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Myra Christopher has been instrumental in the push towards legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia by her collaborative efforts with bioethicists and medical professionals, funded by billionaire donors and by legislative and public policy changes in the U.S. The gains in legalization have largely been through educational programs directed toward healthcare givers and healthcare systems, government and their agencies, and the clergy. Educating the public with terms of "taking control, wishes, and end of life care" is a form Myra has used to further euthanasia and assisted suicide. Legal cases have also been instrumental in changing public views and policies.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/041606HealthcareConnection.html
The Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life focuses strictly on end of life issues; access to and quality of palliative and end of life care. They have conducted conferences such as Crossing Over Jordan and the Last Miles of the Way Home. Jeanne Twohig serves as deputy director at Duke, with prior experience in Promotion of Excellence in End of Life Care, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program. http://www.iceol.duke.edu/news/2005.01.18-Twohig.htm
The Duke Institute comprises Duke University and Duke Divinity School. Duke is not the only major University involved in pushing end of life issues. While we do not know if Duke supports euthanasia and assisted suicide, the members on their Advisory Board make a strong statement.
A 2005 conference, Is the DEA Hampering the Treatment of Chronic Pain, was conducted with Institute Advisory Board Member, Myra Christopher, as a panelist. Discussion centered on the efforts of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to end misuse and abuse of prescription painkillers, and how these efforts affected doctors, patients, and the successful treatment of pain. Other panelists included Ronald Libby, professor of political science at the University of North Florida and Drew Edmondson, Attorney General of Oklahoma. The conference was aired on C-Span and organized by the Cato Institute.
Duke Institute Board Members believe too many of us see death as a failure and that we must recover the practice of dying well.
We must question what evidence and rationale(s) these board members have that give them the ability to declare that people see death as a failure. We need a poll on this, direct, and without all the explanatory fanfare that most polls use which renders them biased or skewed and useless. A question such as, do you feel or view death is a failure. These board members surely believe their idea, or they would not claim we must find or recover the practice of "dying well." This would be another outstanding poll question: Do you believe we have lost the ability to "die well?" So, we must also question if we have lost the ability to die well, or view death as a failure. If so, we must ask and have a right to know what the root causes entail, and if these ideas came out of the air, personal ideology, or scientific evidence based on fact, and not personal opinions.
Sitting on the Advisory Board at Duke: Ira Byock, M.D. with the Missoula Demonstration Project, Myra J. Christopher with the Center for Practical Bioethics, Kathleen M. Foley, M.D. with the Project on Death in America (PDIA), J. Donald Schumacher, Psy.D, President and CEO of the National Hospice Palliative Care Organization.
Rallying Points, a major initiative or project of the Last Acts campaign, focused on improving community end of life care" through coalitions. They support community coalitions by several means. Rallying Points bragged they were the nation's broadest effort to improve care at the end of life. The program has evolved into a provider of resources and consultations to local and regional hospice centers, state governmental agencies, clerics, the healthcare industry and healthcare professionals, and grassroots activists, largely through their 3 major Regional Resource Centers, one of which is the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in Largo, Florida. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/040606HospiceAbets.html
Many of Myra's projects involve major dollar amounts and major donors, and Rallying Points was funded by the RWJF, as are many of her projects.
Rallying Points coalitions, which encompass the National Coordinating Center, three Regional Resource Centers, and the National Resource Center for Diversity, supports and mentors community and state coalitions toward societal changes in end of life care. These coalitions identify their communities' needs, advocate for healthcare changes, and develop specific projects that support dying people at end of life, in addition to their families. Rallying Points also offers resources and consultation to leaders who want to encourage local communities that further develop end of life care, advance care planning, palliative care, and other services.
Rallying Points evolved into regional resource centers, one of which is Myra's LIFE Project, a Kansas based coalition and community resource center.
Rallying Points offers "Community Coalition Awards of Excellence." The award honors state and community coalitions that value partnerships in improving end of life care. One recipient of the award is The Carolinas Center for Hospice and End of Life Care out of Cary, North Carolina, for their strong focus on diversity.
In 2000, when Bill Moyers of PBS reported "On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying in America," the show stimulated grassroots activists that demanded improvement in end of life care. Rallying Points was designed to assist local community coalitions in increasing community awareness. More than 250 community coalitions formed across the country to promote the series and educate the public and professionals about end of life care issues. 19 million viewers reportedly watched the Moyers series. The coalitions then had the ability to shape a new grassroots movement in end of life care issues at the local level. Since that time, the RWJF has provided further funding to support these increasing numbers of coalition partners in their research and educational programs to change public and legal policy.
The media wrongly reports and leads the public to believe these consortiums between Myra and medicine, the clergy, government, and the public are simply "to develop end of life training, provide resource materials for public health professionals so they are better equipped to handle inquiries from the public" when dealing with end of life care issues on death and dying, and improve inadequate medical care that the field of medicine is lacking or not competent enough to provide in the specific areas of death and dying and pain relief and control.
Of course, Myra provided the media with packets so all would report the same thing, and report end of life the way the euthanasia advocates wanted.
Health care professionals have handled death since the beginning of time. And so has all mankind, including the public. What information are we suddenly lacking that we need education when dealing with death, comfort, and suffering? Why must the act of death or care surrounding death be made into a public policy? Are we ill equipped? No. The euthanasia advocates would like you to believe that you are ill equipped and not educated in order to provide you with their version of death and dying, and that includes euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Myra envisioned an alliance of Centers nationwide with access to resources that can change and advance significant issues. "It's time to take health policy back," she states, noting it has become too politicized and we are now reaping the consequences. "We have people on opposite sides of healthcare issues screaming at each other. It's wacky and wrong-headed."
Medical professionals would like to take their professions and health care policies back as well, instead of outside influences changing our professions. However, we do not support or condone the way Myra wants to lead us. There are many among us who disagree with the path medicine has taken under Myra's influence.
The wacky and wrong headed politicization would be non existence if Myra had not included State legislators in the C-SP and NCSL in the first place. The reason policy makers had to be included is due to the simple fact that Myra needed them to change and make her practices into policies and laws.
Most would agree, the problem is not so much failure in providing end of life care, death or dying, or pain relief, but rather terminating care by terminal sedation, hastening death, futile care policies, or healthcare rationing leading to euthanasia and discrimination against the disabled. There is a fine line between two philosophies on what that care consists of, and how that care is presented and provided to the public.
If only improving and educating the public about end of life issues were the focus, there would be hospice programs in every community providing services that do not include assisted suicide and euthanasia. We would see discussions supporting living wills and advance directives, instead of medical professionals turning them down for their own personal use. We would have access to facilities for minorities and disparate groups. Assisted suicide laws, yanking feeding tubes, futile care policy, hastening death, lengthy court battles, elder abuse, and more, would not be open for discussion. These matters simply would not exist.
We are no longer at the line. We have crossed the line. 5-11-06
Karen is a Registered Nurse with a specialty in Obstetrics and currently holds licenses in Ohio and Florida.
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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