Jim Nowlan, a retired professor of American politics who lives in Illinois, wrote an opinion piece about the right to stop eating and drinking that was picked up by Trib Total Media in Western Pennsylvania (among other publications) titled, “Our Way of Dying is Evolving.” Here is an excerpt:
I had my state rep contact the [Illinois] state licensing agency to ask if a nurse would jeopardize her/his license by providing comfort care for a person going through VSED. Here is the answer: “Providing care that aligns with the Nurse Practice Act ensures that a nurse’s license is safeguarded.”
I read the act and its rules, which basically say: Be a professional, ethical nurse. In other words, the state won’t answer until after a nurse takes an action that might be challenged. Since a nurse’s license is worth millions in income over a career, a rational nurse offered an assignment to provide comfort care to a person going through VSED would decline.
I am neither planning nor advocating suicide, yet at some future point, following further significant decline, who knows? I am trying to cope in a world where medical science can keep us technically alive long after the “use by” date on our “containers” has expired.
To read the full piece, visit TribLive.