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SUPiRCUTS
As hip as you want to be.
Oregonians publicly debate
personal reasons for suicide
By Carol M. Ostrom
The Seattle Times
PORTLAND, Ore. (KRT) — Peggy
Sutherland wasn’t thinking about be
coming a statistic when she drank a
lethal dose of medication prescribed
by her doctor in Oregon last year.
As it turned out, Sutherland was
among the 21 Oregonians who died
in medically assisted suicides in
2001, according to statistics reported
this month. At 68, female, white, well
educated, insured and dying of can
cer, she closely fit the predominant
demographics of those who died.
But unlike most of those Oregoni
ans ’ relatives, Peggy Sutherland’s
family is publicly talking about her
death, placing a human face on the
debate that still swirls around the
state’s Death With Dignity Act.
In the four years the act has been in
effect, 91 people have taken their lives
with a doctor’s assistance under the
law. In most cases, the events behind
the statistics reported each year by
Oregon epidemiologists remain elu
sive, protected by privacy laws, pa
tient-doctor confidentiality and the
unwillingness of families to expose
themselves to public rancor.
But when a family reveals de
tails, as Sutherland’s has, many of
the troublesome issues may come
into sharp relief.
To Sutherland’s family, her
peaceful death amid a loving family,
after months of operations, hospi
talizations, procedures and distress,
was “a gift.”
To opponents of medically-assist
ed suicide, it was a tragedy: She
needed help, but instead received a
piece of paper—her prescription —
confirming her fear that her life sim
ply wasn’t worth living.
Julie McMurchie says she can’t
understand how anyone could
think it was wrong for her mother to
have taken her life, or for her doctor
to have helped her. A strong, inde
pendent woman who grew up near
tradition-bound Philadelphia, Peg
gy Sutherland loved Oregon at first
sight. Oregonians, she believed,
were adventurous and innovative
people who cherished autonomy.
And that’s the way she lived her
life. She raised her children to be in
dependent thinkers and created an
interesting life of her own.
First diagnosed with lung cancer
in 1986, she battled back before the
disease began its fatal course in 2000.
In her last year, she underwent three
major surgeries, chemotherapy and
radiation. The ordeal left Sutherland
unable to stand the pain and discom
fort despite everything doctors and
nurses could do, McMurchie said.
At her Portland home, Suther
land gathered her five children and
their spouses around her — four of
them physicians — and told them
what she wanted to do.
Seattle Times
Peggy Sutherland (left) hugs her daughter Julie McMurchie on the Oregon Coast.
one wanted to cue on ner own terms.
. Sutherland had grown too weak
to stand, tumors were blocking her
airways, and she faced the possibili
ty of suffocating.
“What kind of death is that?”
asked McMurchie.
Oregon law requires a 15-day
waiting period to ensure a terminal
ly ill patient is competent to decide
to end his or her life.
When the 15th day came, Suther
land roused herself. Clear as a bell
and surrounded by family and her
longtime doctor, she drank a liquid
mixed from drugs legally prescribed
by her doctor.
In five minutes, McMurchie said,
her mother was asleep. Fifteen min
utes later, on Jan. 25, 2001, Peggy
Sutherland died, after “looking out
over the Willamette River, in a room
filled with love,” McMurchie and
her siblings wrote in a statement
supporting the Oregon law.
McMurchie said she knows crit
ics contend that families such as
hers are “killing” their relatives in
stead of offering them needed phys
ical and psychological help.
But not only did Sutherland have
pain specialists and cancer experts,
one daughter who is a pulmonologist
and critical-care specialist also was
living with her, McMurchie said.
“Who were we to say no?” Mc
Murchie said.
“No” is exactly what should be
said to patients such as Peggy
Sutherland, says Dr. Gregory Hamil
ton, a Portland psychiatrist and as
sisted-suicide opponent.
Instead of saying, “OK, mom,
that’s fine, this is your right,” fami
lies should respond, “We’ll take
care of the pain and treat the depres
sion,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton, a spokesman for Physi
cians for Compassionate Care, sup
ports U.S. Attorney General John
Ashcroft’s effort to impose federal
penalties, including loss oi prescrip
tion licenses, on doctors who pre
scribe any government-controlled
medication that patients use to end
their lives. The directive is on hold
pending resolution of a lawsuit filed
by patients, doctors and the state of
Oregon against Ashcroft’s order.
Hamilton said one of his big fears is
that depressed patients will slip
through the Oregon law’s safeguards.
The act, he added, only encourages
“doctor shopping. ”
Primary-care doctors are “notori
ously unable to diagnose depres
sion,” yet only three patients last
year were referred to psychiatrists,
Hamilton said.
According to the epidemiologists’
report, prescribing doctors said their
patients’ main concerns were loss of
autonomy, decreasing ability to par
ticipate in enjoyable activities and
losing control of bodily functions. In
only one case was “inadequate pain
control” reported as a concern.
Hamilton refuses to accept assur
ances from families that patients who
receive help to die aren’t depressed.
“We don’t have Peggy Sutherland’s
medical records_The family can say
she wasn’t depressed, but that doesn’t
mean she wasn’t. ’ ’
McMurchie bristles at Hamilton’s
criticisms.
“It’s so paternalistic,” she says. “We
would be happy for (Hamilton) to scru
tinize any of my mother’s medical
records,” McMurchie said. “He’s try
ing to pretend we’re being secretive
when we’re not.”
But McMurchie said she would
never require others in her mother’s
situation to reveal their records.
“They’re dying,” she said. “It’s not
about politics and making a big pub
lic statement. That’s the whole point:
It’s a very personal decision.”
© 2002, The Seattle Times. Distributed by
Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
News brief
Award nomination
deadline nears
University students, faculty and
alumni have until Friday to submit
nominations for the Ersted Award
and the Thomas F. Herman Faculty
Achievement Award for Distin
guished Teaching. The awards will
be presented during spring Com
mencement to University faculty
members.
Recipients of the Ersted Award
are faculty members who have
taught at the University for a mini
mum of two years. The Ersted, es
tablished in 1957, acknowledges
the teaching abilities of faculty
members who are relatively early in
their teaching career and who have
demonstrated the ability to teach
students at either the undergradu
ate or graduate level to reason — not
merely to memorize.
Recipients of the Thomas F. Her
man Award are senior faculty mem
bers who have had academic rank
ing at the University for at least
seven years. Established in 1955,
the award acknowledges University
faculty members who have demon
strated continued excellence in
teaching and have significantly con
tributed to student learning at the
undergraduate level.
“The Thomas Herman Award ac
knowledges faculty members with
outstanding academic records,” As
sistant Vice Provost of Academic
Affairs Gwen Steigelman said.
“These faculty members must
demonstrate a long-standing excel
lence in teaching. ”
University faculty members Lisa
Freinkel, assistant professor of Eng
lish, and David Castillo, assistant
professor of Spanish were the 2001
recipients for the Ersted Award and
Stephen Durrant, Asian studies pro
fessor, received the Thomas F. Her
man Award in 2001. Each award is
accompanied by a $2,000.stipend.
Students and faculty members
have the opportunity to nominate
faculty members who they feel are
deserving of these awards. Forms
are available in 207 Johnson Hall or
via e-mail at gwens@oregon.uore
gon.edu. Nominations are due by 5
p.m. Friday, Feb. 22.
—Katie Ellis