
Colorado Voters Accept Right-To-Die Measure - happy-go-lucky
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/09/501476275/colorado-voters-accept-right-to-die-measure
======
corbet
Colorado resident here. A few years back, I watched my wife die of cancer, in
great pain, and with many other associated problems. She tried to find a
doctor who could give her the option to end things, should she no longer be
able to stand it, but none were able to help her.

I voted yes. Forcing people to live through that is beyond cruel.

~~~
searine
The Right To Die is an often ignored but important law for the exact reasons
you listed. It's something you don't think you need until you absolutely do
need it.

These Frontline Documentaries are very explanatory for those who want to know
more :

[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/suicide-
plan/](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/suicide-plan/)

[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/suicidetourist/](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/suicidetourist/)

[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/facing-
death/](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/facing-death/)

[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/being-
mortal/](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/being-mortal/)

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trosi
> The measure requires that people "make two oral requests, separated by at
> least fifteen days, and a valid written request to his or her attending
> physician." It also requires that people be capable of taking the medication
> unassisted

Why the last requirement? Seems to me like a lot of terminally ill patients
wanting to die might not be self-sufficient

~~~
roflc0ptic
My dad is in the early stages of dementia and has repeatedly said he'd prefer
to die than live on as a husk of a human.

Interestingly, he's got one of the weird dementias, called "primary
progressive aphasia", which is slowly robbing him of the ability to speak.
There are cognitive deficits as well, but the main issue is that he has
trouble formulating sentences. So if we lived in Colorado, when he actually
wanted to die, he would be unable to fulfill these requirements.

Also interestingly, part of his motivation is explicitly monetary: he wants
his life savings to go to his family, not a nursing home.

This experience has reaffirmed my position in favor of right-to-die, but it
really is a complex issue. If gran-gran doesn't want to go to the gas chamber,
there should be stringent protections in place to keep her family from sending
her there.

~~~
cc438
>"Also interestingly, part of his motivation is explicitly monetary: he wants
his life savings to go to his family, not a nursing home."

That sentiment may seem strange to most people but I think it's more than just
a logical conclusion, it's an emotional one as well.

We recently lost one of our family's matriarch's (grandmother-in-law) after
her long battle with a failing cardiovascular system. After one particularly
difficult evening, she realized her time was about to come and asked her
husband to stay by her side while she passed in their home. Unfortunately, her
end did not come easily and a relative convinced my grandfather-in-law to call
an ambulance when she went into respiratory arrest as it was shockingly
painful to watch. She was taken to the hospital and placed in the ICU where
she was stabilized but only at the footstep of death's door. The miracles of
modern medicine managed to keep her borderline comatose body alive for almost
a month in the ICU before the family could come to agreement on sending her to
hospice.

That month in the ICU cost almost everything they had worked their entire
lives for and was intended to be passed down to their children and
grandchildren. Two lifetime's worth of hard work and thoughtful planning went
to cover the cost of just one last month of "life".

My point in sharing that story is that the true cost of that month isn't
measured in dollars and cents, it's measured in the loss of the legacy they
had worked so hard to build. Neither of them viewed their estate as something
as simple as "money". Instead they saw it as things like "college tuition for
the grandchildren", "a wedding gift to help the grandkids start their married
life", "land my ancestors have lived on for generations", and "one last
vacation for the whole family". That's what I mean when I saw they lost their
legacy and why it's as much or more of an emotional decision than a cold
calculation of financial realities.

~~~
seanp2k2
When you consider situations like this, it makes total sense why hospitals
would have every incentive to fight for "the right to life" and "foster a
culture of life" and oppose right-to-die / assisted suicide.

~~~
JshWright
While I can't speak for "hospitals". I can tell you that doctors are very much
in favor of "do not resuscitate" directives, which would have prevented the
scenario described above.

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yesiamyourdad
I'm a CO resident, and I was honestly astounded that the measure passed with
such a wide margin. I don't think people read or understood the measure. CO
generally has a big libertarian streak (we're one of the states Gary Johnson
did best in). I'm guessing the measure won on the strength of the name alone
and not the merits of the actual law.

Now the usual suspects lined up against it, and that's who NPR interviewed:
the Christian right out of Colorado Springs. However, I saw more opposition to
this in my middle class gentrified neighborhood than I saw support or
opposition for any measure, except maybe the tax measure to support the
cultural district. This neighborhood is anything but conservative and this is
one of the rare cases where seeing signs on the neighbors' lawns made me look
deeper and actually change my vote from the reflexive "yes" to a "no".

The good news out of this election is that Prop 107 passed, which makes it
harder to get constitutional amendments on the ballot. One of the things I
dislike about living here is how the state is used as a political laboratory
for everybody's pet poli sci project.

~~~
blackguardx
I voted yes on Prop 106. Can you explain your reasoning for voting no? It
didn't seem like there was anything hidden inside the measure.

I think you mean Prop 71 instead of 107. I voted no on Prop 71. I like the
idea in principle but didn't like the requirement to gather signatures from
all districts.

~~~
puddintane
Colorado resident as well and I voted yes on 107 as well, I couldn't find
anything hidden but would really like to know if I had missed something about
it.

~~~
liquidise
My issue with it was that it squeezed the wrong end of the amendment "funnel".
It makes it harder to _propose_ amendments. I don't remember a frivolous
amendment being proposed.

Instead, i would have preferred to see a bill making it harder to _pass_
amendments, moving it to 60% or something similar. That said, a lot of the
progress the state has had would have failed under either requirement. Min
wage increase, end of life, recreational pot, etc.

I have never said to myself "wow, we propose and pass a lot of amendments that
should never have seen the ballot in the first place". And if we did, i want
to see the ideas. Keep proposing easy and make them need more voter backing to
pass.

~~~
teuobk
Amendment 71 also made it harder to pass amendments: the threshold is now 55%.
The only exception is for amendments that repeal things from the constitution,
for which the threshold is still 50%

Details:
[https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_Imposition_of_Distribution_...](https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_Imposition_of_Distribution_and_Supermajority_Requirements_for_Citizen-
Initiated_Constitutional_Amendments,_Amendment_71_\(2016\))

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DigitalJack
I support the notion of right to die, but the language of this measure is
pretty ambiguous with regards to the patient rescinding the request.

I think it leaves the door pretty far open for someone to claim that a person
who has made the request is rescinding it when they in fact are not. The
language of the measure says that the patient can (paraphrasing) "rescind by
any means" their request.

I appreciate that nobody wants to put someone to death if they changed their
mind, but I wish the language wasn't so wide open.

~~~
evilduck
[https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_End_of_Life_Options_Act,_Pr...](https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_End_of_Life_Options_Act,_Proposition_106_\(2016\))

As I read it, the patient must self-administer the medication.

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marchenko
I worry that "right to die" can devolve into "it's the right time for you to
die".

~~~
mrec
It's certainly a concern, deserving of thought and safeguards, but not a
reason not to do it. Any more than "the right to have an abortion" devolving
into "you need to have an abortion" is a good reason to ban abortion.

(I actually see this as a very close parallel.)

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thrillgore
Couldn't come at a sooner time.

~~~
jMyles
True of every happening in this space-time continuum, no?

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nashashmi
I think Right-to-die laws increases the pressure on the person to commit
suicide, especially in the case of those who want to die to preserve or
transfer their life-savings. It does not provide protection to an individual
who may want to live. Right-to-die laws were primarily conceived to alleviate
pain, but it is sad if it would be used for monetary reasons.

~~~
noobiemcfoob
That's an insightful unintended consequence that I too can unfortunately see
playing out all to often. Still, the individual would have to choose suicide,
right? They may have pressure on them for the choice from vultures, but it is
still their choice.

Unless I'm mistaken, I don't see the need for any protection.

~~~
zeveb
> Still, the individual would have to choose suicide, right?

Patient: I'm in pain, and need painkillers.

Insurance company/state health plan: We'll pay for poison pills, but not
painkillers.

Patient: …

It similar to the way the United States uses highway funds to blackmail the
several states into setting a uniform national drinking age.

~~~
philipkglass
I can't tell if you are serious but strong opioid painkillers are inexpensive
to manufacture and many have been out of patent for decades. They're
significantly cheaper than e.g. the pentobarbital* that Oregon physicians
prescribe for assisted dying. Despite what people on my Facebook feed say, Big
Pharma isn't making big money off of any of the old standbys like morphine,
oxycodone, hydromorphone, etc. The prices a patient sees are unrepresentative
of the actual cost of drugs to health care providers. A few years ago a friend
got a shot of hydromorphone in the ER for kidney stone pain and the line item
on the bill was like $200. About 1% of that would represent the cost of
replenishing the consumed Dilaudid, maybe another 2% for a disposable syringe.
As for where the other 97% came from, see: many lengthy tomes about American
health care.

*Pentobarbital itself is also cheap/easy to manufacture in volume and has been out of patent for a very long time, but nowadays it is a niche drug so the overhead costs are higher.

~~~
zeveb
Oh sure, the painkillers themselves are cheaper, but the painkillers plus
hospital care plus other medicines &c. will not be cheaper than poison (or
just a heavy one-time dose of painkillers).

