Death with Dignity Specifics Adopted ... and Not Adopted

Another article on the difficulties of implementing Washington's new death with dignity law, again, it is specifically focused on who will be choosing to opt out of the law and who will be choosing to administer it. (Individual pharmacists, doctors, hospitals, etc., are allowed to choose under the legislation.)

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out.

One example: if you read this article closely, you will note that, while the University of Washington has not decided to opt out of implementing the law, the director of palliative care consult services at the UW does not plan to prescribe any lethal medications to his patients for now. He will instead refer them to Compassion & Choices of Washington.

Contradictions like these are sure to run throughout the system. I just hope there isn't too much confusion. We all know how confusing the healthcare system already is.

Must Read After My Death

After his grandmother's death, Filmmaker Morgan Dews discovered a mass of audio recordings, home movies, photographs, and written journals detailing the turbulent lives of his grandmother's family in the 1960s. Using these materials, Dews has created a movie that the film's site says "affords fly-on-the-wall access to one family's struggles amid an America on the verge of dramatic transformation."

Thanks to Christian Sinclair for the link. (You're practically filling my blog this week!)

Most unusual are dictaphone recordings left by Dews' grandparents in which they offer shockingly honest comments about the state of their marriage and family. You can see some of that in the YouTube clip.





Also, you don't have to wait for this film to hit theaters or come to rental. If you're interested in Must Read After My Death, simply go to the film's website, and you can purchase a copy for play on your computer for only $2.99. Pretty neat.

I plan to watch it, although I haven't gotten around to it yet. And fair warning, I'm notoriously bad at actually watching movies that I plan to watch.

When it rains, it pours ...

Another piece of good news from our current administration.

From The New York Times:

"WASHINGTON — The Obama administration moved on Friday to undo a last-minute Bush administration rule granting broad protections to health workers who refuse to take part in abortions or provide other health care that goes against their consciences."

The article references issues related to women's rights and reproductive choice, but as I blogged earlier this week, Barbara Coombs Lee has been very vocal in getting the word out that this law would also affect people's access to death with dignity.

And just like that, I'm a Robert Gates fan ...

For me, proof that even in the most stressful times, life is still full of happy surprises.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has reversed the policy that forbid press coverage of flag-draped caskets carrying the remains of fallen U.S. soldiers coming into Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

The decision will now be left up to individual families whether to allow media access to each homecoming.

If draping a flag over the casket is not meant to be a visual symbol, then why do it? And if it is a visual symbol, why are we afraid for people to see it? And if the family of the fallen wants to share it with the world, why shouldn't they be able to as part of their efforts to fully honor their family member?

The policy was first put in place in 1991 by George H.W. Bush, and this time around has been in effect since 2001. (I believe President Clinton put a hold on the regulation when he was in office, but I'll have to double check on that.)

Anyway, as they say on one of my favorite blogs, Shakespeare's Sister, taking one little teaspoon out of the sea of injustice.

Photo from ABC News.

Practical Advice on Handling Death

As I've said many times before, Diane Rehm is my favorite, favorite radio host.

On Monday of this week, she interviewed NY Times columnist Jane Brody who has a new book called Jane Brody's Guide to the Great Beyond: A Practical Primer to Help You and Your Loved Ones Prepare Medically, Legally, and Emotionally for the End of Life.

Self-aggrandizing, super-wordy titled aside, it sounds like a very practical, down-to-earth write-up of some of the small details many of us are not prepared to deal with. She focuses on both what the dying person and the loved ones of the dying person should do. Things like a living will, of course, but also assigning a health-care proxy, someone to advocate for you and your wishes.

She also advocates bringing death back into the regular conversation of life and not separating it out into something that strictly happens in a hospital, removed from everything else. And you all know I'm in favor of that.

Here's a link to the interview. Here's a link to the book.

Death Penalty Being Done in By Economy?

An interesting article from The New York Times today about the costs of the death penalty.

It seems abolishing the death penalty is becoming increasingly popular during these hard economic times as a cost-cutting measure.

We will have to watch to see if any of these arguments come up during the two executions Washington state has scheduled for March of this year.

Death with Dignity Specifics Adopted

Washington state has adopted the specific guidelines that it will use to implement its new death with dignity law. The Seattle PI has this article about the guidelines.

Unfortunately, the article is not super informative and is actually pretty vague and confusing. (I think it tries to cover too much in one piece instead of just focusing on the most recent developments.) But I'm going to link to it anyway since it's one of the first mainstream pieces written about death with dignity in our area in a while.

I'm hoping, as the deadline approaches, some better, more specific information will come out.