UNDIGNIFIED
Last week Nina Shapiro revisited Washington’s Death With Dignity Act in the wake of a proposed senate bill that would require doctors to present patients wishing to end their lives with information on alternatives (“The Final Conversation,” Feb. 25, 2015). A doctor supporting the bill suggested that he had saved a patient from an unnecessary death, while another case that Shapiro unearthed revealed that patients who were refused information about the act from religiously affiliated hospitals were taking matters into their own hands.
I support this law and hope that it will provide protection for people like my brother, Wes Olfert, who died a few years ago in Washington State. When Wes was first admitted to the hospital, he made the mistake of asking about assisted suicide. I say a mistake, because it set off a chain of events that interfered with his care and caused him unnecessary stress in what turned out to be the last months of his life.
By asking the question, he was given a “palliative care” consult by a doctor who heavily and continually pressured him to give up on treatment before he was ready to do so. It got so bad that Wes became fearful of this doctor and asked me and a friend to not leave him alone with her.
I hope that with the proposed bill, doctors will get the message that they need to back off, to make sure that patients are freely choosing what’s best for them, as chosen by them. Marlene Deakins, RN
,
Tucson, Arizona
Ridiculous. Do the Catholic Health organizations also decline to inform people who ask about birth control?
If a provider receives federal tax benefits (such as not paying any) and funding, they should have to follow the law and inform people who ask about it. It is inhumane to allow someone to languish in pain. We wouldn’t allow it to be done to animals and we shouldn’t do it to humans either. And someone should not have to shoot themselves in the bath to get relief.
thebriang, via seattleweekly.com
DISTRICT REFLECTIONS
Ellis E. Conklin recently explored how the City Council’s new district elections—and the departure of three councilmembers—will impact the balance of power at City Hall (“Power Surge,” Feb. 25, 2015). “Ed will vastly increase his power now,” departing councilmember Sally Clark told Conklin, speaking of Mayor Ed Murray. “The members will deal with their own district and cede the bigger vision, the bigger picture to the mayor.”
This is by no means a given. If district councilmembers actually listen to their constituents, they will discover voter concerns go far beyond the local district. City-wide issues are by definition local issues everywhere. District councilmembers who ignore constituents’ concerns about city-wide issues, the “bigger vision,” will do so at their peril.
RDPence, via seattleweekly.com
Some city-wide issues will definitely be at the forefront of most voters’ concerns […]. But it’s certainly possible that one reason voters favored district elections in the first place was that they felt frustrated that their concerns were being given short shrift by downtown-oriented politicians. While the effect of that frustration will likely be mitigated because it will take time for new members representing different districts to form the coalitions they need to be effective, it will nonetheless take time to play out and will almost certainly have some unpredictable consequences.
tifoso, via seattleweekly.com
JOUSTING OVER JOHNSON
Making a brief appearance in Conklin’s story was Transportation Coalition Choices executive director Rob Johnson, who will be challenging Jean Godden in District 4. His name alone ignited a fight.
Rob Johnson is just what Seattle needs right now. He would make a thoughtful councilmember. We are a fast-growing city and he understands that Seattle isn’t a bubble, but part of an interconnected region that requires regional solutions. Rob has a long history of working on transportation, and bringing diverse stakeholders’ opinions together to find workable solutions that get implemented.
looking4leadership, via seattleweekly.com
Garbage. Johnson is a follower who will do whatever Murray tells him to do.
4theisland, via seattleweekly.com
That sounds like an at-large candidate positioning to me. Getting at-large council members in district seats is not why I worked so hard to get Charter Amendment 19 adopted. Yes, “regional solutions” are needed, but we also need district representatives to deal with district-specific issues.
anotherneighborhoodactivist,
via seattleweekly.com
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