New Jersey fighting to die, Christie mum

Two years ago, doctors diagnosed Janet Colbert with a rare form of liver cancer that is sure to kill her.

A large portion of her liver was removed and a pump was implanted to deliver chemotherapy directly. Doctors thought they could buy her a year, but could not guarantee she would live to see her son's wedding a year and a half later.

Colbert made it to the wedding last June. Her favorite part was that her son lead her to her seat in the Catholic church in Little Egg Harbor. Her quality of life has been good, but should her final weeks prove unbearable, Colbert said she would like a prescription that would end her life.

"I feel that it would just give me so much more peace of mind," said Colbert, a retiree who worked 25 years as an oncology nurse.

Euthanasia. Assisted suicide. Death with dignity.

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It is called different things by different people, often depending upon religious or moral beliefs about facilitating the end of life.

Oregon, Washington and Vermont already allow a terminally ill person to take his own life. Utah introduced a Death with Dignity bill Tuesday and several other states also are considering legislation.

New Jersey could also pass a similar law — a measure allowing someone of sound mind and six months to live to be prescribed a drug that would kill them.

The bill passed the Assembly, 41-31, in November and awaits a vote by the Senate.

"I just think it's a compassionate way to give people a choice on how to exit," said Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, one a sponsor of the bill.

The Asbury Park Press reviewed data from Oregon, which has the most comprehensive records on assisted suicide. The state's 16-year-old law also is the nation's oldest.

Of the 1,173 prescriptions written, 752 people died from the assisted suicide drugs, according to the most-recent report. In 2013, 122 people were prescribed the fatal drug and 63 died from taking it; 8 died from drugs prescribed in previous years. Twenty-eight died from their condition.

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The data also show:

• Participants are usually about 71 years old; 97 percent are white; a little more than half were men and a bit less than half were married.

• About 79 percent had cancer.

• The state collected data on the participants' worries. The top "end of life concerns" were: "losing autonomy"; being "less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable"; and "loss of dignity."

• Only about 24 percent were concerned about pain and only 3 percent were concerned about the financial implications of their treatment.

• 22 people threw up after taking the drugs — secobarbital, pentobarbital or, in a few cases, morphine.

• Six people in the history of the law in Oregon woke up after taking the drug.

• In 2005, one person regained consciousness after taking the drugs then died from their condition 14 days later. In 2010, two people who threw up regained consciousness and later died of their illness — one 3.5 days later, one 3 months later.

• In 2011, one person didn't completely ingest the drug, they regained consciousness 14 hours later and died 38 hours after that. Another person had a possible tolerance to the drugs and briefly regained consciousness before dying 30 hours later. In 2012, one person regained consciousness two days after taking the drugs, but remained "minimally responsive" and died six days later.

Dementia

"Mom, you might die from this," Jan said. She didn't want to use her last name because of her feelings about her mother's death. She recalled a key exchange between them.

"Oh, good," Joan replied.

Her daughter had managed to communicate that her condition was worsening. Joan had long struggled with short-term memory loss following an operation for brain cancer. Her mental condition deteriorated following surgery for a broken hip. Joan welcomed the end. She had a strong faith in God. She believed when she died she would get back the abilities she had lost — her wit, her ability to communicate.

"I want you to be happy if I die," Joan told Jan.

"Mom, I'll have a party with balloons."

Joan looked at Jan. She didn't understand the word "balloon."

Joan's death certificate says dementia. She died after her daughter chose not to have her artificially fed in 2011.

Though the New Jersey measure might not have applied to Joan because of her mental condition, Jan wishes there had been another option for the end of her mother's life. She said her mother thought Jack Kevorkian, a nationally prominent now-dead euthanasia activist, was a hero.

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Jan feels so strongly she called in to an "Ask the Governor" 101.5 radio show in January to urge Gov. Christie to reconsider his views on the proposed law.

Christie thanked her, expressed concern about a "slippery slope," and said he felt no life disposable. He vowed to keep an open mind but had "grave concerns" and didn't want to give her false encouragement. He didn't say he would oppose the bill.

The Asbury Park Press asked the governor's office for more, but they were reticent. Christie's spokesman said the governor's public comment speaks for itself, and beyond that, his office doesn't generally comment on pending legislation.

"I don't think he should veto it," Jan told the Press. She added: "I don't think he should stand in the way of somebody's wishes on life and death."

Hospice

A person approaching the end of their life can choose to end treatments that would try to sustain or cure them and instead seek care to help them die comfortably. About 90 percent of the people who have used the Oregon law were getting hospice care. Yet the New Jersey Hospice and Palliative Care Organization opposes this state's proposed law.

Don Pendley, president of the organization, explained that the group has opposed it on principle since Oregon passed its law. He noted that the reasons cited by people using the law in Oregon are less often pain management and more often their unhappiness about being unable to do things they enjoy.

"We don't think they should be treating psychological issues with lethal drugs," he said.

He said the average length of stay for a person in a hospice is about 17 days. In his view, patients should enter hospice six to eight weeks prior to death.

If the public used these services as intended, said Pendley, there would be no need for an option as drastic as an Aid in Dying law.

"If we weren't such a death-denying society and if the public and doctors knew more about hospice care, I think we'd see less interest in this kind of legislation."

But most New Jersey residents are interested in this kind of legislation.

A Rutgers-Eagleton poll shows 63 percent of New Jerseyans support the Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act, with Democrats backing the legislation by 64 percent and Republicans by 58 percent.

Sweeney said he will only bring the measure to the floor when he has the 21 votes to ensure passage. But he isn't calling senators to cajole them.

"My members will make their decision based on their conscience," he said.

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Father Alberto Tamayo of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Red Bank said he has experienced dying with hundreds. He says dying can be a beautiful experience for the person passing and their family. It's a chance to show tremendous generosity.

"To me, that's real," said Tamayo, who opposes the New Jersey proposal. "When you talk about death with dignity, there's no more dignified way to die than that. To die around your family with their love and with their sacrifice for you. And to go at the moment God calls you."

Tamayo said he read about Brittany Maynard, a woman who moved to Oregon to use that state's aid-in-dying law — and discussed her choice across the media spectrum.

"I can't judge them," Tamayo said of Maynard and her family, which backed her decision. "I don't know their situation or the heartbreaks that they experienced or anything like that. But I think it's important for family members, when people are going through those dark moments of an illness, that they know that their family is fighting for them to stay alive as long as God allows them to be alive."

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The retired oncology nurse has not yet been given six months to live and she is staying active. Colbert only wants to die once, and she wears a silicon bracelet with bold letters: DNR. She doesn't want to be resuscitated after an emergency, like a heart attack.

Colbert feels so strongly about her position that she testified before the state senate health committee in support of the Aid in Dying legislation.

"I would be more relaxed in everything I do because I would know that if I got to that point, I would have that option available to me," Colbert explained.

There are bad days, days when she's just exhausted, but so far her quality of life is good. She goes to lunch with friends, she goes to craft shows. She does quilting, sewing, knitting, beading.

A room in her home is filled with beads and wire, carefully organized and labeled, lined up on shelves.

She likes to joke with her friends that God hasn't called her because he doesn't yet have her craft room perfected.

Physical health problems and suicide

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention runs a "National Violent Death Reporting System." Though it doesn't cover every state, it does have detailed info about suicides in New Jersey and Oregon.

One of the circumstances they track is whether the person who died suffered from a physical health problem.

"We do know that the Death with Dignity Act is an answer for some of those folks," said Peg Sandeen, executive director at the Death with Dignity National Center. "It's a compassionate and not so violent answer for some of those folks. In terms of understanding statistically the impact, I don't know anybody who's done that research."

The percentage of people killing themselves because of physical health problems has decreased between 2003 and 2012 in Oregon. For people 65 and older, the group of people most often using the DWDA in Oregon, that rate has decreased a bit more quickly. As DWDA numbers have risen, the number of people violently committing suicide due to health problems in Oregon has gone down.

But the percentage of suicides in New Jersey due to health problems also decreased over that time, so death with dignity might not be the reason that category of suicides is down in Oregon.

Andrew Ford: 732-643-4281; aford@app.com.