European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 6, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Debate Over dying by George Esper associated press in a moment of abandon one March Day a year ago in a respite from finality Henry Brod and his wife i dined on roast Duck and White wine at thei favorite restaurant and topped off the evening by watching Ballet Star Rudolf Nureyev dance. It was one of those rare Days. Then i 61, suffering from terminal cancer went Home to die by eating jell-0 laced with the powder from 35 seconal capsules washing it Down with Bourbon. Henry had helped her get the barbiturates in Small doses from two doctors under the pretence that she was having nightmares. They had planned her death together but she would choose the time a Little after Midnight March 12, 1987, without telling her husband. Facing pain and surgery without Hope of cure she decided on a Good death rather than a lingering one says Brod a 63-year-old psychologist. The Means was suicide. Morally and spiritually we were together. She took her own pills. I was not involved in the Legal  the Brod Case several recent mercy killings in the United states and a sensational article by an Anonymous physician in a leading american medical journal have Given a fresh impetus to the Long dispute Over whether when and in what circumstances euthanasia would be legally warranted. Proponents of euthanasia tried to get the Issue on the november ballot in California but fell Short of the required number of signatures on their petition. That Campaign caused less of a stir nationally than an article it s Over Debbie in the journal of the american medical association in january. The author whose name has never been disclosed described the mercy killing through an injection of morphine of a 20-year-old woman who was dying of ovarian cancer. Some physicians including or. John h. Burkhart chairman of the Ama s Council on ethical and judicial affairs have questioned the authenticity of the account because some details Don t jibe. We performed no Independent investigation so we can t assure you whether the event occurred says or. George d. Lundberg the journal s editor. We believe the author to be telling the truth. Many people who have been speaking loudly about this Case have assumed it was current and in this country. Neither Assumption is necessarily True. Our journal is read in every country in the world and we receive articles from very Many  in any Case Lundberg adds. Whether the essay was True or not is irrelevant to our purpose. Our plan was to stimulate debate on the subject of suffering and dying from Many viewpoints. We succeeded extremely  Lundberg says the journal received about 300 letters one of the highest number Ever for the publication and that As a follow up it ran 10 pages of letters editorials and Commer Dary. He said the article resulted in workshops and seminars across the country particularly on University campuses and debate in the letters columns of Many newspapers. There is now More than Ever a serious concern about prolonging dying by technological Means and there is much debate about the process of dying and the alleviation of pain he says. All of this is occurring at a time when the Netherlands allows thousands of terminally ill patients to be put to death by doctors without prosecution and California has been considering a referendum to legalize  the National Hemlock society a los Angeles based organization with 24,000 members and its political Arm americans against human suffering Are proposing legislation in California that would allow doctors to give terminally ill adults lethal doses of drugs upon the patient s written request. The present Law permits the withdrawal or withholding of life support systems such As respirators under certain conditions. These include a living will signed by the patient specifying he or she does not want to be kept alive by artificial Means or a Power of attorney if the person becomes incompetent or incapacitated. Thirty seven other states and the District of Columbia have adopted similar living will Laws. A number of other states have recognized the patient s right to refuse treatment through court decisions. Under the proposal in California the humane and dignified death act two physicians must certify that the patient would die within six months. The patient s signed declaration must be witnessed independently by two people who would not stand to gain from the death. The family must be informed and anything they say must be considered even though they can t Stop it. The first Effort failed when americans against human suffering got Only 250,000 valid signatures of the 372,128 required by the May 8 deadline to put the Issue on the California ballot. The Hemlock society and americans against human suffering plan to try again in 1990, not Only in California but also in Oregon Washington state and Florida. The Hemlock society draws its name from the Hemlock Weed that ancient greeks used in suicide. It was founded in 1980 by Derek Humphry a 58-year-old English journalist and his second wife Ann Wickett. Humphry the society s director watched Bone cancer ravage his first wife Jean for 2va years when the couple was living in England. They talked about their plans for euthanasia for nine months. She asked him to help her and picked the Day March 29,1975. On that Day Humphry made her a Mug of Coffee mixed with sleeping pills and pain killers that he obtained from a doctor Friend. He placed it on the table beside her. They embraced. She said goodbye my  fifty minutes later she was dead at age 42. Only a close Circle of friends shared his secret until three years after his wife s death when he published a Book about his experience Jean s Way which tipped off Law enforcement officials. He offered to plead guilty but English authorities decided against prosecuting him. By the time the Book was published in America in 1979, he was living in the United states moving from the sunday times of London to the los Angeles times. Deluged by invitations for speaking appearances and hundreds of letters asking for help he says he started the Hemlock society. The society publishes a suicide manual let me die before i Wake which Humphry says Sells 1,500 copies a month. Obviously a fair number of people Are using it he says. In t it better that there be a tougher Law a tougher Standard rather than the Covert Way it s happening now it was this Book that the Brods used to plan i s suicide after hearing Humphry speak in Sarasota Fla. She had the pills for two months before choosing her time of death. Every night i was wondering if she d do it says Brod now an Eastern regional director of the Hemlock society. Once i had her 35 pills she was free of All worry anxiety of All the panic that had to do with slow painful death. We had decided to go out and have All sorts of fun and do All of the things she wanted to  Brod was questioned extensively by the county sheriff but no charges were filed against him. While both he and Humphry walked away free men that was not the Case with Charles Griffith and Roswell Gilbert both serving 25 years in Florida jails without parole for mercy killings. Susan m. Wolf an associate for Law at the Hastings Center a research Institute on medical ethics in Briarcliff Manor n.y., is troubled by the inconsistency and the enormous room for prosecutor Al discretion in mercy killings. I think the consensus among Legal scholars remains that it should not be legalized she says. One of the proposals has been to recognize mercy killing As a defense to a homicide charge or in some ways treat mercy killing separately and More leniently. Currently it amounts to homicide but prosecutors handle it very differently. So we have the extreme of the Gilbert Case All the Way to Complete  by his own account in a recent Telephone interview and in testimony at his trial Gilbert shot his wife of 51 years Emily to death on March 4,1985, As she Lay on a sofa in their fort Lauderdale condominium her mind wasted by alzheimer s disease her body Brittle from the Bone disease osteoporosis. She was 72. Roswell i love you dearly she told her husband a retired electronics Engineer. Why does everybody Hurt me so. I Don t Hurt anybody. Somebody please help me. Please god somebody help  who s that somebody but me you know Gilbert asked himself. And there she was in pain and All this a drawing confusion and i guess if i got cold As ice water that s what had happened. I thought to myself i be got to do it it s got to be mine. I be got to end her suffering. This can t Goon " Griffith shot his 3-year-old daughter Joy to death on july 3,1985, in a Miami Hospital where she had been for eight months with brain damage suffered when she got her head caught in a Recliner chair. The oxygen to her brain was Cut off Long enough so that she was left in a chronic vegetative state. They Cut a Hole in my baby s Throat for the machine Griffith wrote in a letter from his jail cell published in the july 1987 Issue of Hemlock quarterly. They drilled a Bolt into her head to Monitor her brain s swelling. They also put a tube in her stomach to feed her through and splints on her arms and legs to keep her from Curling  Griffith said he tried everything to Wake her up but nothing worked. I would rub Lemon juice Saltwater and Sugarwater on Ner lips. I would put hot and cold washcloths on her arms and legs telling her this is cold Joy or this is hot Honey i also flashed different coloured lights in her eyes telling her what each color was. I would sit there and stroke her and cry and i heard her ask me not to let her Hurt anymore. I know that Joy is in heaven. She can see talk play and laugh  Griffith s attorney Benedict p. Kuehne called his Case a tragedy for the criminal Justice system which is not equipped to resolve the problem of misguided mercy killings and thus must resort to murder prosecutions when such cases do not belong in that  the Hemlock society s Humphry says it does not approve of violent mercy killings but that in the cases of Gilbert and Griffith they had no Choice because nobody offered them a Legal or better Way out. The american medical association and Many doctors like Burkhart the chairman of its Council on ethical and judicial affairs oppose Active euthanasia. It is murder or manslaughter depending on what the court says Burkhart says. As Long As it is illegal that in itself is enough for the Ama to oppose it. It s against the medical oath to kill. You can t be a healer and a killer at the same  just the same 60 percent of 2,218 Colorado doctors to responding to a Survey in that state said they have had a Tienus for whom they thought euthanasia would be justified if Legal. Almost All said they would have Given Mem a lethal drug if allowed Jln one form or another euthanasia is being practice to decent professionals and supported by the affected patients says or. Frederick Abrams associate director Che Center for health ethics and policy at the University of Colorado at Denver. Yet it is opposed by Lodge numbers of people. We must develop consensus in by Lorado concerning Legal and ethical ground  Iama guidelines allow for passive euthanasia the equivalent of withholding and withdrawing care from Tymi Nally ill patients on their instructions. In a recent by the Ama 78 percent of 1,000 randomly selected physicians said they favor withdrawing life support systems including food and water from hopelessly ill or irreversibly comatose patients if they or their families request it. Like Many other doctors Nancy Dickey a family physician in Richmond Texas sees a distinction Between Active and passive euthanasia. I think it s difficult to maintain the Trust my patients have when i also become an executioner she said. I have an obligation when patients Are facing death to make that dignified and As pain free As possible. There is a difference in me no longer delaying that from happening and in me deciding on the time and place and mechanism of death. Doctors have been known to be wrong both about diagnosis and time  at Griffith s trial a paediatric neurologist testified that the deeper areas in the base of his daughter s brain were spared damage that she was showing progressive recovery could breathe by herself could see and possibly hear and could Tell who was taking care of her. In the Gilbert trial Emily Gilbert s doctor testified that a month before her death she was having less pain from her osteoporosis that she suffered no physical pain from alzheimer s and that she could have conceivably lived another 5 to 10 years. But Roswell Gilbert says he was desperate that he did t know which Way to turn that he just went Over the Edge. He says he has no regrets even though he will be 100 years old by the time his sentence is up. If she d continued to live she d have suffered a lot More than i m suffering in Here he says. A photo Henry and i Brod in a snapshot taken before she was stricken by cancer and chose suicide Over prolonged illness.4 living wills associated press w Hile some see growing support for Active euthanasia in certain segments of the american population Many leading experts on medical ethics lawmakers doctors lawyers and religious leaders remain strongly opposed. For some the answer is living wills directives to withhold treatment and to give them As much drugs As required to keep them free of pain even if it speeds up their deaths in cases of incurable illnesses or irreversible injuries where two examining doctors certify there is no Hope for recovery. Or. John Burkhart chairman of the american medical association s Council on ethical and judicial affairs personally opposes euthanasia but says. I think attitudes have changed to where Active euthanasia would find favor with Many people and perhaps Many of the newer  Burkhart a 67-year-old family physician in Knoxville tenn., who has been practising 40 years believes Active euthanasia will be the next step he cautions that it would require Many restraints consultations and supporting opinions. But there s a lot of problems with that he says. Once you get to where you can practice Active euthanasia for people who Are terminally ill the next step is to begin to do it for people who Are mentally incompetent old and with no place to live just in the Way costing the family Money getting in their hair. Sooner or later it gets to the place where the unwanted Are the ones Tor whatever reason at  Daniel Callahan an author on the subject of medical ethics is the director of the Hastings Center. He opposes Active euthanasia because he too thinks the potential for abuse is great. He has not been persuaded that there is a desperate need for it. Callahan and another author expert or Eric j. Cassell professor of Public health at Cornell University medical College in new York City say that doctors arc not trained Well enough in making patients last Days comfortable and do not give them enough painkillers. The reasons Callahan says Are that marijuana and heroin both painkillers Are not legally or morally accepted that there is a lingering fear that patients will become addicted to other drugs or that heavy doses May shorten their lives. There s a feeling if you do that you might be accused of murdering the patient. So there s a kind of wariness of going too close to that line and the result is that they stay too far away from the line. I Don t think that legally or in terms of medical ethics it has been historically considered wrong to provide pain Relief even if it May have the effect of shortening life " Page 14 the stars and stripes wednesday july 6r 4988 the stars and stripes Page 15