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Diane Rehm on The State of the Medical Aid-in-Dying Debate The documentary “When My Time Comes” focuses on her mission By Richard Harris
Maybe, just maybe, America's greatest taboo — talking openly about death — is itself dying a slow death. Too slow if you ask Diane Rehm (pictured right), author of the nonfiction book, “When My Time Comes.” “Until we overcome our fear about talking about death," the longtime NPR host says, "few of us can have the end of life we envision. We've been so focused on living and accomplishing and moving forward that we don't think about death as part of life." For 37 years, Rehm's morning talk show allowed her to focus on living and moving forward. But that changed as she witnessed her husband of 54 years, John, decline to the point where he pleaded with his doctor to prescribe him a medication to end his life. And without a medical aid-in-dying law in Maryland, his doctor refused.
"We focus so much on happiness and joy surrounding birth, but we think about death as this place no one wants to go — but we're all going there. Everybody is," says Rehm. For several years, Rehm, 85, has crisscrossed the country, speaking to the terminally ill and their families, as well as advocates and opponents of medical aid in dying. She also talked to ethicists and physicians on both sides of the issue as part of an emerging national conversation about the right-to-die. WETA in Washington, D.C. has produced a companion public television documentary to Rehm’s book, also called “When My Time Comes.” Watch the documentary on TPT LIFE Friday, May 6, 9 p.m. or on TPT 2 Sunday, May 8, 6 p.m. The medical aid-in-dying movement for the terminally ill — some call it death with dignity— began in Oregon in 1994. It took another 14 years for Washington state to pass its law. But since then, Montana (2009 State Supreme Court ruling), Vermont, California, Colorado, Washington, D.C., Hawaii, New Jersey and Maine have followed suit. Each jurisdiction allows a patient who has no more than six months to live (certified by two physicians) to request a lethal dose of medication if that person has the capacity to decide and can self-administer. More than a dozen other states are considering such a law, including Maryland, where Rehm testified last year in support of medical aid in dying. The bill lost by a single vote in the state Senate. In 2022, advocates are hoping the bill is once again introduced during Maryland's General Assembly session.
“Until we overcome our fear about talking about death, few of us can have the end of life we envision.”
So, John Rehm, wracked by Parkinson's disease, with a severely diminished quality of life, decided to starve himself to death. No water. No food. No medication. It would take him 10 days to die. And that began Diane Rehm's journey into advocacy. After signing off her talk show in 2016, she immersed herself in the world of the terminally ill, studying the limited options available to those for whom palliative care (focused on relieving pain and symptoms) is not the solution to their end-of-life misery.
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MAY 2022
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