing series on elder law topics designed for the general public, and it is based on the book written by Professor Kenney Hegland and Robert Fleming, CELA: Alive and Kicking: Legal Advice for Boomers. The video is designed to be helpful to clients facing, but mostly ignoring, end-of-life matters.

www.law.arizona.edu/boomerlaw

Triple A Foundation publishes update on senior traffic fatalities

The document compiles traffic fatality data on seniors for all fifty states:

Senior Passenger‐Vehicle‐Driver Fatalities by State, Year, and Age Group (2002 ‐ 2006, Ages 65+)

the 17th International Congress on Palliative Care is September 23-26, 2008

The Detailed Programme of the 17^th International Congress on Palliative Care, to be held September 23-26, 2008 at the Palais des Congrès in Montréal, Canada, is now available on the Congress web site at www.pal2008.com 

Founded in 1976 under the leadership of palliative care pioneer Dr. Balfour Mount and presented by the Palliative Care Division of the Departments of Medicine and Oncology of McGill University, this biennial Congress has grown to become one of the premier international events in palliative care. Bringing together over 1500 participants from around the world, the Congress provides an opportunity to review and share the latest developments in research as well as perspectives on end-of-life care from different cultures, spiritual traditions, and professions.

This year’s outstanding programme features five plenary sessions, four all-day Concurrent Seminars, research fora, 160 workshops, proffered papers and symposia, and over 200 posters.