Ok. This one is likely to be a rough one. I know that many people will not agree with my stance on this issue. This issue is contentious and difficult. I feel like I have a unique background that seriously effects my stance. To start, I will say that I believe that physician assisted suicide should be an option. I also feel psychiatrist assisted suicide should be something that is possible, although I am less sure about how to make it work well.

Physician Assisted Suicide

I will start by explaining what each of these options are and how they differ. Firstly, physician assisted suicide in Washington State is the prescription of a self administered life ending drug. Not just anyone can go out and get this drug. People are required to submit information to multiple parties. Two doctors have to sign off on the fact that the patient has a terminal illness and this option should be prescribed. This person has to talk with therapists to ensure they understand what they are doing. After this, they are given the prescription for the drug.

When my mother was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, she knew that this would likely be a terminal diagnosis. One of the steps she pursued while going through treatment was ensuring that her death would be a good one. She started the process of being approved for the physician assisted suicide drug. She had watched her mother die of pancreatic cancer years earlier. Her death, I believe, influenced my mother to look at other options. She didn’t want to die pumped full of drugs in a hospice center. Dying at home was important to her.

Physician Assisted Suicide: My Experience

When you decide the right time to go after you have the prescription, you call a specialized person who assists in mixing the drug and supporting the family. Near the end of October, a year and a half after her diagnosis, tumors in my mom’s liver pushed her into liver failure. She was given a few days to live.

The doctor asked me on the phone what to do next. I told them to send her home. This doctor seemed surprised. She explained to me how the next few days would be hard. They would be messy. She’d be better in a hospital. I refused and insisted. I knew my mother wanted to be home and wanted to be surrounded by family. A non-emergent ambulance dropped her off. She was sick and weak, but still capable of talking and making decisions.

My sister, close friend, and her discussed options. She confirmed that she wanted to use the physician assisted suicide drug. We picked the day and time and called the person who would help. Something that struck me at this point was that this person hated using the words physician assisted suicide. She insisted on physician assisted death. Terminology used to separate this act from the connotation of suicide.

My mother’s death was perfect. I know that’s weird to say but it’s true. We were able to contact all the people she knew, let them know what was happening. People flowed through the house all that evening and the next day, getting to share last moments, last laughs. At the end of the second day, our support professional arrived. She answered questions, mixed the drugs, provided support through the whole process. Since this was approximately a month after Kody died, I couldn’t help wishing his death had been so perfect.

Psychiatrist Assisted Suicide

Kody died alone in the woods. He didn’t get to say goodbye to anyone, since doing so would have meant people would have tried to stop him. This isn’t the case in all countries. Some offer something called psychiatrist assisted suicide. This is extremely controversial even in countries where it exists. Not all doctors agree on it. Psychiatrist assisted suicide works similarly to physician assisted suicide. Someone who has tried lengthy treatments with no results could be eligible in these spaces.

The way this looks is significantly different in each country. For example, Canada first passed their Medical Assist in Dying act with similar restrictions to the law in Washington state. More recently, a superior court ruling challenged the constitutionality of this law and the restrictions for those with phycological or non terminal illnesses. This led to the passing of a new bill which opened up the act to those with nonterminal conditions.

Psychiatrist Assisted Suicide: Is it Right?

I completely understand the complication of a law like this. How do we determine who can be saved from suicide and who cannot be? Many insist that suicide is always wrong, and everyone could be saved with the right treatment. However, it’s challenging to see if this could be the case or not since the treatment of mental illness is so spotty and so complicated. In Canada, waiting periods for treatment can be over three months. In the United States, waiting periods often come down to what kind of insurance you have.

My experience with Kody confirms to me that there are those for who treatment won’t help and suffering will continue. In these cases, it seems more humane to give people a viable option for a safe, quick death. If this were the case, Kody could have died surrounded by those he loved. People could have said goodbye. Hours of searching, police and search and rescue resources, all could have been avoided. The results would have been the same, but in a way that was far less traumatic for everyone. Seeing the difference between Kody’s death and the death of my mother, has me hopeful for a better end for all those who cannot be saved from depression.