Scripting Death by Mara Buchbinder

Author:Mara Buchbinder [Buchbinder, Mara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Law, Medical Law & Legislation, Philosophy, Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Social Science, Death & Dying
ISBN: 9780520380202
Google: qdoSEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 2021-04-27T05:11:42+00:00

FINDING A PHYSICIAN

For patients seeking an assisted death, finding a physician to prescribe the life-ending medication often required a combination of gregariousness, grit, and good luck. Mary Llewelyn’s story exemplifies the surprising routes that occasionally led patients to their prescribing physicians. Mary, an artist, was a single woman in her sixties, who had endured a long-term cancer diagnosis. Determined to live as fully as she could with whatever time she had left, Mary rarely complained about her illness. After many years of surgeries and treatments, however, her quality of life began to diminish, and she began to seriously consider medical aid in dying. Mary lived in the southern part of Vermont, and her oncology treatment was based in New Hampshire at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; therefore, her primary oncologist could not prescribe under Vermont’s law. Mary’s primary care physician, Brenda Jones, was conflicted about Mary’s request. She agreed to support Mary throughout the process but ultimately did not feel comfortable prescribing.

Having for years attended a local cancer support group, Mary knew many seriously ill people, who might have connected her to a potential prescriber. Yet it was a chance meeting at a flea market in a neighboring town that provided the gateway to Mary’s prescription. There, while waiting in line for the market to open, Mary struck up a conversation with Robin Staples, a palliative care nurse who noticed that Mary was ill and took an interest in her condition. The conversation went deep very quickly, when Mary learned about Robin’s line of work. Mary told Robin that she was trying to find a doctor who would prescribe for medical aid in dying, and Robin connected Mary with an advocacy organization representative, who later told me that she had called in a favor from a physician in another part of the state to try to help Mary. What was most striking to me about this chain of events was the fortuitous meeting between Mary and Robin, without which Mary might never have been able to access assistance. There was something about this chance encounter that was so quintessential of small-town Vermont, where many health care providers have a hard time doing the grocery shopping without running into a patient.

Some patients’ pathways to a prescribing physician were more circuitous than Mary’s. Renee Long had found a primary care physician, who had assured her that he would sign for the prescription, and she planned to use that as leverage to get her oncologist on board as the second physician. Before he wrote the prescription, however, the first physician changed his mind and retired, and Renee had to scramble to find two new doctors. A friend of Renee’s later recounted, “It was really down to the wire, finding them and then getting everything lined up for getting the prescription.” Annika Gunters also had to scramble when her husband’s oncologist, who had agreed to participate, stopped returning her telephone calls. Annika called the hospice nurse, who said that the hospice physician was willing to

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