Physician-Assisted Suicide Bill

Re “We Need Help for Better Dying,” Voices, July 17: Having met Dr. C. Ronald Koons, there is no question that he is an excellent clinician and a compassionate physician, providing the very best care possible to his cancer patients. His advocacy of a law being discussed in the Legislature to legalize physician-assisted suicide is misguided.

As Koons states, currently physicians do not have the luxury of spending quality time discussing important issues with patients. There is little training in the proper use of pain management among physicians and little consideration given to palliative (comfort) care in teaching medical students. Add the fact that millions of Californians lack the basic health coverage necessary to even see a physician and it becomes clear that this is not the time to legalize physician-assisted suicide in California.

Statistics released from a year of legalized physician-assisted suicide in Oregon reveal that the patients who chose this option did so because they were afraid of being a burden to others, not because they were in intractable pain. We need to provide families of terminal patients with the skills and support necessary so they can assure their loved ones they are not burdens.

Teaching physicians, patients and families about options at the end of life would be a better use of resources than attempting to regulate physician-assisted suicide.

JOSEPH E. BELTRAN

Chaplain, Fairview Developmental

Center, Costa Mesa