—Special to the Catholic Business Journal by Thomas M. Loarie—A robust panel of experts at this year’s Napa Institute revealed that in places where Physician Assisted Suicide has been legalized, a shift to involuntary Euthanasia and a General Decline in Palliative Care has followed.
The expert panel noted untoward consequences that follow the legalization of Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) include a shift to involuntary euthanasia, eugenic judgements made for those who are disabled or unproductive, coercion by insurers, and a general decline in palliative and hospice care.
Panelist O. Carter Snead, PhD, professor of law and director of the William P. and Hazel B. White Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame told the Napa audience that one out of four PAS patients today are killed without consent in Holland. He went on to say that PAS has led to an “epidemic of elder abuse with 90% of the abuse coming from a member of the patient’s family.”
Panelist Tim Rosales, spokesperson for the Californians Against Physician Suicide, reported that legislative efforts to legalize PAS in California stalled in early July 2015. The bill legalizing PAS was pulled before the California Assembly’s Health Committee could vote on it, however. Rosales attributed the delay to legislator’s growing concerns over the unintended consequences of PAS.
Snead rebutted the popular arguments for assisted suicide—autonomy/self-determination; compassion for suffering/radical dependence; state neutrality and pluralism; fairness; and efficiency/utility—by exposing the realities of each argument.
Snead noted that “autonomy is nearly always illusory in this context, suicidal ideation is highly correlated with mental illness (e.g., treatable depression); suicidal desires are often alleviated with effective pain management; and suicidal wishes often emerge from internal or extrinsic pressures (financial and emotional) regarding burdens to others (real or perceived).”
Yet in Oregon, where physician-assisted suicide is legal, there are virtually no referrals for psychiatric evaluations.
“Nearly 95% of those who kill themselves have been shown to have a diagnosable psychiatric illness in the months preceding suicide,” Snead underscored. “The majority (60%) suffer from depression that can be treated.”
Snead went on to say that “Physician-assisted suicide provides a lethal form of discrimination against the disabled, elderly, poor, and minorities; leaves the door open for grave and deadly risks of fraud, mistake and abuse, and a new, deadly form of coercion by insurers or family members.” Further, it “corrodes the doctor-patient relationship and has led to non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia in the Netherlands.”
He then noted that we are now seeing lethal injections for newborns.
Snead closed with a list of professional organizations that have announced their opposition to assisted suicide. They include:
- American Medical Association
- World Health Organization
- American Nurses Association
- American Association of Critical-‐Care Nurses
- Hospice Nurses Association
- Oncology Nurses Society
- American Osteopathic Association
- American Psychiatric Association
- American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
- American Academy of Pain Management
- American Academy of Pain Medicine
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
- American Academy of Physical Medicine
- Society of Critical Care Medicine
- American Academy of Neurology
- American Neurological Association
- American Society of Anesthesiologists
- American Society of Clinical Pathologists
- College of American Pathologists
- American Society of Abdominal Surgeons
- American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists
- Society of Medical Consultants to the Armed Forces
- American Institute of Life Threatening Illness and Loss
- Massachusetts Medical Society
- Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
- American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today
- American Associa1on of People with Disabilities
- Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living
- Justice for All
- National Council on Disability
- National Council on Independent Living
- National Spinal Cord Injury Association
- Not Dead Yet
- TASH
- World Association of Persons with Disabilities
- World Institute on Disability
The panel discussion ended with Rev. Robert Spitzer, co-founder and President of the Napa Institute, urging attendees to educate themselves and others on the harsh realities of assisted suicide.
Other panelists included Aaron Kheriaty, MD, psychiatrist at University of California at Irvine and founder of UCI’s Psychiatry and Spirituality Forum, and Greg Pfundstein, executive director of the Chiaroscuro Foundation.
About the Napa Institute – The Napa Institute was formed to help Catholic leaders face the challenges posed in the “next America” — to continue the work of the Apostles and their successors, the Bishops, heeding Christ’s call for ongoing evangelization. By leading participants to a deeper understanding of the truth behind the faith, the Napa Institute emboldens Catholics to live and defend their faith with a peaceful confidence that is borne out of solid formation, fellowship and spiritual enrichment.