On Jan. 1, 2018, I received the following email from Heather Block, a terminally ill Delaware resident. Heather was a beautiful 54-year-old woman who passionately advocated for Delaware lawmakers to pass the End of Life Options Act, as she was dying from incurable stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.
“Hi Kim: Unfortunately, my cancer has now progressed into my brain and spinal fluid (leptomeningeal disease) so I am closer than ever to needing the ability to make my own determination. I am debating Zurich or rolling the dice in the U.S. It’s not a great choice to make. Thanks for your work yet please work yourself out of a job for people like me. Best for 2018, Heather”
Heather simply wanted to be able to request prescription medication from her doctor that she could ingest if her suffering became unbearable which would allow her to die peacefully. But to achieve this goal, she needed the Delaware legislature to pass the End of Life Options Act to authorize the option of medical aid in dying for terminally ill adults like her.
The option of medical aid in dying was so important to Heather that she spent her precious remaining months working to persuade Delaware lawmakers to pass the End of Life Options Act. She advocated before the Delaware State Senate and Assembly. She met with the governor. She spoke to the media. Despite all of her efforts and the efforts of many others, the Legislature failed to pass the law in time for Heather. Instead, Heather spent the final months of her life unnecessarily worried. She suffered. She was not afraid of death; she feared how she would die. Heather’s needless suffering illustrates the true cost of legislative inaction.
In her honor, the author of the End of Life Options Act, state Rep. Paul Baumbach, renamed the bill after her and another brave, selfless terminally ill advocate, Ron Silverio, who died of cancer in 2018: the Delaware Ron Silverio/Heather Block End of Life Options Act.
With Baumbach's steadfast, unrelenting leadership, and the advocacy of many Delaware residents both terminally ill and healthy, the House passed the compassionate legislation — HB140 — on a bipartisan vote in April. The Senate passed it last week, sending it to Gov. John Carney for his consideration.
Our view:Delaware deserves aid-in-dying. Gov. Carney must sign legislation allowing it
Before Carney decides whether to sign the bill, I plead with him to consider the following facts:
The Delaware legislation, which was modeled after Oregon's time-tested 26-year-old law, protects the dying patient from abuse or coercion. Less than 1% of the people who die annually in the 11 jurisdictions where medical aid in dying is authorized use the option, but many more gain comfort from knowing it exists. Quite simply, decades of data show fear of coercion and abuse are unfounded.
Even if this is not an end-of-life care option that Carney would choose for himself, I hope he will respect the wished of more than 7 out of 10 Delaware voters and the majority of physicians who support legislation and allow it to become law.
Kim Callinan is the chief executive officer for Compassion & Choices Action Network, the largest national organization devoted exclusively to patient-driven, end-of-life care. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University.
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