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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 2015)
5A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2015 &RORUDGRPDQZLWK3DUNLQVRQ¶VSXVKHVIRUULJKWWRGLHODZ His bill goes further than Oregon’s law By IVAN MORENO Associated Press DENVER — Lance Wright is a meticulous planner: He has a line ready for when his hands shake during work presenta- WLRQV DQG IRU KLV OLIH¶V ¿QDO days, an audacious plan to let people with incurable illnesses choose when they die. The 63-year-old energy ef- ¿FLHQF\FRQVXOWDQWDQG3DUNLQ- son’s disease patient is trying to do what many better-funded and organized activists cannot: Get language on next year’s Colorado ballot that would give him and others the right to seek assistance from doctors to die — and then convince voters to approve it as a constitutional amendment. Wright has long support- ed the idea that people should have the right to end their own lives, closely following the 1994 Oregon debate that led to the nation’s initial right-to-die ODZ %XW ZKHQ WKH ¿UVW V\PS- WRPV RI 3DUNLQVRQ¶V GLVHDVH appeared 12 years ago, his in- terest became personal. “A battleship off the coast will focus your attention,” he said. Wright’s proposal goes fur- ther than what lawmakers and advocates of the “right-to-die” movement want because a pa- tient doesn’t have to be months away from dying, and pa- tients don’t have to administer life-ending drugs on their own. So there’s already opposition to Wright’s effort, and since he has no organization to help with the time and money need- ed for the expensive task of sig- nature-gathering, he is taking a major political long shot. But he’s used to long shots. He unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat against former Re- publican U.S. Rep. Tom Tan- credo when that suburban Den- YHUGLVWULFWZDV*23FRXQWU\LQ 2002. Last year, he collected 22 David Zalubowski/AP Photo Lance Wright, who is suffering with Parkinson’s disease, talks about a proposal that he is advancing to allow him and other terminally ill patients to have the right to seek assistance from a third party when they want to die in Colorado. Wright wants Colorado voters to decide next year whether terminally ill people should be allowed to end their own lives with medical help. votes as a write-in candidate for a Denver statehouse district. Wright has more at stake in this campaign. “I feel that it’s a basic hu- man right to be in charge of your own destiny, if you will. The situation now is that you and I are not in control of what happens at the end of our lives,” said Wright, who served WZRWHUPVLQWKH3DUNHU7RZQ Council from 1996 to 2000. At the moment, the disease is more of an inconvenience for Wright. During presenta- tions, he quips that his shaking hands don’t mean he’s nervous, MXVWWKDWKHKDV3DUNLQVRQ¶V,Q general, he’s still healthy and able-bodied. He walks his wife home and carries her books from the University of Denver, where she’s a law professor. “I love life. I want to live every minute that I can,” Wright said. But he knows the time may come when he will be unable to walk on his own or swallow food. :ULJKWLV¿QDOL]LQJWKHODQ- JXDJHIRUKLVSURSRVDOWRGH¿QH who would qualify as having an incurable condition to get aid in dying from a doctor. He said it would not apply to people who are depressed or suicidal. ,I D OHJDO SDQHO ¿QGV WKDW it complies with standards for a ballot measure, he’ll need to start collecting more than 98,000 signatures from regis- tered voters by next summer. He’ll have to do that with- out the support of Compas- sion and Choices, a national group advocating for right-to- die laws. The group opposes Wright’s plan because doctors can inject patients with the fa- tal drugs. “We just think that it’s a lit- tle bit too dangerous, quite hon- estly,” said Roland Halpern, a Denver-based spokesman for the group, which wants laws requiring patients to take the drugs on their own to ensure it is what they want. State lawmakers pursuing the idea do not back Wright’s plan, either, largely because the ballot language does not in- clude the “terminally ill.” “I don’t think (the propos- al) uses the word ‘euthanasia,’ but it seems to provide for eu- thanasia, which we do not ad- vocate,” said Democratic Rep. Lois Court of Denver, who is sponsoring end-of-life legisla- tion specifying that a patient be FHUWL¿HGDVWHUPLQDOO\LOOKDYH formally requested life-end- ing drugs several times, and self-administer those drugs, among other conditions. Wright argues some like him may not be able to take that medication on their own. And people in similar circum- stance may not qualify for what lawmakers are proposing. An Alzheimer’s patient may lose the ability to take care of him- self but still not be considered terminal, for example. Halpern’s group has sup- ported attempts to pass right- to-die bills in other states, including California, where Gov. Jerry Brown signed a measure into law in October. Other states where doctors can prescribe life-ending drugs for the terminally ill are Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana. If Wright succeeds in get- ting to the ballot, he’d face op- position from religious organi- zations and conservatives who view the laws in Oregon and other states as facilitating sui- cide. Some doctors have also expressed concern that mak- ing life-ending drugs available to patients takes away hope of recovery when a terminal diag- nosis can turn out to be wrong. Wright said he’s optimis- tic his idea will draw support. He insists the issue is not just about what he’s going through. He said he’s “determined to make sure that I’ve done every- thing that I can to provide the sort of framework for individ- ual liberty that I can for folks here in Colorado.” Foss: He has coached more than 60 different teams in Astoria, Vernonia “Twenty-seven years in golf (Vernonia and Astoria), “This is my 30th year of 16 as a head volleyball coach teaching industrial arts,” he (both schools); club volley- said. “Thirty years in the ball for eight to 10 years; and 3(56 V\VWHP DQG , FRXOG I’ve coached boys’ volleyball technically retire in the mid- and girls soccer … it’s a lot dle of next year, because of teams. 3(56 GRHVQ¶W NLFN LQ XQWLO “I have a bunch of old six months after you start.” three-ring binders in the But, “right now my heart basement to prove that,” he is still here (at Astoria High ODXJKHG ³7KH ¿OH FDELQHWV School),” said Foss, who are full of old coaching play- doesn’t know when he will books, diagrams and plays.” retire from teaching. “It de- So don’t expect Dan pends on what my heart says. Foss to just step away from When it’s time, it’s time.” VSRUWV 7KH FRPSHWLWLYH ¿UH As for coaching athlet- still burns for the guy who ics, “Twenty-seven years once got to carry the Olym- of coaching golf has been a pic Torch, when it passed great run,” he said. “I came through Salem on its way to back after a couple years’ the 1996 Summer Olympics EUHDNEXW,¿JXUHULJKWQRZ in Atlanta. is a good time. I don’t see “I’m competitive,” said coming back and doing any Foss, who admits, “I’ve coaching in the near future.” slammed a few clipboards By his count, Foss has down on the bench a few coached more than 60 different times.” teams in his years at Vernonia He added, “I love all and Astoria High Schools, and sports. Volleyball is the most as a club volleyball coach. rewarding for the kids. When Continued from Page 1A they work so hard and ac- complish what they do as a team. When they form on the court as a unit, it’s awesome. I have great memories from both volleyball and golf.” Golf “is more mental, and it’s more individual, with more preparation prior to the matches.” Serving as the public ad- dress announcer for sporting events, Foss says, keeps him close to sports, without the stress. Chris Hunt and Lou Mar- coneri also share some of the announcing duties. “I’ve enjoyed staying in- volved with the volleyball program through announc- ing,” he said. “It’s an honor to be asked. I enjoy it. With the atmosphere — and I tend to amplify — it works out pretty good.” $QG )RVV ³DPSOL¿HV´ D lot of volleyball slang for the fans, who tend to enjoy the matches a little bit more. Such as “Black & Deck- er” for a kill off the block and “cross-court crunch,” to name a couple. “There’s some fun ones in there,” Foss said. “Those sayings I have to give credit to the USA Men’s Nation- al team. I picked those up in 1988, from all the differ- ent slang terms they had. I just adopted some of those terms.” The Lady Fishermen also “have fun with the music,” he said. “That’s not my credit. The girls prepare the warm-up CD. They time it perfectly so W A NTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500 ACCE P T IN G N E W P AT IE N T S As to ria Ch iro p ra ct i c B ARRY SE ARS, D .C. AU TO ACCIDEN TS W ORK -RELATED IN JU RIES D on ’t dela y! Ca ll toda y! W e bill m ost in su ra n ce com pa n ies in clu din g M edica re 5 03 -3 25 -3 3 11 2935 M ARIN E DR • AS TORIA H APPY N EW Y EAR The Daily Astorian will be CLOSED Friday, January 1, 2016 CLASSIFIED DEADLINES ARE NEWS TALK FOR THE COAST Providing live a nd loca l new s covera ge every da y Y ou could see it ton igh t, rea d a bout it tom orrow or h ea r it live N O W ! 11am on Thursday, Dec. 31 fo r Friday, Jan. 1 editio n 1 p m on Thursday , Dec. 31 for Monday, January 4 edition Usual delivery of the Newspaper T HE D AILY A STORIAN that when the general warm- ups are done, it kicks right over to the slow, subdued mu- sic (usually the theme from ‘Titanic’) when the other team begins hitting drills. “Then we pick up the pace,” when Astoria starts hitting. And then there’s golf, which Foss hopes to play a little more of once retirement RI¿FLDOO\EHJLQV “I hope to do more golf tours,” he said. “With me not coaching this spring, I will be able to start my preparation a lot earlier than May. I look forward to cranking it up and hope for the best. I’m 52 now, but still hitting the ball just as far as I did in college, and a little farther.” — Gary Henley
