4A • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • NOVEMBER 14, 2018
O PINION
The First Amendment
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Who really profi ts from the Death With Dignity movement?
(Editor’s Note: Viewpoint submissions on
this and other topics are always welcome
as part of our goal to encourage commu-
nity discussion and exchange of perspec-
tives.)
A
s someone who has spent thou-
sands of his own dollars promot-
ing expanding Oregon’s end-of-life
choices, the question of who stands to
profi t from the Death With Dignity
movement is one I have have been
curious about.
I have reached out to Compassion
& Choices, which is the original group
that helped get Oregon’s Death With
Dignity law passed. It is a well-fi -
nanced organization that receives lots
of donations for promoting Oregon’s
Death With Dignity law in other states.
Like many, I believe this law is restric-
tive and could be much more com-
passionate. Compassion & Choices
has stated twice in the media — in the
Washington Post and Siuslaw News,
that it opposes my work through End
Choices to make Oregon’s law more
compassionate. It will not even com-
municate with me by telephone, email
or Facebook.
I have to wonder how it can, in good
conscience, accept donations while
calling itself Compassion & Choices
but not actually supporting compas-
sion? Th is is one question I have asked
and have not been given an answer to.
Myself being very passionate about the
issue cannot understand any group or
individual that professes to support
Death With Dignity but does not want
to help Oregonions make the current
law more compassionate.
Another well-fi nanced nonprofi t
organization that opposes my work
through End Choices is Right to Life.
Guest Viewpoint
By Bruce Yelle
End Choices
Given that the organization has quite a
few religious-minded supporters who
rely on their faith to guide them, I can
understand.
However, what bothers me is how
Right to Life seems to misrepresent
what is being asked for in expanding
Oregon’s end-of-life choices to assure
an individual’s advance directive is
honored, even when they become
vicitims of dementia.
In the past three years, a bill was
in front of the Oregon legislature to
rewrite the state’s 25-year-old advance
directive laws. And every year, Right to
Life fought this bill with lots of money.
Last year, during the House of Rep-
resentative hearings for the bill, I was
one of three people testifying to sup-
port the bill. Common sense asks, Why
not rewrite a 25-year-old law?
What I heard from some of the 200
people who had signed up to oppose
it — most from Right to Life — was
that rewriting Oregon’s decades-old
law would take rights away from those
suff ering from dementia. Th ose of
us who are educated on this subject
through personal experience know the
exact opposite is true.
Today in Oregon, an individual’s
advance directive may or may not be
followed in the event of dementia.
Once that happens, an individual’s
right to choose is given to someone
else — and they get to decide your end-
of-life options. One can only hope this
person and your health care providers
can agree on what your advance direc-
tive says, and whether you would have
chosen to continue living with your
dementia.
In my opinion, there is too much
money being made on keeping people
alive and living in a quality of life that
would be unacceptable to them if were
they still considered mentally compe-
tent.
End Choices has been working hard
the last year and a half to try and get
this changed.
In the upcoming 2019 Oregon legis-
lative session, there will be a bill that
will protect the rights of seniors and
citizens with incurable conditions and
unbearable suff ering.
An advanced directive fi lled out
when someone is mentally competent
should be a contract for an individual
should they someday be considered
mentally incompetent to choose for
themselves. Oregonians need to edu-
cate themselves on the restrictions of
the current Oregon Death With Digni-
ty law and the rules regarding advance
directives.
HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS
Oregon state
representatives
Oregon federal
representatives
• Sen. Floyd Prozanski
District 4 State Senator
PO Box 11511
Eugene, Ore. 97440
Phone: 541-342-2447
Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@
state.or.us
• Rep. Cedric Hayden
Republican District 7 State
Representative
900 Court St. NE
Salem, Ore. 97301
Phone: 503-986-1407
Website: www.leg.state.or.
us/hayden
Email: rep.cedrichayden@
state.or.us
• Rep. Peter DeFazio
(House of Representatives)
405 East 8th Ave.
#2030
Eugene, Ore. 97401
Email: defazio.house.gov/
contact/email-peter
Phone: 541-465-6732
• Sen. Ron Wyden
405 East 8th Ave., Suite 2020
Eugene, Ore. 97401
Email: wyden.senate.gov
Phone: (541) 431-0229
• Sen. Jeff Merkley
Email: merkley.senate.gov
Phone: 541-465-6750
C ottage G rove
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Editorial
Cottage Grove HS recognizes local veterans with annual luncheon
(Editor’s Note: Viewpoint submissions on
this and other topics are always welcome as
part of our goal to encourage community
discussion and exchange of perspectives.)
C
ottage Grove High School (CGHS)
hosted its annual Veterans Day
lunch on Friday to honor local veter-
ans for their service to our country.
Students and staff served lunch and
dessert to the veterans while the CGHS
Music Department performed music for
everyone.
CGHS Counselor Vicki Evans, who
has been helping to put the lunch on for
the last 10 years, said that it is inspiring
to the students and an honor to host the
veterans every year.
“We have been able to honor our
veterans in the community with a
simple lunch but it is so meaningful to
see them come together and all of their
years of service. It has been an inspira-
tion to our students and we are just so
honored to have them on our campus,”
said Evans.
Dylan Graves, a senior at CGHS,
served lunch to the veterans said that
Guest Viewpoint
By Garrett Bridgens
Cottage Grove High School
speaking to and shaking the hand of a
veteran helps him appreciate the sacri-
fi ce they made for the United States.
“It really helps give me a whole new
outlook on life. Th ese people gave up
their life to be able to serve so that we
are free,” said Graves.
Jerry Brandsness, a Navy Veteran
who served from 1959 to 1962, said that
what he enjoys most about the lunch
each year is the camaraderie with his
fellow veterans.
“To be able to spend time with these
wonderful veterans who have been
through a variety of events in their life
from World War II right to the present,
I feel honored to be here,” said Brands-
ness. “Just being here with these (veter-
ans) and hearing their stories, I think is
more important than anything else on a
day like this.”
Toward the end of lunch the veterans
were asked to share when they served
and what branch they were a part of.
Navy World War II Veteran Ward
Gross, who served in the Pacifi c, shared
a bracelet that was made from scraps of
metal from a Japanese Zero war plane
his battalion shot down.
He said he made the bracelet as a way
to remember his mom and dad.
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