Originally Posted - May 28, 2006

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Euthanasia and assisted suicide has been decades in slowly, incrementally creeping into our society, into the medical field and medical industry, into the legal field, into government, and even into the clergy. Euthanasia and assisted suicide has evolved and is practiced within the United States, under the radar of an unsuspecting public, and under terminology such as futile care, terminal sedation, and hastening death, whether people acknowledge it, are aware, or not.

Myra Christopher's activism in support of assisted suicide and euthanasia via legislative and public policy change has been instrumental in many policy changes toward legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia in the U.S. Healthcare givers and healthcare systems, government and legislative policy, the media, and the clergy, all have been issued educational materials supporting the philosophy which leads to changes in public views. Myra has spent more than 20 years through her collaborations with the now defunct Last Acts Program that evolved from the Hemlock Society and other groups favoring euthanasia to achieve legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia in this country.

LIVE, not to be confused with the Kansas LIFE project, is a program under Caring Connections (see Myra Christopher part 7) and is sponsored by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). LIVE describes itself as a National Campaign to Improve Care and empower people to make informed decisions at the End of Life, and also claims partners in all 50 states. Myra Christopher - Part 7

For 2006 and 2007, Caring Connections reported their plan of focus in these areas;
1) Development of culturally appropriate resources for specific populations
2) Engagement strategies and resources for pediatric coalitions and providers
3) Opportunities for state and national funding partnerships
4) Monthly e-updates to coalitions and LIVE partners
5) Enhancement of Caring Connections web sites with resources
6) Cultivation of national partners to broaden the reach of the LIVE campaign
7) Strengthen the national forum for end of life discussions.

A few of LIVE's founding partners include Myra Christopher's Center for Practical Bioethics, American Hospice Foundation, American Hospital Association, American Psychological Association, National Association of Social Workers, The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, Pinellas Partnership for End of Life Care, Emory University, Kansas LIFE Project, Hospice of Missoula, Life's End Institute, and The Carolinas Center for Hospice and End of Life Care.

Newer members to LIVE include the American Society on Aging, Project GRACE, Catholic Health Association, Alzheimer's Association, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization, and Hospice Care of the VNA.

Medical organizations, agencies, and professional associations, hospice centers, universities, medical schools, right to die proponents, governmental agencies, and bioethics centers numbering in the hundreds claim partnership in the LIVE coalition. Total number of members at the time of this printing is 605 organizations, agencies, and groups. Nearly all the founding members have ties going back to the Last Acts program, and most have been proponents to legalize euthanasia for many years, some openly, some under the cloak of secrecy and deceit, and some ignorantly to the perceived objectives.

The Pinellas Partnership for End of Life Care (involved with LIVE and Myra) is part of a council of community coalitions which began in Florida in 1999 in the Tampa/St. Pete area. These community coalitions were funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support the Florida Partnership for End of Life Care. Most of the local coalitions were begun by promotion of Bill Moyers' PBS special, On Our Own Terms.

The coalitions were also supported by the Rallying Points program, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative. Rallying Points provided educational support, financial awards for local initiatives, and travel funds to regional conferences and other activities.

The Pinellas Partnership for End of Life Care contains several community coalitions each with unique contact information. For instance, the coalition, Conversations ~ Because You Care, is based in Seminole, Florida and the contact person is Liz Bradley. Another coalition, the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, Inc. is based in Clearwater with Mr. Mike Bell, who served on the Board during Terri Schiavo's residency at the facility, is listed as the contact person and Vice President of Development and Community Relations with the Pinellas Partnership. Another listing of The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, Inc. and as a Pinellas Partnership coalition member with the same address in Clearwater as Mike Bell's coalition group has the contact person as Kathleen Jacobs, and she serves as Director, Center for Community. The Suncoast Children's Care Coalition, also with the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, Inc. in Largo has Dr Stacy Orloff as the contact person and Director of Palliative Care and Children's Services.

Thus, the Pinellas Partnership Organizations are under the umbrella of the Pinellas Partnership for End of Life Care and are all members of Myra Christopher's LIVE Program that is under Caring Connections and sponsored by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. These Pinellas organizations are also aligned with Hospice of the Florida Suncoast where Terri Schiavo was euthanized by court order.

There are many other coalitions dispersed throughout the state of Florida with various names, but not all fall under the Pinellas Partnership. They may network, collaborate, and share educational materials, but obviously are not in the Pinellas County area.

Additionally, the Center for Hospice, Palliative Care, and End of Life Studies at the University of South Florida (USF) was instituted in 1996 and holds monthly meetings for their members. The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast sponsors many of the conferences for the USF meetings.

The USF also provides grants for end of life research, publications, research, teaching, and other issues devoted to the right to die. http://www.eolcenter.usf.edu/pdf/REPORT_2004.pdf

In health, the only alternative to good medicine is bad medicine or substandard care. Assisted suicide is not an alternative, nor is euthanasia. These methods are simply lowering standards of current care provided. Hospice and hospital care should provide adequate care; care that relives suffering, not snuffs out life because of suffering. Hospice and hospital care should not entail patients who are morphined, haldoled, and ativaned to death, into oblivion, or terminally sedated. Those actions constitute euthanasia if the patient dies and is neglect and abuse at the basest form. What if the patient is sedated to such a degree they become a higher risk for falls, and then fall? That is not good medicine. What if the patient is sedated to such a degree they are lethargic and unable to be aroused? That is not good medicine. What if the sedated patient who is unable to be aroused is a diabetic and misses meals? That is not good medicine either. The elderly, the brain injured and the disabled are at a higher risk for abuse and neglect than any other disparate groups in this country. To label them as a burden, having a poor quality of life, or futile to treat is neglect.

Proper patient care entails adequate pain relief; provision of basic needs, therapy aimed towards rehabilitation if at all possible, and the highest medical standards must be fully met. Those standards do not involve burden or quality of life as an assessment area. The burden factor and the quality of life factor are not what we assess in patients. They should never be part of our assessments.

When changes are made to include burden and quality of life in assessments, none of us are safe from abuse, neglect, and exploitation from caregivers, family members, our physicians, and others. Those healthcare providers who use these subjective parameters as assessment tools cannot adequately treat their patients.

Memo to all physicians and nurses: Do us all a favor and stop the frenzy now. Stop the assisted suicide and euthanasia movement, while you still have a voice.

"Medical excellence is not possible without ethical principles"
5-28-06