Society's vulnerable people need our aid

Friday, Mar. 06, 2015

The 2015 Utah legislative session has been rife with drama. From comprehensive criminal justice reform to the years-long debate over providing health care to low-income Utahns, legislators face many opportunities to improve the lives of our residents, and have had varying degrees of success.

Sadly, at press time Utah House members were still burying their heads in the sand on health care. Despite two years of study, including a state-commissioned analysis by a neutral third party, that all supported providing health care to thousands of low-income working Utahns, several House members were still falling on ideological swords to prevent passage of Healthy Utah.

As representatives are denying health insurance to the poor, they will also consider a bill to allow anyone over 18 years of age who is given a diagnosis of six months to live to receive enough prescription drugs to end their life. HB 391 Death with Dignity Act, like all such legislation, begins from the premise that a death that includes suffering is somehow undignified. But as Bishop Wester explains in his column (see above), pain serves an important role in the dignity of life.

While Bishop Wester addresses our faith-based reasons for opposing assisted suicide, the bill also presents practical problems.

First, the six-month diagnosis. Doctors are encouraged not to be to exact in end-of-life prognosis, recognizing that such determinations are uncertain, unreliable, and often become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once a person is told they will die soon, they may fall into an understandable depression and give up the fight. Studies consistently show that being exact in end-of-life time frames is detrimental to patients, until the final days. 

For many, exact end-of-life statements will turn out to be joyfully wrong. Stories abound of individuals told they have six months who find more proactive doctors and live for many years, with effective pain control, beyond the prophesied expiration date. For these individuals, assisted suicide at six months would have deprived them of irreplaceable experiences with loved ones.

Second, Utah is among the top states in the nation for suicide. According to the Utah Suicide Prevention Coalition, more people have thought about or attempted suicide in Utah than any other state in the nation, and we have exceeded the national rate for suicides for the past decade. Suggesting that suicide is a valid alternative in a state that already struggles with such tragedy is, frankly, reckless.

Third, as states and countries with assisted suicide laws have discovered, the majority of individuals who commit suicides are suffering more from treatable depression than from terminal illness. In Utah, this is particularly true given our status as the state with the highest depression index in the nation. Again, offering an option to terminate life rather than provide access to mental health treatment for depression is an outrageous affront to the dignity and sanctity of life. State policy should encourage people to seek treatment, not end their lives.

As Bishop Wester noted, Oregon has discovered that most of the individuals who seek assisted suicide are divorced, widowed or never married. Most do not cite pain as their primary reason for wanting to end their lives. Rather, they point to a lack of autonomy, inability to participate in activities they enjoy, and a feeling that they lack dignity. Again, all of these feelings may be alleviated with loving, compassionate care.  

Catholics must do all that we can to bring comfort and support to those who are dying so that, as Canadian bishops explained, “no one because of loneliness, vulnerability, loss of autonomy, or fear of pain and suffering, feels they have no choice but to commit suicide.” It is part of our moral duty as Christians to aid the most vulnerable in our society and help kill the “death with dignity” bill, not the patient.