Several doctors and advocates for physician-assisted suicide held a panel discussion this week that lasted for more than two hours. During that time, two people died somewhere in Pima County.
Many deaths end with slow, agonizing pain and without much semblance of dignity, said Dr. Alan Molk, a clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Arizona and panelist Wednesday night.
"The world of emergency medicine is not exactly what is portrayed by Hollywood," Molk said. "A lot of what we see are patients who have multiple serious medical problems."
The forum's purpose was to discuss medical-aid-in-dying like those in Oregon, Washington, California, Vermont and Montana and whether a similar law could be enacted in Arizona.
Those on the panel, as well as the audience, itself were divided on the issue. Local doctors spoke of flaws in the current system, test cases that push the proposed laws to their limits and personal experiences that have shaped their perspective.
Several members of the audience shared their experience. Several men in the audience asked the room to consider that only God should be involved in end of life issues. One warned that doctors could easily become the agents of death if such a law is passed.
The forum was organized by Councilman Steve Kozachik and the Tucson chapter of Compassion and Choices, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping terminally ill patients with their end-of-life choices, including those seeking physician aid in ending their lives .
With more than 35 years as a doctor, Molk said he became involved in the issue watching his mother slowly lose everything to Alzheimer's Disease.
For Molk, one issue seems to trump Β everything when it comes to the complicated decisions people make about end-of-life issues in the emergency room . "It is the inability to say 'Good-bye,'" he told the audience.
Many people are prompted to choose life-extending treatments that are ultimately futile rather than compassionate care to make people comfortable.
Dr. Richard Carmona, the former surgeon general of the United States, shared a similar story about the death last week of his sister from cancer.
Describing her last days as "a skeleton with skin," the former surgeon general was unable to help her even though she was getting medical care in California. The state allows doctors to offer aid to terminally ill patients who want to end their lives.
She refused to consider it, Carmona said.
"We were there in those last moments, and it was agonizing to watch the excruciating pain and discomfort that she went through."
Dr. Jim Nicolai, the associate medical director at Casa de la Luz Hospice, offered a different perspective .
"I took an oath and that oath was not to take a life. Not intentionally," Nicolai says.Β
He sees suffering in his job at the hospice, but saysΒ he feels that it shouldn't be a doctor who decides when suffering is enough.
Kozachik concedes getting a medical-aid-in-dyingΒ law passed in Arizona will not be easy.
"The value of events such as this is that the competing perspectives are aired in a very public and open manner.Β Framing public policy in a way that respects that diversity is going to be tough," he said. "I'm hopeful that we can build on the successes seen in the other 5 states who have gone ahead of us in this."
Members of Compassion and Choices are expected to lobby the legislature to pass a similar law next year.
