More states weigh 'End of Life' laws for terminally ill

LOS ANGELES — Bedridden and in agony, Elizabeth Martin begged for her suffering to end.

Locked in a final battle with colon cancer, Martin, 66, knew the end was near. Her medical team told her she had about eight weeks left, says her sister Anita Freeman. Martin’s doctor denied her access to a mix of drugs that would let her die on her own terms.

The experience of her sister's  death in 2014 made Anita Freeman an advocate for a new law in California that lets doctors prescribe  "End of Life" drugs. Vermont, Oregon and Washington  have laws in place allowing for the prescription of these drugs. Gov. Jerry Brown signed California's law in June, but it is being challenged in court.

Opponents, some led by physicians, are working to overturn the legislation in all four states. After setbacks in Oregon and Washington, the groups are focusing on court fights in Vermont and California. At a hearing Friday, a Superior Court judge in Riverside, Calif., denied a request for a temporary halt to the California law, one step in what could be a lengthy legal battle.

Efforts are  underway to bring the controversial law to other areas. New Jersey, Utah, Colorado and Washington, D.C., have been weighing their own aid-in-dying bills.

Foes argue that the laws amount to state-sanctioned suicide. The better answer, they say, would be to provide more care to the terminally ill in their final days, rather than giving them the means to take their own lives. They say the laws are flawed because people with a terminal illness or disease would be eligible to end their lives when they actually suffer less than those with a malady that leaves them in as much or more pain but is non-fatal such as rheumatoid arthritis.

"We're not treating people equally in California," says David Stevens, a physician who is executive director for the American Academy of Medical Ethics, which  leads the lawsuit in California.  “How do you deny this to someone who suffers more?"

End of Life laws allow doctors to prescribe a fatal batch of drugs to mentally competent patients  estimated to have six months left to live. Laws vary slightly from state to state but share common core elements: The patient must be a resident of the state, the patient must request the medication from two physicians, waiting  a minimum of  15 days between the two requests, and the patient must be able to self-administer and ingest the prescribed medication.

The cause of death will  be attributed on the death certificate to the illness itself or "natural causes," not suicide, which can be important for life insurance benefits, according to Death with Dignity, an advocacy group for End of Life issues.

Proponents say the laws ease suffering.

Elizabeth Wallner, who has fought Stage 4 colon cancer for six years, says the end of life should not be construed as suicide. “My gut reaction to the word 'suicide' is one of absolute frustration because it implies that I don’t want to live anymore.” Wallner says.

“Cancer is going to kill me,” Wallner says. “Whether or not I ingest the medication and die three weeks early, either way, I have no control over it. I have control over the timing, and I absolutely have control over the amount of suffering that I go through. To be told that I don’t have the mental capacity to make a decision that meets my values and my beliefs, that’s dehumanizing.”

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The new law has picked up supporters  from families that have dealt with loved ones  deemed terminally ill and in pain.

Before the law was passed,  Freeman, who is involved with another advocacy group, Compassion & Choices, said one of the worst episodes in the ordeal of losing her terminally ill sister was agonizing over whether to end Martin's life with a fatal dose of prescription painkillers.

“We had enough Oxycodone and Percocet that we could have tried, but we were so afraid that we would botch it and she would be worse off, so the only thing we could do is put her in terminal sedation,” Freeman says tearfully. “We didn’t get to say goodbye. … It still haunts me to this day.”