10
Tuesday, February 13, 1979
University Daily Kansan
The BigOne is Here!
Senate introduces life-support bill
A bill introduced into the Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee would give a terminally ill patient the right to choose whether to remain on life-support systems.
The bill's sponsor, State Sen. Wint Winter, R-Ottawa, said yesterday that he introduced the bill last week because he thought the decision of how long to remain on a life-support system should be made by the patient instead of his family.
"The bill simply means that if a person wants to remove himself from electronic devices that keep him alive, he may," Winter said.
Winter introduced the bill last Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill requires that after a person signs a document called a living will, which states the name of the person for whom the will is made.
artificial means, the doctor must abide by the request.
The bill, which is being drafted for the full Senate, will be the first of its kind in Kansas.
ROBERT HUDSON, chairman of the history of medicine department at the University of Kansas Medical Center, told the committee he supported the bill because it relieved patients' families of making difficult decisions.
"I think it gives the families the comfort of knowing that the decision has been taken care of, it's hard for a wife to decide to take her husband off the life-support systems because she worries that the decision might have been wrong," he said.
but under current legislation a doctor is not legally bound to honor it.
"Right now the will is morally binding," Hudson said, "which is fine if the patient has a good relationship with his doctor. If this patient passed, the will would be legally binded."
"It is an intrusion of the law where it should not be," he said.
VINCENT DECOURSEY, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, testified against the bill. He said the conference opposed the bill because it was
"The right to decide whether the patient lives or dies lies with the individual now. The patient can already say whether he wants to live, and the law should stay away."
DeCourseur said he also thought the bill would provide protection to doctors that have.
absence of the will, the patients would want every means possible to keep them alive," he said. "There has never been a war suit against a doctor for this situation."
However, Hudson said that he had heard of several malpractice cases involving such documents, and that he expected there to be more because of new life-supporting equipment.
He said the Catholic Conference's arguments against the bill did not take into consideration those patients who were in a hospital and never discussed dying with their doctors.
"Also, there are times when the patient is intimidated by the hospitals and the machines, and he really doesn't know what he's telling the doctor, "DeCoursey said.
"Many doctors would feel that in the
Hudson, who treats terminally ill patients,
the Med Center, said he encouraged his patient
to be optimistic.
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TODAY: GERONTOLOGY COLLOQUIUM with a "Report on a Study of Retirement communities," by Warren Petereter, University of Missouri-Kansas City, will be held at Kansas University and Kansas Union, A PHILOSOPHY LECTURE, "Kurt: On Formal Purposiveness," by Mary-Barbara Zeilins, Holins College, at 4 p.m. in the Union's International Room.
TONIGHT; VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX ASSISTANCE by the American Bar Association/Law Student Division will be available from 6 to 8 in the legal aid office in new Green Hall. A CROSS COUNTRY SKI MEMBER sponsorship by SUA will be at 7:30 in the Biological SCIENCES FACULTY MEETING will be at 7:30 in the Big Eight Room of the Union. AMMENSET INTERNATIONAL will meet at 7:30 in the Oread KANSAS will show a film at 7:30 in the Forum Room of the Union State Sen. Arnold Berman, D-Lawrence, will discuss current issues at a meeting of the KU AND DOLGEL COUNTY YOUNG DEMONSOURS at 7:30 in the KU Union. THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN will meet at 8 in parlors B and C of the University. Richard Rubenstein, Florida State University, will deliver a HUMANITIES LECTURE, "The Transformation of History into Myth," at 8 in Woodford Auditorium in the Union.
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Navy Programs Lawrence, 60644
(913) 811-4976
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