Sequim Gazette Editorial and Letters to the Editor

Two weeks ago, Olympic Medical Center commission President Jim Leskinovitch promised that the board will reconsider letting hospital caregivers discuss Death with Dignity with patients.

The next night, Linda Fleming, 66, of Sequim, became the first person in Washington to commit assisted suicide under the same act, which voters passed last November as Initiative 1000.

There is no evidence Ms. Fleming sought counsel or support - much less her lethal prescription - from an OMC physician and her family has declined to identify her doctor.

Nonetheless, one participant's comments to commissioners still echoes loudly on a sour note in her death.

A man from Port Angeles said calling assisted suicide Death with Dignity was "a false name," preferring that it be labeled "death as a coward."

Alone among the 26 speakers that night, he was booed by backers of Death with Dignity.

They were rude to boo, but I think they were right.

You can't but wonder what he'd have said had he been face to face with Ms. Fleming, who'd been diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer and had less than six months to live, either in excruciating pain or in a deepening drug-induced fog.

In a statement she prepared before taking a lethal dose of prescribed medications, Ms. Fleming had written:

"I am a very spiritual person and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death.

"The powerful pain medications were making it difficult to maintain the state of mind I wanted to have at my death.

"I am grateful that the Death with Dignity law provides me the choice of a death that fits my own personal beliefs."



Personal belief

And there's the nub of the argument: personal belief.

I can't - and wouldn't - say how I'd react if I faced Ms. Fleming's prognosis.

But neither can nor will I tell anyone else how to face death.

Nine people at the meeting urged the commissioners to stand by their March 9 decision to "opt out" of Death with Dignity decisions. Most of them said they spoke from a belief that death should remain in the hands of God.

What, though, if you don't believe in a supreme being or, if you do, reserve for yourself control over your own actions - especially a final action such as Ms. Fleming took?

Are you a heretic? An apostate?

A coward?

Christian orthodox theologians long have consigned persons who commit suicide to the deepest depths of hell.

What's less clear is whether they considered suicide the worst sin or the ultimate escape from religious authority.

The Death with Dignity debate was decided, one would think, by the 60 percent of voters who approved it. Foremost among their reasons was control over the final stages of their lives.

They spoke only for themselves. They didn't prescribe death - or beliefs - for others.

OMC commissioners bucked the Initiative 1000 decision when they disallowed OMC employees to discuss Death with Dignity issues with patients on or in hospital property.

That effectively prohibited OMC caregivers from participating in such discussions even on their own time in private places because their hospital-paid malpractice insurance protects them only in hospital facilities.



Discussion tonight

OMC commissioners will discuss Death with Dignity at their meeting tonight (see related report on page A-1). They barely talked about their decision March 9.

Now, though, there's an element of politics in the issue. Come November, five of the board's seven positions will be up for election.

They include Leskinovitch, who has announced that he will seek re-election.

Leskinovitch's point of view will be equally intriguing as he campaigns. He has said he voted for Initiative 1000, but he voted against OMC participation in Death with Dignity.

He was joined by commissioners Jean Hordyk, Arlene Engel and Jim Cammack - all of whose terms expire this year.

Supporting Death with Dignity were John Beitzel, whose term has two more years to run, and Gary Smith, who is resigning because of extended employment outside the United States.

Absent from the vote was commissioner Cindy Witham, whose resignation was announced at the end of the March 9 meeting. She has been replaced by appointee John Nutter, who must run for the job if he is to retain it.

He has not indicated his opinion on the issue, saying he needs time to study it and solicit information from hospital employees.

Thus, Death with Dignity - a hot issue last November as Initiative 1000 - could become a factor this November in an election that traditionally has been devoid of controversy.

It's not likely to be a campaign for candidates who hold no opinion on assisted suicide.

Nor for cowards.





Columnist joins

Gazette's lineup



Now for something completely different:

Jack Thornton, a semi-retired veterinarian who did much of his doctoring at the Olympic Game Farm, starts his "In Vetrospect" column today.

Thornton's view of life is colored richly by his encounters with animals ranging from turtles to tigers, and his experiences echo the humor of the late, beloved Scottish author James Herriot ("All Creatures Great and Small" and others).

Thornton will alternate with veteran columnist Jim Follis, and he introduces himself and begins "In Vetrospect" on the opposite page.



Jim Casey is the editor of the Sequim Gazette.