02 Sep 3rd Annual Fall Conference – October 18-20th, 2022
Speakers: Faith Sommerfield
Edited by: Zoey Willshire
Our Founder, Faith Sommerfield, started the Completed Life Initiative (CLI) with the goal of helping everyone in the world access a good death, with autonomy as the guiding principle. Among her goals when she started CLI, Faith wanted to start conversations that de-stigmatize and de-mystify death and dying. In this video, which Faith recorded before her passing, she speaks to everyone about her concept of a completed life, her idea of a good/bad death, CLI, and her choice to complete her own life.
(Originally recorded on 10/18/22)
Speakers: Kevin Diaz, Nicholas Gideonse
Moderator: David Hoffman
Oregon recently amended its residency requirement for patients seeking aid-in-dying in the settlement that decided Gideonse v. Brown, et al (2022). Proof of Oregon state residency, such as voter registration and lease agreements, no longer apply as eligibility criteria for patients seeking medical assistance in their death. This settlement does not preclude patients of states other than those immediately adjacent to Oregon border to travel to Oregon. In the wake of the Dobbs decision, an interesting juxtaposition surrounds the right to choose and prospective traveling for medical care. What are the practical implications of Oregon lifting its residency requirement? Might this decision compel Americans to travel nationwide in pursuit of a dignified death? Further, given the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution, what are the ensuing implications and, perhaps, obligations for other states where MAiD is legal to neutralize their own residency requirements?
(Originally recorded on 10/18/22)
Speakers: Kathryn Tucker, Sandy Buchman
Moderator: Thaddeus Pope
Cultural norms surrounding aid-in-dying struggle to accept positive connotations about a chosen death, vis-à-vis the #deathpositivity movement. Washington v. Glucksberg et al. (1997) declined to find that a physician’s assistance with active lethal means to cause death was constitutionally protected. The argument made by the petitioner advanced the physician’s right to assist with a patient’s chosen death, with the implication of reducing and relieving a patient’s suffering. In comparison, Canada’s progressive version of assistance with dying succeeded in the high court: Carter v. Canada, 2015, including a chosen death that is physician-administered. Critics of death with dignity legislation assert that expanded eligibility criteria will promote earlier deaths and negatively impact persons with disabilities, among other concerns; and yet, substantial data from both Canada and the United States demonstrate that the safeguards work. Beyond expanding end of life choice to include medical aid in dying, recent years have seen advocacy efforts in both Canada and the US to open access to therapeutic use of psilocybin with patients with advanced illness.
(Originally recorded on 10/18/22)
Speakers: Don Pachuta, Paul Menzel
Moderator: Sarah Kiskadden-Bechtel
A person’s conscience is often overlooked when evaluating personal autonomy. Cognitive capacity – being of sound mind – is foremost on any evaluating provider’s mind as they evaluate a person’s ability to decide for themselves their own end of life decision making, and to what extent these decisions reflect a so-called right to die. The role of personal conscience within decision making therefore becomes muddied: does Conscience inherently derive from a person’s chosen, or inherited, religious tradition? At what point does the person give themselves permission to choose an end-of-life plan that perhaps differs from what religious doctrine might emphasize? This session will examine the differences regarding what is permitted at the end of life vis-a-vis state authority, medical authority, and cultural customs.
(Originally recorded on 10/19/22)
Speakers: Didi Sanchez, Hannah Fowler
Traditions around dying, and what it means to have a good death, vary significantly, often depending on where a person is born and what, if any, religion they practice. Holidays, such as Halloween and All Soul’s Day in the United States, and Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, represent cultural remembrances and even celebrations of those who have died. But how can any one person have a so-called “good death,” especially when a good death can vary widely from person to person? Any and all rituals involved in preparing for death – for example, ritual bathing, burning a candle, playing music – may provide meaning and comfort to that individual and their loved ones. For some people, having a good death is as important as having a good life. This session will present the unique challenges, cultural considerations, and ceremonial requests at the dying person’s bedside.
(Originally recorded on 10/19/22)
Speakers: Rob Horowitz, David Hoffman
Palliative sedation (PS) is a means of alleviating suffering at the end of life, and refers to a physician’s use of opioid and other medications to gradually modulate a patient’s experience of pain—and to reduce consciousness until death. PS exists on a continuum in a relative grey area between self-administered and physician-administered death – and is therefore poorly defined. William Husel, recently acquitted, was tried for first degree murder after being accused of administering an extremely high dose of fentanyl to fourteen critically ill patients. The prosecution wanted the Jury to find that Husel must have intended to hasten – and therefore cause – these patient deaths. This session will explore how the principle of the double effect becomes central to clinical considerations of palliative sedation, and how these might influence bioethical decision-making moving forward.
(Originally recorded on 10/20/22)
