Professor proposes controversial bill

A proposed bill by a Keene State College professor regarding physician-assisted suicide would make New Hampshire the third state to legalize the practice.

Charles Weed, political science professor and Democratic state representative, has sponsored a bill that would provide terminally ill individuals with the option of ending their own lives with a prescription of lethal medication.

Currently, Oregon allows assisted suicide through the Death with Dignity Act, which was enacted in 1998. This March, Washington state became the second to legalized assisted suicide.

According to Weed, this is not the first time New Hampshire has seen this issue. Lawmakers tried in the late 1990s to legalize assisted suicide, however it never made it past the New Hampshire Senate. Weed said he hope it will get further this time, however he is aware of preconceived notions and the worries people have around such an issue.

"The bill is, from my perspective, full of safeguards so it can't be abused, and the studies of the Oregon Death with Dignity bill indicate that it hasn't been abused," he said.

According to Weed, some of the safeguards include the requirement that two physicians, one of whom is the attending, sign off on the prescription along with two witnesses, one of whom is not family either by blood, marriage or adoption.

The bill states that the individual requesting the prescription must also be at least 18 years of age, deemed terminally ill with a diagnosis of approximately six months left to live, and the individual must be able to administer the medication to him or herself.

Freshman Stephanie Teves and sophomore Samantha Flick said they would be in favor of legalizing a bill like the one sponsored by Weed.

"Why do we have the right to tell people that they can't die at a certain time if they are ready?" Flick said.

"I think that it should be OK for those who really want it or need it. Everyone should have more options." Teves said.

Sophomore Cory Gilmore and junior Ashleigh Repko both said they are not in favor of legalizing physician assisted suicide. However, Repko also said she ultimately thinks it should be up to the individual provided he or she is terminally ill.

Freshman Emily Cooper also said that she would be apposed to legalizing it.

"Just the thought of suicide and assisted suicide always brings up problems in society," Cooper said.

Weed said he thinks one of the primary concerns that people have, outside of religious opposition, is the coercion of the elderly by those who stand to gain financially from their death.

According to Candice Wiggum, director of the KSC Counseling Center, there are more issues at hand than just pressure being placed on the elderly.

Wiggum said that a person's death effects more than just the individual and that it is important for people to be given the chance to go through certain steps when dealing with the loss of a loved one.

"I've seen people whose loved one did commit suicide when they found out they were dying and maybe it was easier on the person who was dying, I don't know, but it was much harder on the loved ones because they didn't have a chance to go through the process, say goodbye and go through all the steps that one goes through as one approaches the end of life," Wiggum said.

Weed said he has had personal experience with the suicide of an ill loved one when his mother committed suicide in 1993 while in hospice care.

"She turned up morphine when the nurse was not around. She wanted to go, she was happy to go," he said.

According to Weed, that out of the 341 patients who requested the prescription in Oregon last year only about 40 percent actually used it. According to Wiggum, this goes along with what other research has found.

"People want it as a comfort to know that if things get so bad, that they can die, that they can control their death and they don't have to go through an awful process," Wiggum said.

Wiggum said that while she was not comfortable saying whether or not such a bill was needed; she said she was glad people are talking about it.

"I think bills like this, my hope is at least, really get people to start talking and thinking and looking at the issue and thinking for themselves about all these different things because it's not an easy yes or no answer," she said.