End-of-life decisions still being put off
The tug-of-war over Terri Schiavo’s life hasn’t prompted a stampede of Inland Northwesterners to hospitals and groups that offer living wills, durable powers of attorney and do-not-resuscitate orders.
But it should, say organizers of such right-to-die groups such as Compassion and Choices and Final Exit.
“The stereotype that living wills are just for older people is being broken by that case,” Coeur d’Alene elder law attorney Michael Wytchak said Monday. “Living wills are applicable to every one of us.”
Although few people seem to be taking action, the Schiavo case has raised awareness that people need to decide on end-of-life options and protect themselves as much as possible with the proper paperwork.
Schiavo is a Florida woman who has been unconscious since 1990. Her husband argues she would want to be removed from life support, but her parents insist she could still recover. Her feeding tube was removed Friday under a court order, but President Bush, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and a majority in Congress and the Florida Legislature are fighting to have it reinserted, as has been done twice previously.
“At this point it’s a circus. People are outraged,” said Bob Brown, president of Coeur d’Alene’s Compassion and Choices. “People were talking about it at church, saying everyone has the right to make that choice for themselves.”
Brown spoke to the Retired Federal Employees on Monday about how easy it is to fill out paperwork that specifies end-of-life wishes. The forms are available at Compassion and Choices in Coeur d’Alene and Final Exit in Spokane, hospitals, Aging and Adult Services and many law offices, although they don’t require an attorney’s help.
Living wills detail what life-prolonging measures a person wants after that person can no longer make his or her wishes known. Durable powers of attorney give two or three people the right to decide on care for a person who can’t decide on his or her own.
In Idaho, do-not-resuscitate orders work everywhere but hospitals and nursing homes, where doctors have the ultimate decision. In Washington, do-not-resuscitate orders are, for the most part, honored everywhere. Advance health care directives specify what life-prolonging treatment is acceptable.
Compassionate Choices in Spokane disbanded this month and is reforming as Final Exit, group leader Valerie Snipes said. But the group still promotes advance directives and powers of attorney for health care. Final Exit plans no immediate mass distribution of paperwork in reaction to the Schiavo case. But it is bringing Derek Humphry, who started the right-to-die movement, to speak in Spokane on April 16.
Humphry, from England, founded the Hemlock Society in the United States in 1980 after he helped his terminally ill wife, Jean, die rather than prolong her suffering from cancer. He’ll speak at 11 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4340 W. Fort Wright Drive, in Spokane. Admission is free.
For more information on Derek Humphry, check out www.finalexit.org.