Jalisco lawmaker Roberto Mendoza last week submitted a bill to Congress hat he says will allow those suffering with a terminal illness to “die with dignity.”
The Death with Dignity bill takes its cue from legislation passed over the last two decades in the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington and Vermont.
Mendoza said he had met extensively with terminally ill patients and doctors before drafting the legislation.
He said he expects a thorough discussion of the bill with all sectors of society, including Catholic Church leaders.
Speaking during last Sunday’s homily at mass in Guadalajara’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, the archbishop of Guadalajara, said the church will strongly oppose any attempt to introduce “assisted dying” or “euthanasia” in the state of Jalisco,
“Only God is the owner of life and only he can decide when (someone) dies,” he said.
Ortega admitted he had not read the proposed legislation and would comment further after studying its details.
In Oregon, Washington State and Vermont, patients with less than six months to live may request in writing, from his or her physician, a prescription for a lethal dose of medication for the purpose of ending the their life.
In its draft form, however, Mendoza’s bill remains unspecific as to the kind of medical intervention that could be permitted in Jalisco to allow a terminally ill patient to end their life.
The law will also broach the issue of withholding or withdrawal of life prolonging treatment.
This will allow patients to “plan the treatments and healthcare that they wish to receive, or refuse in the moment they are incapable of making that decision for themselves.”
The Catholic Church may be willing to accept laws governing the withdrawal of life prolonging treatment, but would certainly oppose any attempt that gave physicians the right to prescribe drugs to end a person’s life.
Oregon voters approved of their Death with Dignity Act in 1994 and confirmed their support in 1997, the same year the law went into effect. The voters of Washington passed their law in 2008 and it was implemented in 2009 after no credible legal challenges. Vermont became the third state with a Death with Dignity law in 2013, and the law went into effect immediately.
Terminology
- Assisted dying allows mentally competent, terminally-ill adult state residents to voluntarily request and receive a prescription medication to hasten their death.
- Assisted suicide allows assistance to die to chronically ill and disabled people who are not dying. Assisted suicide is permitted in Switzerland.
- Voluntary euthanasia allows a doctor to administer life ending medication directly to the patient. Voluntary euthanasia is permitted in the Netherlands and Belgium.
- Euthanasia is a term often used to describe life ending medication being administered by a third party, perhaps without the consent of the patient.
Assisted dying in Oregon in 2014
– 105 people had an assisted death. This accounts for around 0.3 percent of total deaths in Oregon.
– 155 people requested life-ending medication in 2014. 50 did not take the medication – many of them took comfort in knowing the option was there.
– 93 percent of people who had an assisted death were also enrolled in hospice care (average deaths under hospice care in the United States are 45 percent).
– The majority of people who had an assisted death had terminal cancer and were aged between 55-84.