Let's Debate Without Distractions

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By PEG SANDEEN, Guest Opinion
Published on Oregonlive.com on September 20, 2009, at 5:55PM

Ross Douthat, in his commentary in The Sunday Oregonian ("Our slippery slope of costly care and swift death," Sept. 13), argues that the current health care reform plans are leading us toward a "rendezvous with fiscal suicide." Rather than encountering data and statistics in support of this point, the reader is met with a diversion: a piece about physician-assisted suicide and not about health care reform.

By conflating two distinct health care policies, Douthat redirects the conversation away from substantive debates about reform. He may say the two are related, noting that perils lurk "at the intersection of physician-assisted suicide and health care reform." However, giving voice to a fear does not make it true.

Oregonians know that these two policies are not linked. Death with Dignity is a law that allows a terminally ill, mentally competent adult to request and receive a prescription to hasten death under many safeguards. There is nothing of the sort in the national health care reform bill, HR 3200. One section of the proposed law, championed by Oregon's own Rep. Earl Blumenauer, would allow physicians to bill Medicare once every five years for discussing end-of-life care options with their patients, if their patients so choose. This section of the law has nothing to do with Death with Dignity.

Conflating the two topics may, tragically, accomplish the goal that opponents of health care reform have established -- to scare Americans into opposing efforts to change the current system. Scare them with death panels, threats of euthanasia and rationing of care for seniors. This strategy trumps any real discussions of reform.

In 1994 and 1997, the people of Oregon participated in a public debate about the merits of Death with Dignity. There were many scare tactics -- opponents argued that children would coerce their parents into using the law, that Oregon would become a death destination, that people would flock to Oregon's beaches to die.

Oregonians listened beyond these scare tactics and conducted a healthy public debate. That debate led to a law that has worked flawlessly for 12 years, and a law, not coincidentally, that has led to marked improvements in end-of-life care overall.

Americans deserve a similar open and honest public debate about health care reform. The debate may be contentious, and it may be fraught with emotion and disagreement. Nonetheless, health care reform is a critical issue that warrants a dialogue free of politically motivated distractions.

Defend dignity. Take action.

You are the key to ensuring well-crafted Death with Dignity laws for all Americans. With your financial and volunteer help, the Death with Dignity National Center, a 501(c)(3), non-partisan, non-profit organization, has been the leading advocate in the death with dignity movement. Member contributions helped us pass a new Death with Dignity law in Washington, defend the Oregon law, and provide education and outreach programs for the vitality of the death with dignity movement.

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The greatest human freedom is to live, and die, according to one's own desires and beliefs. From advance directives to physician-assisted dying, death with dignity is a movement to provide options for the dying to control their own end-of-life care.

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