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Lawmakers share personal stories about assisted suicide bill

Past and present Connecticut legislators are sharing personal stories about how their loved ones dealt with the final days of their lives as the Judiciary Committee considers a bill allowing physicians to prescribe medication to help terminally ill patients end their lives.  One of the emotional accounts came from former Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, who represented a district that includes Newtown.

 

McKinney says he doesn't like to talk about his private life, but he felt he had to after his mother's death in May.  Her bladder cancer metastasized into other organs and she was also diagnosed in February with breast cancer.  McKinney's mother declined surgery and tried one round of chemo.

 

McKinney says he understands her need for control over medical treatment.  He touted the hospice and palliative care his mother received .  He urged the lawmaker to make sure that type of care is available to anyone who may need or want it.

 

The Director of Nursing at Regional Hospice and Home Care of Western Connecticut submitted testimony in opposition to the bill.  Robin Viklund has been a nurse for more than 30 years, the latest 10 in palliative care.  She says hospice care is available to patients so they can lead the rest of their natural life as comfortable as possible with dignity.  She says hospice and palliative care support's the patients right to participate in all decisions, expert symptom management and emotional support.  Viklund also pointed out that hospice care provides bereavement services for the family.

 

Danbury resident Lynn Taborsak submitted written testimony in support of the bill.  She talked about modifying her house so that she can age in place, but says that life-sustaining measures are not something she would want in the case of a terminal disease.  At it's core, Taborsak called the bill a way to give terminally ill patients a choice between suffering end to life or a peaceful death. Taborsak says the bill is loaded with definitions, safeguards and requirements to prevent abuse.  She called the Oregon bill it's modelled after, one that has been abuse-free for 17 years.

 

Danbury Senator Mike McLachlan submitted written testimony in opposition to the bill citing statistics in Oregon.  That state passed an assisted suicide bill in 1997 and McLachlan says the rate of suicide among Oregon residents has increased each year since 2000.  In 2012, the suicide rate was 41-percent higher than the national average.  McLachlan worries that this bill would open the door to abuse of the elderly and disabled.  He said in written comments that those around them could influence the decision to commit suicide for personal gain.  McLachlan says a weakness in the bill is that there are no safeguards to know if the lethal drugs were administered voluntarily.

 

State Attorney General George Jepsen emailed testimony to the committee.  Five states currently allow terminally ill patients to seek aid in dying.  His testimony pointed to specific safeguards in the bill: a person must be mentally competent, have a defined terminal illness and a diagnosis of less than 6 months to live.  He pointed to the Oregon law and said 59-percent of those who obtain prescriptions, don't end up taking the lethal drugs.  Jepsen says aid in dying is not a replacement for continued treatment, hospice or other services. 

 

Other provisions of the proposal include that there must be two independent diagnose made.  His testimony detailed that written requests must be witnessed by two people and sent to the primary physician in the case.  Witnesses can't have a familial or financial connection to the patient and must not by the owner, operator or employee of a health care facility providing care to the patient.

 

The public hearing drew so much interest an overflow room had to be set up at the state capitol to accommodate everyone.

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