Wednesday, March 7, 1979
3
Group opposes state bill to recognize living wills
By PATRICIA MANSON Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
A bill that would require physicians to withdraw life-sustaining treatment at the request of a dying patient has drawn the fire of a new campaign by the group, which says the bill might lead to mercy killing.
The Kansas Medical Society has supported the bill, saying it would protect the health of its patients.
The bill would allow a person to sign a "living will" stating that he does not want extraordinary measures taken to prolong his life if he is dying. Two physicians would be required to certify that the patient is prepared for treatment could be withdrawn, drawn.
The bill was passed by the Kansas Senate two weeks ago. The Kansas House has not voted on it yet.
Vincent DeCoursey, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, said at a Senate hearing last week that the bill could be expanded by physicians or relatives of patients.
"Legislation supposedly designed to
protect rights and ensure mercy can very quickly move from voluntary discontinuing of life to involuntary and direct taking of life," DeCoursey said.
HOWEVER, STATE Rep. Wint Winter, R-Ottawa, who sponsored the bill, said it would protect the rights of dying patients who did not want to prolong their lives.
Winter said a living will was not legally binding under present law. He said a patient's relatives could tell a physician to ignore the will.
Winter said the bill also was needed to protect physicians who followed the provisions of the living will from malpractice suits.
"The law right now is simply in the subject." Winter said.
Paul Wilson, professor of law at the University of Kansas, also said the law did not interfere with his research.
"THIS IS ONE of those areas where the law is uncertain," Wilson said yesterday. "I don't think there is a law now that either supports it or violates it." The bill would clarify the position of
the doctors by spelling out their oblations."
However, Decourse said the legislation was not needed to protect physicians.
Robert Hudson, professor of history of medicine at the University Medical Center, also said he did not know any physician prosecuted for withdrawing a dying patient from life-sustaining treat-
"In the history of Anglo-American jurisprudence, there have been no known successful prosecutions of physicians or other legal professionals," said extraordinary means," Deanourse said.
However, Hudson said, the fear of prosecution sometimes prevented physicians from following the provisions of the living will.
Hudson said he did not know of any physician who had taken a dying patient off life-support equipment solely on the basis of the living will.
"The problem is that the profession hasn't done enough with the will." Hudson said. "Physicians have been afraid to use the power they have."
Search for pass forger stopped
The KU Police Department's investigation of the making and selling of forged bus passes has been dropped, Detective Sat, Paul Schultz said yesterday.
"There's no conspiracy, no business on campus making bus passes," he said.
Two weeks ago, KU bus drivers caught nine students using fake bus passes. Steve McMurry, director of KU on Wheels, filed an incidence report with the KU Police
Department, stating that someone was making and selling fake bus passes.
McMurray said one of the students told him she bought her fake pass from someone else. He said he was disappointed that the student had not could find out who was making the passes.
handling punishment of the nine students. David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, said Smith had not announced the punishment.
"I's fortunate," he said. "Nobody will talk. None of them want to be a squawler."
Schultz said the investigation was cleared from the books because the nine students who were caught with the fake passes had been turned over to the University of Kansas and the district attorney did not think the crime warranted prosecution.
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