Panel to discuss ‘aid in dying’ decision

by Carmen George | March 16, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

Ethical issues related to a recent Montana Supreme Court ruling allowing physician-aided death will be discussed in a panel Tuesday.

That decision also left open the possibility that a future legislature could change the decision, opening the door for more debate about the issue in weeks to come.

“It’s really important to have these kinds of discussions now because I think there are a lot of ethical and legal pitfalls in legalizing physician aid in dying,” said bioethicist Mark Hanson, moderator of Tuesday’s panel. Hanson teaches classes such as medical ethics as a lecturer for UM’s Liberal Studies Program and as an adjunct associate professor at the College of Technology.

The free panel, titled “Aid in Dying after the Baxter Decision: Ethical Challenges for Montana Legislators,” will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Tuesday in Gallagher Business Building room 123. The panel, hosted by UM’s Center for Ethics, will feature Hanson and seven speakers, including physicians, legislators and lawyers.

“Physician aid in dying” is basically a prescription for a lethal substance at the request of a terminally ill patient, which usually means someone who has less than six months to live, Hanson said. It’s not the same as euthanasia, where a doctor injects a terminally ill patient with a lethal substance for them while in the hospital, he said.

On Dec. 31, 2009, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in the case of Baxter v. State of Montana that terminally ill patients could seek aid from their physicians to help them die and that their doctors could not be criminally prosecuted for assisting them. The ruling found no Montana public policy or legal precedent against the practice.

Currently, physician aid in dying is only allowed in Oregon, Washington and Montana, although Montana is the only state without any legal guidelines regarding how it should be carried out, Hanson said.

State legislators either have the opportunity to adopt and improve upon similar laws in other states or to improve “end-of-life care” if they decide against allowing physician-assisted death for the terminally ill, Hanson said. Much of the demand for physician-assisted death arises from health care not addressing end-of-life care like it should, he said.

Speakers for tonights’s panel include: Michael More, Republican Montana State Legislator; Dick Barrett, Democrat Montana State Legislator; Bernadette Franks-Ongoy, executive director of Disability Rights Montana; Dr. Eric Kress, Hospice Physician; Dr. Stephen Speckart, Physician; Mark S. Connell, a private practice lawyer for Connell Law Firm; and Mary Anne Sladich-Lantz, vice president of Mission Leadership for Saint Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center, and a member of the Ethics Committee at Saint Patrick Hospital. 

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