Death with dignity advocate seeks right to choose
For Scott Foster, getting a law passed in Hawaii to allow terminally ill people to end their lives is a personal matter.
The 73-year-old co-founder of the Hawaii Death With Dignity Society has been working to attain such a law for 30 years.
“I’m aging and it’s a very real issue. … When I can no longer take care of myself, it becomes a quality-of-life issue,” Foster said, adding that with no relatives and few close friends, he wonders who would be able to care for him. “I want full control over my end of life as best I can.”
Foster, the recently elected chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s Kupuna Caucus, ran on a platform of senior health care and end-of-life issues, including a proposed “death with dignity” law that would allow a doctor to write a prescription for a lethal drug.
The Kupuna Caucus, which represents thousands of senior Democrats and their families across the state, “is powerful in its numbers,” Foster said. “A huge percentage of the Democrat party is seniors — we have the time to make the calls, visit the Capitol and give testimony.”
Time is right
Foster maintains that “the planets are aligned for 2017” for state lawmakers to support the proposed law. He cited several factors, including his election as Kupuna Caucus chairman and strong support in the state Senate.
Sens. Lorraine Inouye, Donovan Dela Cruz and Russell Ruderman introduced Senate Bill 2373 this year as a way to keep the issue at the forefront, but it didn’t receive a hearing. The bill proposed allowing a terminally ill, competent adult of at least 50 years of age to get a lethal dose of medication to end his or her life. But the measure also bans physicians and others from administering mercy killings, lethal injections and active euthanasia.
Last year California became the sixth state to pass a “death with dignity” law. In that case, state lawmakers supported the measure without opposition from the state’s medical association, Foster said, describing the process as a “big breakthrough.”
Foster pointed to the story of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard as one that “educated the public worldwide” and put a young face on an issue mostly associated with seniors. In 2014 Maynard moved to Oregon, where the first death with dignity law had passed, because she was dying of brain cancer and decided “not to accept a painful, drawn-out death,” Foster said.
Advocate for decades
Three decades ago, when Foster moved to Hawaii from Oklahoma, he became involved in the assisted-death movement.
“I am gay. I’ve seen a lot of death, probably more than the average straight person, because I lost all of my friends early on. … I lived through the AIDS pandemic and could’ve only prayed that we had this (bill back then),” he said.
“My mother had a horrible death of cancer when I was only 14. I certainly came to understand what a bad death was back then.” Since then, Foster added, “I’ve witnessed so many older people whose quality of life goes to nothing, especially in those last months.”
One of his mentors was Ah Quon McElrath, a labor and social activist who died in 2008.
“Sometimes the control of one’s life is taken completely away from the terminal person. A.Q. McElrath called me a week before she died in the hospital. She said, ‘Foster, you gotta get this bill passed. I’m going just the way I didn’t want to — I’m all plugged into wires and machines and tubes.’”
Foster said, “I don’t want that and A.Q. didn’t want that.”
As a strong advocate for the passage of Hawaii’s marriage equality law in 2013, Foster said he saw the Catholic Church and “right-wing fundamentalist Christians” come out in force in opposition. He expects that both factions — spurred on by religious faith — will also oppose a death with dignity law.
He hopes the typically less conservative interfaith congregations, which have rallied to support the LGBT community, will also get behind a proposed death with dignity law in Hawaii.
Foster plans to present an “On Death With Dignity” resolution at the Hawaii Democratic Party’s state convention, which will get underway May 29. The resolution was adopted by the Oahu County Democratic Convention last month.
More information about the Death With Dignity Society is available online at hawaiidwd society.org.
26 responses to “Death with dignity advocate seeks right to choose”
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We need to get this done. Leave it up to each individual to determine his/her final exit.
I’m sorry to see that it’s a Democrat Party political issue. It should be bipartisan. I also regret that this article is published in the “religion” section of the newspaper. The Catholic church is strongly opposed to this concept, along with most fundamentalist or evangelical Protestant sects.
Isn’t it interesting that so many people who talk about the sanctity of life, whether at end or beginning of life, stand mutely by as we wage war around the planet, killing tens of thousands of innocents in an undeclared war? How hypocritical!
You are losing the opportunity to show the next generation that life is worth fighting for to the last agonizing minute.
I’ve seen my grandparents waste away. What you propose is effectively torture. People should have the ultimate freedom to choose how they go out. To deny them that final right is beyond a tragedy.
Please and at what cost? The suffering to the person? The exorbitant costs to our health care system….and all because some non-secular entity has a problem with the right of the individual to choose?
The cost is clear and it is huge! You cheapen human existence by giving it a dollar value. You show the next generation that pulling the plug on you is easier than helping you fight with dignity to your last natural breath. So P l e a s e look past your simple minded solutions and look a little dealer at your reason for living and teaching the next generation that you are not on this earth to just take till you don’t need anything then give up!
Meant “deeper” not “dealer”!
That was at once caustic, putative and one-sided. The decision is upon the individual-period. Not knowing what I’ am speaking about — married to an Intensive care physician for over 25 years and previously managed a zen hospice. I have known death almost every week of my life for over 20 years. Sat with both strangers and loved ones, in their last months and moments for decades….and the greatest gift they have is their own autonomy. Your conscripted morality is for you to live, not promulgate upon others…
Yes, I agree with we should think deeper about reasons for living. What is your reason for living when you are plugged to machine that prevent you from taking “last natural breath”?
Balookanaka, your history with dieing patients has made you jaded, it has nothing to do with the sociological implications of euthanasia and or suicide (the line between which will become blurred).
Jaded,,you imbecile fool, it’s called compassion and grace. You ever clean a relative 4 times a day cause they no longer can hold bodily functions.? Take care of every pedestrian chore and bodily function…..probably not. You just espousing putative effete dogma…
Jaded for sure now!
Your comments are ironically, at the height of being simple minded. Death is a complicated issue for everyone. But it is ultimately their decision, not your asinine binary overly simplistic notion that life is valuable–of course it is, but the ability to set your own course and make those decisions for yourself is the most valuable asset and resource we have as individuals…..
I will say this one more time than I am done with you “boo”, we do not live in a bubble without consequences to society for our actions. Your outlook on life is selfish and shortsighted. End of story!
Why do you have not one supporter on this post? Or an even bigger picture, that most states are already trending towards a more enlightened approach of vesting more power of the actual person concerned–the dying person. It’s ironic, you espouse these platitudes but don’t dare lift a finger with actually assisting and being involved with the dying…so very very telling.
Really? To what end?
I am for the death with dignity issue that face the countless that suffer from incurable illnesses.
It boils down to a quality of life. If one is suffering from an incurable illness with bouts of intense pain, I believe it should be the individuals choice whether they want to live or not. Not left up to the state to determine if a person should live or not.
A person’s will to live trumps everything in deciding one’s fate.
Many doctors oppose this movement vigorously, why? Draw your own conclusions. Have had an experience where my dentist has been nickel and diming me at slightly over a $1K each time. So far in less than a year it has cost me over $3K. On the opposite side of the coin have been trying very hard to keep my 85 years old wife alive as long as possible at home although she is suffering with Alzheimer. In about a month will be 91 and have severe right hip and shin pains. Ibrophen cause severe heart burns so currently using Tylenol nominally, 2 at waking and a pill at noon and at dinner time. For the sake of asset protection should the need arise where I need to be institutionized and expend monies where there is no quality of life, I should be able to end my life!
again it is all about money for you.
Yes asset protection for heir/son. Why should I not be able to decide protect his interests. It’s me who is willing to do so. Why should I cling to life when your body is wrecked with pain and must take opiate to dull your senses. For what? There is no quality of life!. Further have done most of the things I hoped for and enjoyed life till about 4 years ago. Was born a Buddhist, converted to Christianity and became a non-believer religion has not provided me with my needs. “You may choose what you believe, I only expressed my feelings on the subject. Who are you to criticize my state of mind??? Live your own life!
Your heirs do not need your money, let them make their own life as you did. They need a strong role model that doesn’t give up on life for any reason! Man up!
After watching my father’s long, drawn-out end of life process a couple of years ago, there is absolutely NO WAY that I want that for myself. I do not want my family members changing my adult diapers and me not knowing what is going on and experiencing being taken care of on a level that defy’s reasoning and that is beyond my awareness. Please allow us to go when the time comes, w/o prolonging the physical body when the mind is already gone. There’s something to be said for the old days, when people died when it was their time w/o the process being prolonged. Modern medicine has increased our physical well-being tremendously over the years, but when it’s your time to go, please do not prolong the physical body just because we have those capabilities to prolong cell life and not mental/emotional life.
This is a personal decision. Like many who support this effort, I do no want to die hooked up to machines that keep me “alive.” I watched my brother die hooked up like that for days after he was last conscious. It was agonizing for all concerned–and neither necessary nor moral. If the bill to allow death with dignity is modeled on the California and Oregon laws, it will include adequate safeguards in it. Thanks, SA, for including the link to the Hawaii chapter of Death with Dignity at the end of this article. If the
Nicely stated.
IRT Marcus, only son is unemployed at 55 and has no job prospect. he quit his job he had over 25 years because he couldn’t stand his boss. Your responnse indicate that you have all the answers. You are self centered and opinionated and believe you have all the answers?? Hope your life is fulfilling as you believe it will be.