The Elbert Files: Assisted dying

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This may not be the best time to bring up the subject of assisted dying, given the recent success of the anti-abortion movement in Iowa and other parts of the country. But the concept is increasingly on my mind and of many friends as we creep ever closer to becoming octogenarians.

It’s an issue that captured worldwide attention recently when the British Parliament voted to legalize assisted dying for some terminally ill patients.

And it’s a topic of discussion again in Iowa, following the murder-suicide deaths last month of James and Mary Ellen Kimball of Osceola, prominent philanthropists, who reportedly had terminal medical conditions.

Iowa lawmakers have considered the issue in the past but never acted.  

It’s worth discussing again.

I say that as someone who turned 77 1/2 years old recently, which is now the average lifespan for U.S citizens. I’m on the leading edge of the baby boom, and while we don’t live as long as the British or Japanese, we are living longer and for most of us that means a lower quality of life, which at some point may not be worth continuing.

I have one friend who confided years ago that he had acquired — he didn’t say how — a pill that would painlessly and quickly end his life when the time came.

Britain’s legalization of assisted suicide makes the United Kingdom the 15th nation to legalize some form of death assistance.    

Switzerland was the first modern nation to legalize assisted dying more than 80 years ago, according to the New York Times. Swiss doctors can prescribe drugs and offer advice, based on medical eligibility guidelines. But, “doctors and loved ones are not allowed to administer any lethal drugs. The person wishing to die must carry out the final act,” the Times explained.

The United Kingdom’s new law is similarly narrow. It only allows assistance in cases for individuals 18 and older who have received a terminal diagnosis and been told they have no more than six months to live. Even then, lethal drugs must be self-administered, and two doctors and a judge must approve the decision.

The morality of helping people die has been debated as far back as ancient Greece and Rome.

The development of ether as an anesthetic in 1842 led to suggestions in 1870 that drugs could be used to end the suffering of terminal patients. Thirty-five years of debate followed, culminating in legislative action in 1906 in Ohio and Iowa, according to medical historian Jacob M. Appel of Brown University.

The Ohio effort produced a measure that made it to the floor of the Ohio House but failed to pass.

Newspaper clips show a “Kill Incurables bill” was introduced in the Iowa House in March 1906, although follow-up articles revealed it was a prank by newspaper reporters who persuaded a gullible lawmaker from northwest Iowa to introduce the measure on a slow news day.

Oregon was the first state to legalize assisted dying in 1994, after Michigan physician Jack Kevorkian participated in scores of suicides in multiple states. Kevorkian was tried five times for murder, convicted once in 1999 and served seven years of a 10-25 year sentence.

It was not until 2006 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Oregon law, clearing the way for other states.

Beginning in 2008, nine states — California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington — and the District of Columbia enacted similar protections.

Iowans have publicly discussed measures to protect those who assist in suicides, but none of the debates resulted in new laws.

In 2002, activist and philanthropist Louise Noun took her own life and asked her friend, Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu, to write about her situation.

In 2016, retired insurance executive and community leader David Hurd ended his life in a very public way by falling from his high-rise home in the downtown Plaza to avoid a “lingering miserable death.”

Now, we have Osceola’s model citizens, James and Mary Ellen Kimball, also dying in a very public fashion, providing another opportunity to discuss the subject of assisted dying.

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Dave Elbert

Dave Elbert is a columnist for Business Record.

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