Science
(2009-09-08)
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Dr. Tom Preston and other proponents of "Death with Dignity Act" talk to reporters.
Photo by: Compassion & Choices of Washington
The so-called "Death with Dignity" law passed by voters allows terminally ill patents to receive lethal doses of medicine.
Dr. Tom Preston, with the group Compasion and Choices of Washington, says in his work as a cardiologists he's witnessed a lot of painful deaths. But, he says, that's not the case for the patients who've made use of the new law. He says those he's seen under the law are "the best deaths I've ever witnessed."
Preston says patients take the medicine and go to sleep. They die, he says, surrounded by friends and family.
But for longtime opponent, hospice nurse Eileen Geller, use of the law is not something to celebrate. "It's really a tragedy," she said. Geller believes terminally ill patients need emotional support to help them through their depression rather than drugs to hasten their death. © Copyright 2012, KPLU
