To the editor: I'm a hospice and palliative care specialist who gives medical support in dying to terminally ailing sufferers who request it when no different choice will present reduction. Opposite to what one letter author mentioned about support in dying, the California legislation is just not “actually ... solely relevant for most cancers.”
In actual fact, whereas 66% of the almost 500 Californians who used the Finish of Life Choice Act in 2021 had most cancers, neurological ailments comparable to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s accounted for the second-largest underlying sickness grouping, totaling 13.2%, in line with the California Public Well being Division.
As well as, the Legislature properly improved entry to medical support in dying by decreasing the ready interval between the 2 obligatory oral requests for it from 15 days to 48 hours after a 2018 Kaiser Permanente Southern California report confirmed that 21% of terminally ailing Californians died throughout the 15-day ready interval.
Chandana Banerje, M.D., Duarte
The author is an assistant scientific professor of hospice and palliative medication at Metropolis of Hope Nationwide Medical Middle.
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