Doctor Wants Right to "Aid in Dying"
Sues state prosecutors to clarify law
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Doctors are hoping to "aid in death" for those ready to end their lives. A new law could make that happen.
Sheldon Smith, 86, suffering from abdominal cancer, doesn't know how long he has left to live but he does know one thing.
"I'd like a physician to be able to prescribe medication that I could consume to bring about a peaceful death," he told a news conference, "if my dying process becomes unbearable."
He supports a lawsuit brought by two doctors against Connecticut state's attorneys, but he doesn't expect a ruling to clarify the law in the time he has left. Nor does he expect the legislature to decide the issue.
"At bottom," said Kathryn Tucker, a lawyer with Compassion and Choices, "this case is about whether we respect the right of patients, like Sheldon Smith, to make their own choices about their own death."
Filing the suit in court in Hartford is Dr. Gary Blick, an H.I.V. specialist, who said fear of prosecution has led him to reject patients' requests for aid in dying.
"Providing such treatment could subject me to criminal prosecution, such as manslaughter," he said.
Manslaughter was the charge against Hunt Williams, a Cornwall man who spent a year on probation after helping a dying friend shoot himself in the head in 2004.
"I walked a hundred yards up the driveway and called out 'God Bless', but before I got the 'You' in, I heard the gunfire."
He endured the costs of prosecution with help from friends in Cornwall and Glastonbury, where he grew up. He too thinks the law should allow doctors to prescribe medications terminally ill people could use to end their lives on their own terms.
Dr. Blick said a combination of Percoset and Xanax with alcohol might be an example of "aid in dying." He rejected the suggestion that it would be "assisted suicide".
Tucker said studies show it happens "covertly" and she thinks it should happen openly.
Posted Wednesday, Oct 7, 2009 - 5:59 PM EST
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