Expert backs right-to-die talk
An attorney involved with a Missouri case is in Hawaii to discuss end-of-life decisions
Rapidly advancing medical technology "is going to run headlong" into the aging baby-boomer population, forcing society to address end-of-life issues, says a nationally renowned legal expert in the field.
"My parents' generation was the first to ask the question, Is there something the doctor has that I might not want, including resuscitation?" said William Colby, who represented Nancy Cruzan in the first right-to-die case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Life expectancy increased in 100 years from age 42 to almost 80 with public health and other improvements before the 1970s, and technology since has allowed treatment of many injuries and illnesses not possible before, he said yesterday in an interview.
This development is "dramatic, amazing and wonderful," he said. "But the flip side is, we have to talk as a society about what the purpose of medicine is and when technology does not serve that purpose. That discussion is just starting."
Colby, 51, of Kansas, is visiting Hawaii for the first time with his wife and four children, ages 6 to 14. He will give free community lectures in Honolulu and Hilo and participate in a bioethics conference at St. Francis Medical Center.
"Few people are more central to changing the shape of how we die in America than Bill Colby, the attorney (who) brought the case of Nancy Cruzan to national attention," wrote Marilyn Webb, author of "The Good Death," in a profile on Cruzan in September 2004.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
William Colby is a nationally recognized legal expert in the right-to-die debate.
UPCOMING APPEARANCES
Attorney William Colby, legal expert on right-to-die issues, will give free community lectures from 5 to 6:30 tonight at the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kakaako and from 9 to 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Hilo Medical Center.
A free reading and signing of his book "Unplugged: Reclaiming Our Right to Die in America" is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Barnes & Noble, Kahala Mall.
Colby also will participate in the St. Francis Medical Center's Bioethics Conference from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Thursday in the St. Francis Weinberg Medical Pavilion.
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Colby has appeared on many television programs and given talks to legislators, community groups, doctors, medical students and others across the country.
He is the author of "Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan" and "Unplugged: Reclaiming Our Right to Die in America."
Fewer than a tenth of one percent* all deaths in Oregon are attributed to its physician-assisted suicide law, he said. But because of it, Oregon residents have talked about death and dying more than any other state, he said.
A side effect has been "higher hospice utilization, better scores on consumer satisfaction with end-of-life care, pain control" and a higher rate of deaths at home, he said.
Colby said the highly publicized cases of Karen Ann Quinlan, Cruzan and Terri Schiavo riveted national attention on end-of-life issues:
» The Quinlan case was the first to make national news. The New Jersey family waged a lengthy legal battle to remove a respirator after the 21-year-old collapsed at a party in 1975, suffered brain damage and lapsed into a persistent vegetative state. She remained in a coma 10 years after the respirator was removed, dying in 1985.
» Cruzan, 25, was in a persistent vegetative state after a car accident in 1983. Colby assisted the family with a legal fight that continued for years in state and federal courts to get the state hospital to remove her feeding tube. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court and back to Missouri courts, which allowed feeding to stop in December 1990. She died that month.
» Schiavo suffered cardiac arrest in February 1990 at age 26 and was in a persistent vegetative state. Her husband and parents were split over the issue of removing artificial life support and fought personally and legally in and out of state and federal courts. The president, congressional members, other politicians and clergy became involved. Schiavo's husband, Michael, won approval and disconnected the feeding tube in March 2005. She died that month.
"The good to come out from the horrible Schiavo family tragedy was it caused the rest of us to stop and talk about something we don't usually talk about," Colby said.
Because of this case, many have filled out living wills or advance directives stating their wishes about end-of-life care, he said.
CORRECTION
Thursday, August 10, 2006
» In the first seven years of Oregon's Death With Dignity law, about one-tenth of 1 percent of all deaths in the state resulted from physician-assisted suicide, according to William Colby, legal expert on right-to-die issues. An article on Page A5 Friday gave an incorrect figure of one-tenth of deaths.
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