Kafer: Disabled people need support, not a prescription to die

I fear for my future self When I was a teen a suicide attempt put me in the hospital I recovered from the pill overdose and got the healing I needed to manage depression a condition that has never ceased to be my shadow It along with chronic pain from an autoimmune arthritic infection has darkened moments of an otherwise good life I can t help wonder though if I were instead of and lying in that hospital bed if doctors would have absolutely offered to finish the job and prescribed suicide instead of offering life-preserving help Impossible Original laws in Canada Belgium and the Netherlands legalizing assisted suicide for the terminally ill have been expanded to cover those with chronic and mental ailments In the latter two countries even children may request euthanasia The Netherlands and Belgium have seen a rise in assisted suicide among those for whom mental illness is the only underlying condition Patients with mental illness will be eligible for assisted suicide in Canada in Already euthanasia has become the th leading cause of death north of our dividing line If euthanasia laws are a slippery slope we ve taken the first downhill stride here in Colorado The legislature has expanded the voter-approved initiative law to allow more people to prescribe assisted suicide pills and has shortened the waiting period How long before health personnel can offer people like me who struggle with chronic illness and depression a way out instead of a way forward For those with life-threatening rather than merely debilitating chronic conditions like mine the law was a precipice not a slope from which we have already jumped Fortunately four disability rights organizations the United Spinal Association Not Dead Yet the Institute for Patients Rights and Atlantis ADAPT and a courageous young woman who struggles with anorexia and depression have decided to challenge Colorado s assisted suicide law to stop a deadly and discriminatory system that steers people with life-threatening disabilities away from necessary lifesaving and preserving mental physical condition care medicinal care and disability supports and toward death by suicide according to the suit filed this week The suit points out that the assisted suicide law does not require screening or remedy by a mental strength professional for serious mental illness depression or treatable suicidality before the lethal prescription is written While providers of suicide pills are supposed to discuss alternatives to suicide there is no way to certify they have done so and they need not in fact help patients obtain services The suit exposes a two-tiered physiological and justice system Other state populace medical laws regulations and services protect people who are suicidal from supporters curative professionals and family members who might encourage self-harm but suspends these protections if a medical practitioner predicts the person has less than six months to live As the suit points out these predictions are not unfailingly correct My dad diagnosed with an incurable form of aggressive cancer was initially given six months to live With equally aggressive medicine and loving advocacy he lived three years That was before the passage of the assisted suicide initiative Last year people received suicide pills according to a state wellness department review Eighteen of these recipients were diagnosed with severe protein calorie malnutrition indicating they could have had an eating disorder which is a treatable determination None of these patients received the same protection from self-harm afforded other Coloradans Thus the law violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it lacks the safeguards needed to protect people with life-threatening disabilities from self-inflicted death caused by impaired judgment depression and undue influence by others the lawsuit rightly states On behalf of everyone who struggles with mental chronic life-threatening and terminal healthcare conditions who are vulnerable to suicide I hope the plaintiffs prevail Krista L Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist Follow her on Twitter kristakafer