FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 26, 1997

Contact: Joanne Lynn, M.D.

Felicia Cohn, Ph.D.

Anne Wilkinson, Ph.D.

(202) 467-2222

Center to Improve Care of the Dying Offers to Assist All Parties as the States Take Up Physician Assisted Suicide

CICD says Supreme Court Decision on Physician-Assisted Suicide is
“Real Opportunity for Improving Health Care at the End-of-Life”

Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Levin (R-Mich.) Propose the
“Compassionate Care Bill”

In a decision handed down today, the Supreme Court held that prohibitions against the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) do not violate the Due Process Clause/Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It will now be up to individual states to consider the legalization of PAS. The Court decision “will surely engender many heated debates,” says Joanne Lynn, M.D., Director of the Center to Improve Care of the Dying.

To assist in the upcoming debates, The Center to Improve Care of the Dying will establish a technical assistance and information clearinghouse for state laws, proposed laws, and regulations regarding both good care of the dying and physician-assisted suicide. This clearinghouse is designed for state level policymakers, advocates, and the press. The project will serve as an information resource to generate timely, unbiased information via an internet site, a concerned citizen’s guidebook and various printed materials. Financial support is being sought to expand this service to provide consulting and technical assistance services.

Now that the Court has spoken, states must get to work on making policy about community support of the very ill, identifying any population eligible for PAS, and regulating whatever practice is permitted. “We are at a critical juncture in health care for the dying. Without the benefit of further experience, there simply is no way of knowing whether this society could accommodate the exercise of a right dependent on these eligibility criteria,” says Lynn.

Policymakers will now have to confront the facts about dying -- who is dying, from what causes, and in what circumstances. They will find that the answers are available only in anecdotes, without reliable data. Certainly, the patients involved in the cases debated publicly have been younger than the majority of those now dying, with less complicated diagnoses, and with little of the usual ambiguity surrounding treatment choices and outcomes. States will find that they need accurate facts in order to consider this issue, to build good care systems, and to know that those care systems are worth the investment.

The Medicare program also bears an enormous responsibility for dying persons. Because all Medicare beneficiaries will die while in the Medicare program, it is especially important to identify, develop, and deliver appropriate care at the end-of-life. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Congressman Sander Levin (R-Mich.) are proposing the Compassionate Care Bill which mandates, among other things, that the Department of Health and Human Services develop standards to assess end-of-life care, conduct ongoing evaluations of existing health care programs that provide innovative end-of-life care, and conduct original demonstration projects for new approaches to end-of-life care for Medicare beneficiaries.

The Center to Improve Care of the Dying, of the George Washington University Medical Center, is an interdisciplinary organization committed to research, education, and advocacy to improve care of dying patients and those suffering with severely disabling diseases. The Center’s promise, “…to care always…” embodies the sentiment and commitment of its staff, headed by Joanne Lynn, M.D. Dr. Lynn is a nationally recognized expert in the fields of geriatrics, ethics, and end-of-life care and has been a hospice and nursing home physician. The Center addresses a variety of issues related to end-of-life care, including relief of symptoms, family support, palliative care, measurement of quality of end-of-life services, and establishment of accountability standards for end-of-life care.