Your Survey Results
Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED), an End-of-Life Alternative Take the Quiz! News Around the US... Volunteer Call to Action
Answers from the Quiz
Upcoming Events
Your Survey Results
We
asked what Medical Aid in Dying issues are our readers most interested
in, and here are the topics you identified as most popular in each
area.
Interest Form Results Received
from 1/15/21 to 1/22/21 from 33 Respondents
Legal
77.4%
Services for Physical End of Life Issues
(pain management / palliative care, Hospice, VSED)
67.7%
Legal End of Life Care Planning
(Medical POA, Advance Directive, POLST)
48.8%
Alternatives to MAID
(VSED, Final Exit, relocating)
Personal
70%
What can go Wrong
and how to prevent bad outcomes
66.7%
Physical End of Life Issues
(pain management / palliative care, Hospice, VSED)
56.7%
What our Proposed Law Allows
and provides as your rights
Organizational
42.1%
Engaging with all Arizona oCmmunities
42.1%
Communication with the Media
36.8%
Basic Lobbying
basic communication with legislators
Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED),
an End-of-Life Alternative by Dwight Moore, Chair of Arizona End of Life Options
Sally
Johnson lived a vibrant life as a watercolor artist, grandmother,
traveler, and gardener until a stroke shattered her in her
86th year. During the initial months of rehab, she maintained an
optimistic outlook, determined to recover and get back to her normal
life. That never happened. While she was able to continue to live in her
own home, she was not allowed to drive and she was not able to paint.
With the help of her two daughters, she adapted to these new realities
until she began experiencing spontaneous compression fractures in her
back.
Because of the new injuries, Sally decided to move to independent living
where she could walk to meals and participate in movie and card nights.
She threw herself into activity, but experienced growing frustration
because the other residents did not have the patience to try and
understand her somewhat garbled speech, yet another confounding effect
of the stroke. For five months she tried to adjust to this new
environment, but became more and more isolated. As the pain in her back
increased, she became progressively less willing to engage with the
other residents, could not enjoy walking, her art, or even to laugh out
loud. Her quality of life was reduced as she lost these abilities and
interests.
Determined to end her own suffering, Sally called her daughter, an RN,
and said she was going to stop eating and drinking. Her daughter urged
her to seek help from the local hospice. She qualified for hospice and,
with hospice’s help, was started on a mild dose of morphine. On a
Thursday, she stopped all eating and drinking. Her daughter responded to
her mother’s
thirstiness and dry mouth, by keeping her lips moist with moisturizing
salve and by putting a cold air humidifier in her room to help her
breathe moist air. Yet she struggled and during the second day Sally
said, “Dying is hell!” Her daughter requested more powerful morphine and
lorazepam which kept her sedated for most of the day. The fourth day,
she quieted a bit and seemed to welcome the presence of her
grandchildren as they came to visit with her for the last time,
expressing their love and saying goodbye. The next day, Sally lapsed
into a coma, then died, surrounded by family. Her family bathed her body
and put on a fresh gown, saying their final goodbyes.
As Arizona does not have a Medical Aid in Dying law in place, VSED is an
alternative choice people can make when their bodies are compromised,
when their quality of life is negligible, and when they feel they have
lost autonomy and dignity. Often, people who choose VSED have exhausted
the options of the medical profession e.g. chemotherapy, surgery, rehab,
or choose not to live into the last stages of their debilitating
disease, like ALS, MS, Parkinsons and Alzheimers. It is imperative that
they have medical support, like hospice, caregivers, and a strong will,
as maintaining resolve to use VSED can be difficult.
https://www.VSEDresources.com
is an excellent website which is full of great advice for what to
expect with VSED as well as the physical, mental, and spiritual ways in
which caregivers and family members can support the patient, and other
resources.
We here at Arizona End of Life Options are enthusiastically advocating
for passage of a medical-aid-in-dying law. MAID is a faster and more
comfortable death than VSED, but both preserve the dignity and choice of
the patient.
Take the Quiz!
What 8 states have introduced medical aid-in-dying bills to their legislature so far this year?
Answers are below.
News Around the US...
In WASHINGTON STATE,
where its Death with Dignity Act has been in effect since 2008, a
bipartisan bill in the state legislature, (HB 1141), expands the
definition of attending or consulting medical providers to include
advance practice nurses, shortens the waiting period and allows it to be
waived in extreme circumstances, and modernizes the rules around
obtaining the prescription from a pharmacy. On January 18, the
Washington House Committee on Health Care & Wellness passed the bill
by a vote of 8 to 4.
In HAWAII, an amendment (SB839 / HB487), to the Our
Care, Our Choice Act, based on recommendations from the Hawai’i
Department of Health, was introduced on January 22. It includes advanced
practice registered nurses among the list of authorized providers of
medical aid in dying, shortens the waiting period from 20 to 15 days and
allows physicians to waive the waiting period for critically ill
patients.
This week, a bill, (SB 380) was introduced in CALIFORNIA that
would eliminate the 10-year sunset provision of the California
End-of-Life Options Act and allow physicians to waive the 15-day waiting
period if necessary. A 2018 study by Kaiser Permanente Southern
California found that during the first year the law was in effect in
California, 21% of terminally ill patients who requested medical aid in
dying died or became too ill to ingest the medication before the 15-day
waiting period had lapsed.
Volunteer Call to Action
Whit Johnson, AZELO's very busy webinar host, volunteers to be in the newsletter.
...but Believe in the Cause?
Do
you enjoy searching the Internet? Would you be willing to do research
for our AZELO campaign? We are in need of researchers to assist us.
Please contact Marie MacWhyte, Digital Marketing Lead (360) 306-1532
phone or text, or m.macwhyte@azendoflifeoptions.org if you would be willing to contribute a few hours of your time each week for the next four weeks.
Answers from the Quiz
So far in 2021, Medical aid-in-dying legislation has been introduced in EIGHT states:
Arizona
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
New Mexico
New York
North Dakota
Upcoming Events
If you haven't
already, register for our live webinar on zoom about the Six Choices at
the End of Life. Other recorded webinars are also available on the
webinar page of the AZELO website athttps://AZEndofLifeOptions.org
Sally
Johnson lived a vibrant life as a watercolor artist, grandmother,
traveler, and gardener until a stroke shattered her in her
86th year. During the initial months of rehab, she maintained an
optimistic outlook, determined to recover and get back to her normal
life. That never happened. While she was able to continue to live in her
own home, she was not allowed to drive and she was not able to paint.
With the help of her two daughters, she adapted to these new realities
until she began experiencing spontaneous compression fractures in her
back.
’s
thirstiness and dry mouth, by keeping her lips moist with moisturizing
salve and by putting a cold air humidifier in her room to help her
breathe moist air. Yet she struggled and during the second day Sally
said, “Dying is hell!” Her daughter requested more powerful morphine and
lorazepam which kept her sedated for most of the day. The fourth day,
she quieted a bit and seemed to welcome the presence of her
grandchildren as they came to visit with her for the last time,
expressing their love and saying goodbye. The next day, Sally lapsed
into a coma, then died, surrounded by family. Her family bathed her body
and put on a fresh gown, saying their final goodbyes.
