Dore Meets With Australian Delegation

Margaret Dore speaking to
the Delegation

On April 7, 2016, Margaret Dore, attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion, accompanied by her assistant, Brenda Ray, met with a five member delegation from the Legal and Social Issues Committee, Parliament of Victoria, Australia.

The topic was assisted suicide and euthanasia. The place was the Picnic House Restaurant in Portland Oregon where Dore spoke over lunch in opposition to legalization.

Maryland: Powerful Testimony by Elder Law Attorney Margaret Dore

Assisted Suicide Proponents Wilt After Tough Questioning by Committee

From Stop Assisted Suicide Maryland

(Annopolis MD) Proponents of physician-assisted suicide struggled to answer the tough questions thrown at them at yesterday’s Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee hearing on SB 418. The Committee met late into the night with Senators raising significant concerns with the bill and its lack of protections.

Compassion & Choices has a New Campaign to Reduce Patient Choice: Be Careful What you Sign.

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Last week, the deceptively named euthanasia promotion group, Compassion & Choices (C & C), announced a new campaign to reduce patient choice in healthcare.*

C & C wants to increase the enforceability of health care directives, but only for those that refuse treatment. C & C wants a health care provider who doesn't follow the directive, to not get paid. The problem is that you could get stuck with what you thought that you wanted and not be allowed to change your mind. Consider this example:

You signed a health care directive stating that you do not want "artificially-provided" food and drink, for example, via an IV, nasal tube or stomach tube.

You're in an accident, which renders you unable to personally direct your health care and unable to eat and drink. The healthcare facility and the family member in charge of your care want to give you food and water through "artificial" means. The facility thinks that you will need it for a short time and then recover.

But, if the healthcare facility does this under C & C's proposal, it will not get paid.

A few years ago, the owner of an elder care facility told me about one of its residents. He was an older gentleman who was a slow eater, but he had never choked or aspirated on his food. His doctor arranged for a swallow test, which he failed. To prevent aspiration, the doctor said "Nothing by mouth." The man had previously signed a health care directive saying that he would not want artificially provided food or water. So this meant nothing at all. Moreover, the man's son sided with the doctor.

Over the next few days, the man said that he was hungry and that he wanted something to eat, until he got too weak to say anything at all.

He was not allowed to change his mind and it was a horrible awful death.

So much for compassion and choice.

Be careful what you sign.

Advance directives are dangerous when used to refuse treatment or care. It's better to leave that up to your trusted agent to make decisions in the moment.  Margaret Dore is an attorney in Washington State and President of Choice is an Illusion. 

* C & C's new campaign "to put a stop to unwanted medical treatment."

Dore Letter to New Jersey Assembly

Dear Legislators:

I am attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal.  I am writing to urge you to not make our mistake.  Please vote "No" on A2270.

I have prepared an in-depth legal/policy analysis describing some of the problems with A2270, which can be viewed at the links set forth below. (or click here).

I make three points: 

1.  The bill, A2270, is titled "Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act."  "Aid in Dying" is a euphemism for assisted suicide and euthanasia.  The title is, regardless, deceptive because it implies that A2270 is limited to people who are dying, which is untrue. For example, A2270, if enacted, will apply to people with chronic conditions who otherwise have years, even decades, to live.  See memo, pp. 4-7.  Once enacted, there will be pressure to expand to a broader group of people.  See memo, pp. 7-8. 

2. The bill is a recipe for abuse with the most obvious reason being a complete lack of oversight when the lethal dose is administered.  See memo, pp. 9-16. 

3. The bill lacks transparency and accountability.  See memo., pp. 17-19. 

The last part of the memo is a discussion of the "Oregon and Washington Experience," with supporting documentation attached.  

Here is a link to the memo and attachments in one document: https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/nj-no-on-a2270-no-assisted-suicide-11-12-14.pdf

Or, if you like, a link to the memo alone:  https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/nj-no-on-a2270-memo-only-11-12-14.pdf and a link to the attachments:  
https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/nj-no-on-a2270-attachments-pnly-11-12-14.pdf

Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

Thank you.

Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA, President
Law Offices of Margaret K. Dore, P.S.
Choice is an Illusion, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation
www.choiceillusion.org
www.margaretdore.com
1001 4th Avenue, 44th Floor
Seattle, WA 98154 
206 389 1754 main reception
206 389 1562 direct line

Euthanasia without patient consent and over the family's objection

This last August, the Washington Post did a feature article on how non-dying people are being killed in hospices. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/08/21/as-more-hospices-enroll-patients-who-arent-dying-questions-about-lethal-doses-arise/?   

I have had many people contact me with similar stories.  Below, please find the latest one by a Romanian immigrant.  I hope that more doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals can speak out about these cases, before it's too late.

Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA, President

Choice is an Illusion, a 501(c)4 nonprofit corporation

http://horror.kaiserpapers.org/elisabeta-koczur.html

Case in Point: 

My name is Daniela. I am 46 years old and live in Oregon. I believe my grandmother was killed in a hospital on June 24, 2014. She was in the emergency room for three hours and was given morphine after we had refused it and clearly asked for her right to die naturally. The nurse told me that it was time to say goodbye and she died almost immediately upon receiving that shot. I have the medical records, but there is no notation of the morphine she was given, which makes me believe the records were falsified. 

The photograph to the left is of Elisabeth Koczur.
The last wish my grandma had was for a drink of water. I don't think I will ever forget how she looked at me expecting help. Four nurses in the room imprisoned me and I could not move. I was forced to keep looking in her eyes as she pleaded for water. Why was I not allowed to grant her last wish?

Our family is in shock and is having emotional problems because of what we witnessed. My grandma went to the hospital with abdominal pain and shortness of breath. There, according to the medical records, she was diagnosed to have congestive heart failure, but, when she went into cardiac arrest, they did not attempt to resuscitate her. If she had received proper treatment, she might be here with us today. Grana, as I called her, was 99 years old. I think they decided that she had lived too long, but they did not know this beautiful soul.

Grana was from Romania and had suffered many horrible things in her life. She was a war orphan and spent her life helping other Romanian orphans, myself included. Like so many immigrants, we left our homes and land searching for freedom which turned out to be an illusion. We arrived in the West where we worked hard and were looked down upon. Our hearts cried so many times because of how we were treated in this foreign land, but it was too late to return home. My sons were born and we had to look ahead. Photograph is of Elisabeth Koczur in middle age.

Grana didn't speak English. She was old and partially deaf, but everyday she would learn a new word and was proud of her achievements. She taught my sons to speak, read and write our Romanian language. They read the Bible to her because her eyes were damaged in the German factory where she worked during World War II. The Germans were testing gas masks on the employees. Every day she had to stay in a room with a mask on until tears would come from her eyes. When the Germans would see that through the glass panel behind which they stood, they would let her out. That is how she lost her vision. Grana endured more than I could ever write about. She was raped by Russians recruited to work for the Germans. She was orphaned during World War I and never knew her father who died before she was born. Being poor she had to work hard to earn a living. I don't know anyone who was persecuted and endured as many hardships as my grandma, and all with great hope in her heart.   

I was an unwanted pregnancy. Grana gave me the chance to see the light. We lived together for 46 years. When I was an infant, God partnered me with my grandma, placing me in her loving and caring hands. When she was elderly and infirm I prayed everyday that I would be able to give her the same tender loving care. God granted my prayer until that night when the hospital separated us. Now I cannot sleep because I have nightmares. In our culture the last wish is greatly respected and now I hear my grandma cry for water every night. I was left alone in the exam room for hours with her dead body in my arms kissing her and praying for her. A hospital chaplain stopped by for a few minutes and told me that I am selfish not to let God enjoy my grandma. I felt that something broke in my head when I heard that. 

   

Photograph to the left is of Elisabeth Koczur three weeks before her death at the age of 99 years.

I'm alone and afraid. I saw how the crooked* sentenced Grana to die and I know my life is in their hands as well. When I no longer produce, I will be removed. Pray, you who read, that the souls of the departed in the hospitals of this country find peace! And pray for our souls, the souls of those who still live. We should not rest until justice is done. Otherwise we will die, one by one, defeated by the darkness.

I enjoyed listening to my grana's stories about heaven and hell and how the dead people would rise from their graves to be judged when the Angel Gabriel blew his silver trumpet on the Last Day. Oh, and how I wait that day.

*Editor's note: Daniela uses "crooked" to mean healthcare providers who deviate from what is just and good.

Elisabeta Koczur's burial location - To view this location full size click on the picture.



Documentation which demonstrates falsified medical records, misdiagnosis and intentional death by morphine which the family and patient begged the Kaiser staff to stop doing.

Koczur Medical Records obtained from Kaiser Permanente, including ambulance records -  This is a large pdf file.
http://horror.kaiserpapers.org/pdfs/koczur-medical-records.pdf
Elisabeta Koczur Certificate of Death - http://horror.kaiserpapers.org/images/koczur-certificate-of-death.JPG

Three bullet points against assisted suicide

1.  Legal assisted suicide encourages people with years to live to throw away their lives.  See: Nina Shapiro, "Terminal Uncertainty":  Washington's new "Death with Dignity" law allows doctors to help people commit suicide - once they've determined that the patient has only six months to live. But what if they're wrong? The Seattle Weekly, January 14, 2009,   https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/terminal-uncertainty.pdf

2.  Legal assisted suicide is a recipe for elder abuse, for example, in the inheritance context.  See this short bar article (non-lawyers say they like it):  https://www.kcba.org/newsevents/barbulletin/BView.aspx?Month=05&Year=2009&AID=article5.htm 

3.  Once assisted suicide is legal, there is pressure to expand to euthanasia for non-terminal people, for example, to you or your family member, who through no fault of their own, falls on hard times:  http://www.montanansagainstassistedsuicide.org/2014/10/this-is-how-society-will-pay-you-back_9.htm

Not Dead Yet: "American Bar Association Newsletter Features Margaret Dore Article on Elder Financial Abuse and Assisted Suicide"

Diane Coleman

http://www.notdeadyet.org/2014/02/american-bar-association-newsletter-features-margaret-dore-article-on-elder-financial-abuse-and-assisted-suicide.html 

In a new article that appeared in The Voice of Experience newsletter of the American Bar Association, Washington State elder law attorney Margaret Dore explained how she got involved in the fight against [the] legalization of assisted suicide.  The ABA newsletter is only available to subscribers, but the article, Preventing Abuse and Exploitation: A Personal Shift in Focus. An article about guardianship, elder abuse and assisted suicide, also appears on Dore's Choice Is An Illusion website.

Dore recounted some early experiences in handling guardianship cases involving elders.  Initially, she worked within the system, but then things changed:

I got a case involving a competent man who had been railroaded into guardianship.  The guardian, a company, refused to let him out.  The guardian also appeared to be churning the case, i.e., causing conflict and then billing for work to respond to the conflict and/or to cause more conflict. . . .

At this point, the scales began to fall from my eyes.  My focus started to shift from working within the system to seeing how the system itself sometimes facilitates abuse.  This led me to write articles addressing some of the system's flaws.  See e.g., Margaret K. Dore, Ten Reasons People Get Railroaded into Guardianship, 21 AM. J. FAM. L. 148 (2008), available at http://www.margaretdore.com/pdf/Dore_AJFL_Winter08.pdf. 

Dore's career as an elder law attorney brought new elements to the discussion of potential issues affecting elders who might be victimized. As Dore noted in her ABA article:

In 2011, Met Life released [a ] study . . . , which described how financial abuse can be catalyst for other types of abuse and which was illustrated by the following example.  "A woman barely came away with her life after her caretaker of four years stole money from her and pushed her wheelchair in front of a train.  After the incident the woman said, "We were so good of friends . . . I'm so hurt that I can't stop crying."   [The study is available at www.metlife.com/assets/cao/mmi/publications/studies/2011/mmi-elder-financial-abuse.pdf.]

Dore went on to connect the dots between elder financial abuse and assisted suicide:

In the United States, physician-assisted suicide is legal in three states:  Oregon, Washington and Vermont. . . .

All three laws are a recipe for abuse.  One reason is that they allow someone else to talk for the patient during the lethal dose request process.  Moreover, once the lethal dose is issued by the pharmacy, there is no oversight over administration.  Even if the patient struggled, who would know?

In this and other legal articles, Dore has brought new analysis and valuable insights to the public debate over legalization of assisted suicide. The majority of reported cases in Oregon and Washington involved people with education and resources. Unfortunately, an elder's resources are no safeguard against abuse. In fact, Dore's voice of experience would suggest that resources may instead be a motivation for it. -  Diane Coleman