Mastodon I-1000 Advertisements from Both Sides & More Columns ~ Pallimed

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I-1000 Advertisements from Both Sides & More Columns

(For EMAIL subscribers click the title of this post or links below to see the videos)

Martin Sheen in 30 second spot for No on I-1000



Personal Story in support of I-1000


Do you think these ads accurately portray the issues?

A Seattle newspaper columnist who opposes I-1000 has a couple of columns about his concerns. His main argument is about the foundation of a democracy is to protect life. Any PoliSci majors want to debate that point?

Dan Savage has a follow-up editorial with a slight mocking tone (Life is Beautiful at the Hospice) regarding the argument that physician-assisted suicide is not necessary because of hospice.

Death is always beautiful and peaceful at the hospice—and once you’re in a hospice, why, you won’t want or need the lethal dose of medication that I-1000 would allow your doctor to prescribe you (so long as you had less than six months to live, asked for it twice, once in writing, and a second doctor signed off on it), so what’s the point of voting for that silly death-with-dignity initiative anyway?
He also makes another post highlighting commenters who have hospice horror stories. What concerns me is some of the mischaracterizations of what hospice is and is not by people who have n of 1 or 2 experiences. As I said in my recent post, hospice and palliative medicine cannot fix everything, but this almost feels like it is diminsihing what hospice can do.

USA Today has also covered I-1000
so it is getting some national attention. A commenter at Medical Futility Blog noted that it may not become a national issue for this reason:
Makarios said...

Given the fact that there's an election campaign on, I don't think that anyone wants to go there. It's not a Democratic issue, and the Republicans remember the public revulsion that was expressed when they were practically trampling on one another to get Terri's feeding tube re-inserted. Accordingly, the noise machine has likely been set to "mute" on this sort of thing--at least until after election day.

For a lot of these posts I would encourage you to read the comments to get the feel for what the public thinks about medically hastened death.

(My Standard Disclaimer: Pallimed, Dr. Sinclair and his current and former employers and states do not endorse or practice euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, but do encourage the open, non-judgmental discussion of these topics for educational and ethical discourse about this controversial area of medicine.)

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