{"id":7355,"date":"2018-12-20T17:54:59","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T17:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/observant-decision.flywheelsites.com\/ia-iowa-city\/?p=7355"},"modified":"2019-02-17T02:40:16","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T02:40:16","slug":"when-death-would-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/when-death-would-be\/","title":{"rendered":"When Death Would Be…"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1550367615270{padding-top: 30px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7857″ img_size=”750×488″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550370047397{margin-top: 30px !important;}”]<\/p>\n

When Death Would Be Kinder, Allow The Option<\/span><\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550369125404{margin-top: 25px !important;}”]At 45, Jennifer Holm has two life-threatening illnesses. There is no cure for either, no clinical trial she can qualify for. The married mother of a college freshman is on three types of chemotherapy. But they seem no match for the\u00a0carcinoid neuroendocrine cancer and progressive, multi-systemic sarcoidosis, which require daily medications and injections in her spine to block the pain.<\/strong><\/em><\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” border_width=”4″ accent_color=”#cccccc” css=”.vc_custom_1550369959996{margin-top: 25px !important;}”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”7852″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1550371213454{margin-top: 32px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550368355771{margin-top: 25px !important;}”]<\/p>\n

Jennifer Holm<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/em>(Photos: Rekha Basu<\/a>)<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550369712875{margin-top: 15px !important;}”]The meds make her hallucinate, yet\u00a0at times Holm feels as if she\u2019s been shot through the stomach. She is nauseous all the time and has to be on anti-depressants.<\/p>\n

The symptoms began when she was 39\u00a0and\u00a0a program manager at Iowa State University. Today she\u00a0runs a\u00a0support and awareness group, Iowa Carcinoid\/NET Cancer Connection.\u00a0On Jan. 27, she addressed an Iowa Senate subcommittee considering\u00a0a bill to\u00a0allow\u00a0terminally ill adults\u00a0access to life-ending medications. Holm said she had\u00a0made peace with dying when her\u00a0quality of life is too compromised.\u00a0It\u2019s the cruel indignity of what will likely happen before death that she can\u2019t accept.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs these illnesses spread throughout my intestines and abdomen, (they) will eat through my abdominal wall, creating holes across my abdomen, sides, and back,\u201d she explained, \u201callowing the contents of my intestines to spill out.\u201d To put it bluntly, bowel would ooze out uncontrollably. And because the disease is also gnawing at\u00a0her bones, she would be too fragile even to walk to the bathroom. It would fall to her husband and son to deal with the consequences.\u00a0\u201cI do not want my family to remember me like this at the end,\u201d Holm testified. \u201cI want them to not remember me as a tortured shell of my former self. …\u00a0There are things worse than death.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550371098782{margin-top: 25px !important;}”]There were tears\u00a0in the hearing room, but Holm had not come seeking pity. What she sought was the simple right to say \u201cno more,\u201d when her condition becomes unbearable. Under Iowa law, you can\u2019t legally obtain the means to end your own life, even when its\u00a0quality is so gravely compromised.<\/p>\n

But within weeks of her testimony, the bill’s sponsors let it pass the deadline without taking a vote to move it to the full committee.\u00a0Members had been lobbied hard by religious groups claiming it would lead to copycat suicides and send the wrong message to\u00a0teen-agers.<\/p>\n

There are good reasons to be cautious about life-ending medicines\u00a0falling into the hands of people who are\u00a0temporarily depressed and suicidal. But such precautions were taken in the\u00a0Iowa Death with Dignity Act proposed by Democratic Sens. Joe Bolkcom, Rich Taylor, Matt McCoy and Dick Dearden. It would only have applied to terminally-ill adults facing six or fewer months to live. A patient\u00a0would need to be diagnosed by at least two physicians, make two oral requests two weeks apart and a written one\u00a0witnessed by two people who met certain qualifications. The patient\u00a0would have to be physically capable of taking the medication.<\/p>\n

Now Holm, whose husband Dan is a Register reporter, is considering suing the state for interfering with her right to die with dignity on religious grounds which she, an atheist, doesn’t share. And\u00a0John Tapscott, a terminally ill former state legislator who also testified in favor of the bill, is considering joining her. Tapscott, 86, testified he has cardiac amyloidosis, which forces him to be on oxygen all the time, and unable to bathe or dress himself.<\/p>\n

Five states already allow medical aid in dying. Various national polls show a majority of Americans support it.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550371107313{margin-top: 25px !important;}”]There was other moving testimony last month. A hospice nurse from Cedar Rapids with Stage 4 melanoma\u00a0said if her tumor returns she doesn’t want to suffer a slow and painful death. A home health care director in Ottumwa said she had worked in the state of Washington, where patients are “able to write their own ending,” and that had replaced\u00a0fear with empowerment.<\/p>\n

Rep. Brian Meyer, who last year introduced an Iowa House bill to the same effect, testified that his mother died of lung cancer after wasting into a shell of her former self. \u201cI know if she was given the opportunity to die peacefully the way she chose, she would have taken that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meyer said his\u00a0bill brought more positive response than any other legislation he\u2019s been involved with. But he said religious and conservative opponents badly misrepresented it online, some\u00a0calling it assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

Bolkcom, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that recently failed to move the bill forward, says it wouldn’t\u00a0have had enough votes in the full committee, or in the Senate, to pass. He said more education needs to be\u00a0done to overcome what he calls “pretty significant opposition” in the community. He\u00a0has scheduled a subcommittee meeting March 3, where he hopes advocates will make their case again for passage next year.<\/p>\n

Illegal or not, as we saw recently in the tragic death of David Hurd, when people’s lives become intolerable, those intent on ending them\u00a0will find ways \u2014\u00a0even extremely traumatic ones \u2014 to do so.\u00a0The state has no business forcing someone to stay alive whose\u00a0quality of life is so comprised that the infirmities outweigh the joys.<\/p>\n

It takes\u00a0courage to do the right thing in the face of controversy. This was a missed opportunity to show that.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1550367615270{padding-top: 30px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7857″ img_size=”750×488″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550370047397{margin-top: 30px !important;}”] When Death Would Be Kinder, Allow The Option [\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550369125404{margin-top: 25px !important;}”]At 45, Jennifer Holm has two life-threatening illnesses. There is no cure for either, no clinical trial she can qualify for. The married mother of a college freshman is on three types of chemotherapy. But they seem no match for the\u00a0carcinoid neuroendocrine cancer and progressive, multi-systemic sarcoidosis, which require daily medications and injections in her spine to block the pain.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” border_width=”4″ accent_color=”#cccccc” css=”.vc_custom_1550369959996{margin-top: 25px !important;}”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”7852″ img_size=”250×250″ alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1550371213454{margin-top: 32px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550368355771{margin-top: 25px !important;}”] Jennifer Holm (Photos: Rekha Basu) [\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550369712875{margin-top: 15px !important;}”]The meds make her hallucinate, yet\u00a0at times Holm feels as if she\u2019s been shot through the stomach. She is nauseous all the time and has to be on anti-depressants. The symptoms began when she was 39\u00a0and\u00a0a program manager at Iowa State University. Today she\u00a0runs a\u00a0support and awareness group, Iowa Carcinoid\/NET Cancer Connection.\u00a0On Jan. 27, she addressed an Iowa Senate subcommittee considering\u00a0a bill to\u00a0allow\u00a0terminally ill adults\u00a0access to life-ending medications. Holm said she had\u00a0made peace with dying when her\u00a0quality of life is too compromised.\u00a0It\u2019s the cruel indignity of what will likely happen before death that she can\u2019t accept. \u201cAs these illnesses spread throughout my intestines and abdomen, (they) will eat through my abdominal wall, creating holes across my abdomen, sides, and back,\u201d she explained, \u201callowing the contents of my intestines to spill out.\u201d To put it bluntly, bowel would ooze out uncontrollably. And because the disease is also gnawing at\u00a0her bones, she would be too fragile even to walk to the bathroom. It would fall to her husband and son to deal with the consequences.\u00a0\u201cI do not want my family to remember me like this at the end,\u201d Holm testified. \u201cI want them to not remember me as a tortured shell of my former self. …\u00a0There are things worse than death.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1550371098782{margin-top: 25px !important;}”]There were tears\u00a0in the hearing room, but Holm had not come seeking pity. What she sought was the simple right to say \u201cno more,\u201d when her condition becomes unbearable. Under Iowa law, you can\u2019t legally obtain the means to end your own life, even when its\u00a0quality is so gravely compromised. But within weeks of her testimony, the bill’s sponsors let it pass the deadline without taking a vote to move it to the full committee.\u00a0Members had been lobbied hard by religious groups claiming it would lead to copycat suicides and send the wrong message to\u00a0teen-agers. There are good reasons to be cautious about life-ending medicines\u00a0falling into the hands of people who are\u00a0temporarily depressed and suicidal. But such precautions were taken in the\u00a0Iowa Death with Dignity Act proposed by Democratic Sens. Joe Bolkcom, Rich Taylor, Matt McCoy and Dick Dearden. It would only have applied to terminally-ill adults facing six or fewer months to live. A patient\u00a0would need to be diagnosed by at least two physicians, make two oral requests two weeks apart and a written one\u00a0witnessed by two people who met certain qualifications. The patient\u00a0would have to be physically capable of taking the medication. Now Holm, whose husband Dan is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncan-ia-iowa-city-chapter-support-group-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7355"}],"version-history":[{"count":72,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7933,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7355\/revisions\/7933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.netcan.org\/ia-iowa-city\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}