I was extraordinarily humbled by the outpouring of empathy from so many readers after my father’s death in Florida, an ordeal (“Give me the needle!” Pops bellowed) that made me grateful I live in California. We’ve had a death with dignity law on the books since 2015; what a relief to know that my daughters won’t have to endure what I went through with my parents.
But that kind of care can be more difficult to access than one might expect, even here. And the law is set to sunset in 2031! I didn’t fully understand all this.
Marie-Noële Tusler (Courtesy Tusler family)Philippe Tusler told me that his wife, in hospice care at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in 2021, was denied the right to choose her passing. Marie-Noële Anne Tusler had been battling pancreatic cancer for 14 months with many, many complications. When her oncologist said she was too weak to continue chemotherapy, she entered hospice at Hoag. Their daughters flew in from New York and San Francisco to say their farewells. Marie-Noële told the doctor that she was ready to die, and wanted to die.
“Hoag doesn’t do that,” the family was told, Tusler said.
Instead, they increased Marie-Noële’s pain meds, removed her hydration IV and let her die of dehydration over the next six days, he said. Tusler, his daughters and their husbands never left the hospital “while we watched her slowly die in discomfort and without dignity,” he said by email.
“This will remain etched in my memory as the most horrible experience of my life, and I can only imagine what she went through over those six days. Over three years later, I’m weeping as I write this.”
One of his daughters — a veterinarian — was outraged. An animal would never be subjected to that kind of suffering.
“Access to death with dignity, or ‘assisted suicide,’ as California chooses to describe it, is not automatic, is not easy,” Tusler said. “After querying the hospital and our GP, I still don’t know how this is supposed to work. … Something must be done to make this more available to people who need it. … Where is our dignity? Where is our right to choose how we leave the world?”
Proceed with caution
This is a cautionary tale. Turns out that, if one wants to keep the death with dignity option open, one might want to seek out health care practitioners without expressly religious bents before one might actually need them.
When Marie-Noële died on Aug. 11, 2021, Hoag was still affiliated with Providence, a Catholic health care system. A handbook from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, entitled “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,” makes the faithful medical practitioner’s duties clear:
“The truth that life is a precious gift from God has profound implications for the question of stewardship over human life,” it says. “We are not the owners of our lives and, hence, do not have absolute power over life. We have a duty to preserve our life and to use it for the glory of God, but the duty to preserve life is not absolute, for we may reject life-prolonging procedures that are insufficiently beneficial or excessively burdensome. Suicide and euthanasia are never morally acceptable options. The task of medicine is to care even when it cannot cure.”
Abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide and direct sterilization are of a moral gravity that can be identified as “intrinsically evil,” it said. So, no assisted suicide. But it’s not just religious institutions; others may be queasy about it, and participation is voluntary for all health care providers. Many providers, even non-religious ones, opt out.
While there are more than 125,000 licensed physicians in California, end-of-life prescriptions came from just 337 of them in 2023, according to state data.
“Providence provides care through the end of life that attends to the medical, physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of patients and their loved ones,” said Patricia Aidem, spokesperson for Providence’s southern division, by email. “Our care is grounded in respecting the sacredness of life, honoring each person’s inherent dignity and worth and providing compassionate care to dying and other vulnerable people.
(Photo by Getty Images/iStockphoto)“We recognize that requests for provider-assisted death or self-administered life-ending medication will occur. As a Catholic health care organization, provider-assisted death conflicts with our values. Providence shares the stance of the American Medical Association: Provider-assisted death is fundamentally incompatible with the provider’s role as healer.”
If patients ask about California’s End of Life Option Act, Providence gives them publicly available information about the law — while also informing them that its doctors will not write the prescriptions and its caregivers cannot be present at or assist in hastening death, Aidem said.
“Short of those two things, Providence will not abandon our dying patients or their loved ones. We encourage open and non-judgmental communication with patients and their loved ones to help them understand their condition and their options about treatment through the end of life. Our commitment is to give people the very best care possible, keep them as comfortable as possible for as long as they do live and to provide appropriate support for dying patients and their loved ones through the final stages of life,” Aidem said.
Officials at Hoag didn’t respond to our queries about its current policies.
Hoag and Providence went their separate ways in 2022, but the moral of the story is this: If you want to keep this option open, ask the question of your practitioner and/or facility as early as possible — hopefully, long before you need hospice-level care (as changing venues at that point could be difficult and exhausting).
Marie-Noële Tusler with the godchild that brought her together with her husband (Courtesy Tusler family)If your health care provider and/or hospital frown upon it, find one that does not. You can find more information about California’s End of Life Option Act at bit.ly/42WrhKn.
The law is currently set to sunset in 2031. A bill pending in Sacramento by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, would extend it indefinitely.
A well-lived life
Tusler’s wife Marie-Noële was born in Presles-en-Brie, France, in 1947. She grew up in a manor house on a large farm amid wheat fields, cattle, sheep and chickens; attended the Jeanne Gatineau School of Cosmetology in Paris; and met Tusler in 1981, when they were asked to be godparents for a baby boy, her obituary said.
Philippe and Marie-Noële Tusler in France (Courtesy Tusler family)Within days, Tusler knew he had met the love of his life. They married in 1982. California was home for Tusler; he was born and raised in Pasadena, went to school at UC Irvine, and they moved back to Orange County in 1984. They had two daughters. Marie-Noële loved to cook and was never without a vegetable peeler and kitchen knife, her obituary said; she owned a vast collection of cookbooks, served multiple-course meals and was renowned for her rillettes (a French charcuterie dish, essentially a meat spread). Her favorite, however, was fresh oysters.
Marie-Noele adored her home country and returned every year. She also loved to play petanque (a French lawn bowling game) so much she had a court put in at their French home. She frequented the brocantes — antique markets — in search of glass for her collection or paintings for the walls. She loved gardening so much she had more than 15 fruit trees in her yard, along with hydrangeas and lilies.
Marie-Noële Tusler (Courtesy Tusler family)These are the memories to cling to, to ease the grief of that last week of life. “I don’t intend to let my end happen with needless suffering for everyone,” Tusler told me. “I don’t want it for me, I don’t want to put my children and grandchildren through what we experienced. … It’s so unnecessary.”
I couldn’t agree more. I thank Tusler for sharing Marie-Noële’s experience so that we may all learn from it. May her memory bring her family joy — and may Sen. Blakespear’s bill repealing the death-with-dignity sunset date pass resoundingly.
Related Articles
Supreme Court appears likely to uphold Obamacare’s preventive care coverage mandate Draft budget plan proposes deep cuts across federal health programs UnitedHealth cuts 2025 forecast after dealing with first-quarter care use spike ‘No stranger to body brokering and kickbacks,’ insurer’s $10 million suit says Medicaid cuts will not get Rep. Young Kim’s support in federal budget process Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Even in California, access to death-with-dignity drugs can be refused )
Also on site :