Washington D.C. Progress in Implementing Medical Aid-in-Dying Act
Compassion & Choices today praised D.C. Health for
releasing two years of reports showing it is making progress in
implementing the D.C. Death with Dignity Act, despite repeated
congressional attempts to repeal the law since it took
effect on Feb. 18, 2017.
The D.C. Death with Dignity
Act
allows mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live
to have the option to request a doctor’s prescription for medication they can
decide to take if their end-of-life suffering becomes unbearable, so they can
die peacefully in their sleep.
Eight states
currently allow medical aid in dying: California,
Colorado, Hawai’i, Montana (via state Supreme Court ruling), New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and
Vermont. In
addition, Maine
will allow this option starting Sept. 15. Collectively, these 10 jurisdictions
represent more than 1/5 of the nation’s population (22%) and have more than 40
years of experience successfully implementing this medical practice.
D.C. Health
released two reports showing no D.C.
residents used the law in 2017, but that four
terminally ill D.C. residents received prescriptions for aid-in-dying
medication in 2018; two of these people took the medication to peacefully end
their suffering from cancer, but two others died before taking the medication. “Repeated
congressional attempts to repeal the law have unfortunately caused confusion
about the status of the law, discouraging doctors, healthcare providers and
patients from...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
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