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| Dore in red. |
With the odds stack against her, Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA did an admirable job educating attendees at an "End of Life Options Discussion Panel" sponsored by Hamline Mitchell Law School's Health Law Society in Saint Paul, Minnesota on Thursday evening. [4/27/17]
The panel was comprised of three supporters of the Minnesota End of Life Options Act, and Ms. Dore, who alone stood to expose the language of the bill and the reality of what that language has allowed in Washington State, where Ms. Dore is an attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion. Not only was she outnumbered 3 to one on the panel, but pro-assisted death representatives had a fit when Ms. Dore attempted to share documentation for her talk and blocked her from handing it out.
Ms. Dore hammered home points that are often glossed over. When panel members insisted that this bill pertained to "terminal patients with less than 6 months to live," Ms. Dore shared a real encounter she had. "Doctors can be wrong about life expectancy, sometimes way wrong," said Dore. "This is due to actual mistakes and the fact that predicting life expectancy is not an exact science. A few years ago, I was met at the airport by a man who at age 18 had been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and given 3 to 5 years to live, at which time he was to die by paralysis. His diagnosis had been confirmed by the Mayo Clinic. When he met me at the airport, he was 74 years old. The disease progression had stopped on its own."
She also shared, "The Act is stacked against the patient and a recipe for elder abuse." Dore elaborated, "The patient's heir, who will financially benefit from the patient's death, is allowed to actively participate in requesting the lethal dose. After that, no doctor, not even a witness, is required to be present at the death. Even if the patient struggled, who would know?"
"But, it gets worse," said Dore, "the death certificate is required to list a medical condition as the cause of death, which prevents prosecution." Dore explained, "The official cause of death is a medical condition (not murder) as a matter of law. For perpetrators, the death certificate is a 'stay out of jail free card.'"
Thank you to Ms. Dore for her tireless fight to stop assisted suicide.
The panel was comprised of three supporters of the Minnesota End of Life Options Act, and Ms. Dore, who alone stood to expose the language of the bill and the reality of what that language has allowed in Washington State, where Ms. Dore is an attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion. Not only was she outnumbered 3 to one on the panel, but pro-assisted death representatives had a fit when Ms. Dore attempted to share documentation for her talk and blocked her from handing it out.
Ms. Dore hammered home points that are often glossed over. When panel members insisted that this bill pertained to "terminal patients with less than 6 months to live," Ms. Dore shared a real encounter she had. "Doctors can be wrong about life expectancy, sometimes way wrong," said Dore. "This is due to actual mistakes and the fact that predicting life expectancy is not an exact science. A few years ago, I was met at the airport by a man who at age 18 had been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and given 3 to 5 years to live, at which time he was to die by paralysis. His diagnosis had been confirmed by the Mayo Clinic. When he met me at the airport, he was 74 years old. The disease progression had stopped on its own."
She also shared, "The Act is stacked against the patient and a recipe for elder abuse." Dore elaborated, "The patient's heir, who will financially benefit from the patient's death, is allowed to actively participate in requesting the lethal dose. After that, no doctor, not even a witness, is required to be present at the death. Even if the patient struggled, who would know?"
"But, it gets worse," said Dore, "the death certificate is required to list a medical condition as the cause of death, which prevents prosecution." Dore explained, "The official cause of death is a medical condition (not murder) as a matter of law. For perpetrators, the death certificate is a 'stay out of jail free card.'"
Thank you to Ms. Dore for her tireless fight to stop assisted suicide.