Alan Pfeffer is a retired attorney in New York state whose first wife died from Huntington’s disease (H📷D) and whose 37-year-old daughter resides in a nursing home, slowly dying from HD. Alan is leading the fight for laws that will allow those like his daughter to choose a peaceful death rather than suffering the ravages that HD inevitably brings in the end stages.
Those of us who have lived with HD have seen the suffering. We’ve seen loved ones who can no longer swallow, talk, sit, walk, or attend to personal hygiene. We’ve seen our loved ones reduced to a decimated body, curled into a fetal position. We’ve seen our loved ones throw up repeatedly, unable to keep down any food or liquids. We’ve seen our loved ones refuse feeding tubes and starve to death, painfully. Perhaps worst of all, we’ve seen our loved ones, like my brother-in-law, resort to suicide, often violently.
While there are currently six states with Death with Dignity laws/statutes (California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington), none of these laws provide relief for those who are suffering from HD or Juvenile Huntington’s disease (JHD). Based on the Oregon model (the first in the nation to pass Death with Dignity legislation), the law requires standards that are impossible for someone with HD to meet. In Oregon, the following criteria must be met:
The patient must be at least 18 years of age.The patient must be capable (defined as able to make and communicate health care decisions).The patient must be diagnosed with a terminal illness and within six months of death, as certified by two physicians.The patient must make two oral requests to his or her physician, separated by at least 15 days.The patient must provide a written request to his or her physician, signed in the presence of two witnesses.The prescribing physician and a consulting physician must confirm the diagnosis and prognosis.The prescribing physician and a consulting physician must determine whether the patient is capable.If either physician believes the patient’s judgment is impaired by a psychiatric or psychological disorder, the patient must be referred for a psychological examination.The prescribing physician must inform the patient of feasible alternatives to DWDA, including comfort care, hospice care, and pain control.The prescribing physician must request, but may not require, the patient to notify his or her next-of-kin of the prescription request.The patient must be able to self-administer the medication by swallowing; if the pills are dropped or regurgitated, or if the patient regains consciousness, there is not a second chance.
In order to make sure patients with HD may avail themselves of the mercy intended by these laws, Alan is filing this month to present an argument to the NYS assembly at its Public Hearing on Physician Aid in Dying (PAD).
Alan asks the question that strikes at the heart of the matter:
So why do people with Huntington’s refuse feeding tubes when they can extend their life? Because it is life they don’t want to continue to live. My daughter watched her mother slowly die and spend years rigid, unable to move any body part, unable to speak, orally eat, painful muscle contractions, no hope for a miracle drug being researched, placed by the nursing home staff in front of a TV all day. My daughter has a health care directive not to prolong her dying. She was a woman of the world, a Peace Corps volunteer who served her country by teaching the children of Turkmenistan in Central Asia English, who worked and lived in Thailand teaching English to children, who volunteered as an English teacher to foster care children in Israel. She lived for 18 months in Argentina; she speaks five languages; she toured the world; and she has made her choices and wants the same right of choice that is being considered for other people dying of things like cancer. Let’s not leave anyone behind.
📷Alan proposes that people with Huntington’s disease execute an advanced health care directive, while still of “sound mind,” that would request PAD when they reach the point that they no longer have what they have personally predetermined as “quality of life.” Just as people are currently able to execute a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order or refuse a feeding tube or a ventilator, they should be able to execute a request for PAD.
My husband would not have chosen PAD. He wanted to live as long as possible, in a nursing home, assisted by a feeding tube, to share in every part of our son’s life possible. His brother was the opposite. He had no children, and he had said from the time he was diagnosed that when it got to the point that he could no longer take care of himself, he would take his own life. Any of us would have taken care of him, but he did not want to live life on those terms.
Another shortcoming of current law is that it automatically eliminates the children who are suffering from Juvenile Huntington’s disease, since they have not yet attained the age of 18.
The whole point to this is that end of life should be a personal and humane choice. To this end, Help 4 HD International has issued an official position statement on Death with Dignity, which states in part:
HELP 4 HD International supports efforts to increase services and support for HD/JHD families, 📷including palliative care from the time of diagnosis through their loved ones’ remaining lifespan. This includes educating the community about what options are available to them at any time in their journey to retain as much control as they can. HELP 4 HD International is not a lobbying group and thus does not participate in activities to promote legislation on this issue. Neither does HELP 4 HD International have an official position on what families “should” or “should not” do. We believe, though, that Huntington’s patients should have the right to choose death with dignity by a prior health care directive, a prior appointed agent, and, if necessary, physician assistance in order to enable people with HD to access the mercy that Death with Dignity laws intend.
If you wish to read and/or print out our official statement of position, it may be accessed here: https://help4hd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/HELP-4-HD-Death-with-Dignity-Position-Statement.pdf.
To hear an interview with Alan Pfeffer on “Help 4 HD Live!” click here: http://my.blogtalkradio.com/tools/#/my-episodes/edit?episode=9611851