PORT ANGELES — Doctors working at Olympic Medical Center can counsel patients on the Death with Dignity act, the hospital’s commissioners have decided.
The amended resolution approved Wednesday in a 5-1 vote is a modification — not a reversal — of a March 4 board decision to ‘opt out’ of the voter-approved Initiative 1000 on the eve of it becoming law.
OMC now will not prohibit its doctors from counseling patients on making arrangements for the life-ending drugs. Neither will the hospital require doctors to provide such counseling.
Consistent with the original resolution, the hospital — based in Port Angeles with facilities in Sequim — will not allow the final step of the act to occur on its premises.
After hearing a spirited public debate, commissioners Jim Cammack, Arlene Engel, Jim Leskinovitch, John Beitzel and John Nutter approved the change. Commissioner Jean Hordyk opposed it.
One position on the seven-member board is vacant.
Under the law, competent adults who have been diagnosed with a terminal disease and have six months or less to live can request life-ending medication prescribed by a physician.
The drugs must be self-administered.
The underlying illness is listed as the cause of death.
Since the March 4 vote to “opt out” of I-1000, the OMC board “has received further input from the medical staff and the public in consideration of end of life issues,” according to the language of the resolution.
The amended paragraph in the resolution reads:
“The board recognizes the privacy and personal nature of the patient-physician relationship; and that much of the dialog, information and requirements of the act may occur in the course of comprehensive care for a patient in a physician clinic, yet believes, however, that the hospital setting or OMC clinics is not the appropriate location for the final step of this act as an end of life option.”
Speakers
Nine of 15 public speakers on Wednesday opposed OMC involvement in I-1000.
The other six either supported Death with Dignity or an individual’s right to decide.
The League of Women Voters of Clallam County encouraged its members to speak in favor of I-1000 at OMC’s May 20 board meeting. Then, 15 of 26 speakers asked the board to reconsider its decision to prohibit doctors from counseling patients to end their lives.
League President Penney Van Fleet addressed the board again on Wednesday, citing Clallam County’s 61 percent voter approval of I-1000 in November and the unanimous recommendation of the OMC Ethics Board to participate.
“We understand that there are citizens who reject this act — a lot of it based on their religious beliefs — and we understand that some of you and some of your staff may share some of these same views,” Van Fleet said.
“But neither these citizens, nor you, nor your staff, are required to participate in the act. You should allow those who wish to avail themselves of a state law the ability to do so.”
Father Thomas Nathe of Queen of Angeles Church in Port Angeles cited the Bible’s commandment that “Thou shall not kill,” and said that assisted suicide would harm OMC’s good reputation.
“If this place starts participating in people killing themselves, then that’s going to bring about a kind of consciousness in the community, in many people, that will just not rest,” Nathe said.
“And it will bring about division within the staff here at the hospital, within their families and within the community.
“Even if your values are different than my values in terms of life, at least pragmatically speaking, if you follow though to take the decision to start participating in assisted suicide, it’s going to be very divisive for this hospital and the greater community.”
Other hospitals
Before the vote, Nutter asked CEO Eric Lewis what positions other public hospital districts have taken.
“The majority of hospitals in the state are either not participating or partially participating, where they’re allowed the discussions and perhaps the paperwork, but not the final act,” Lewis said.
“Most hospitals don’t allow the final act.”
Forks Community Hospital commissioners voted 2-1 in March to opt out of I-1000.
Jefferson Healthcare commissioners voted 4-0 in February to participate.
Death with Dignity hit close to home on May 21 when Linda Fleming, 66, of Sequim, became the first Washingtonian to apply the new law.
The terminally ill cancer patient died in her home after self-administering the lethal drugs.
Fleming was counseled by Compassion & Choices, a Seattle-based advocacy group.
Opinions were strongly voiced on both sides of the issue during the public comment portion of Wednesday’s meeting. Early on, Board President Jim Leskinovitch called for civility.
“You may not agree with the opinions of the individual, but this is a meeting to have both sides where anybody can have their say,” said Leskinovitch, who fulfilled a promise he made on May 20 to revisit the issue.
About half of the room clapped after each of the three-minute comments.
“If you reverse your original vote and permit physician-prescribed euthanasia, you are placing doctors and nurses in a position to violate the oaths that they took upon graduating schools and entering service as health-care givers,” said Ann Marie Henninger, a registered nurse and former OMC employee.
Peter Flatley, an ordained minister and an ex-marine, asked the board “to support life.”
Kathy Gonzales, who in the context of her three near-death experiences, said: “I believe that if a person is in such a state that they want to take their own life, they cannot be in a good place spiritually. And even though you’re ending the physical discomfort of your life, you are not necessarily ending your suffering.
“Please do not bring assisted suicide to this hospital.”
“It is my decision,” said Donald Thomas. “It is my right.”
“The hospital is not interfering with this law,” Joan Sawyer said. “The hospital is not getting in the way of this option. We still have it.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
