I read the report about Ms Angelina Ireland’s talk about MAID with interest (MooseJawToday.com, April 15). I share some of her concerns, inasmuch as that that MAID has apparently been offered too readily to some patients, as various newspaper reports have informed us.
However, if (the reporter’s) description in the newspaper of the rest of Ms Ireland’s talk is correct, then her listeners heard a mixture of misinformation and ignorance.
We are told that an “expert’s perspective” shows that pentobarbital causes fluid buildup in the lungs, presumably causing death by so-called “internal drowning” (aka pulmonary edema).
I wonder where (apart perhaps from the ark) this drug is still used. I certainly have not seen it for at least a decade, if not more, prior to my retirement a few years ago. To describe the use of pentobarbital as akin to waterboarding is a flight of fancy the Brothers Grimm would be proud of – Ms Ireland implies that these patients are conscious, which they are not. As in not.
We are also told: “What Zivot found “most distressing” is MAID uses a drug that paralyzes people, which he thought refuted the “peaceful” death claim, she added.”
Once again Ms Ireland gives a completely wrong impression. I don’t know whether it is out of ignorance or a wilful desire to mislead - as if the poor patient, wide awake, is struggling for breath, desperately gasping for air while the MAID provider is checking his/her Facebook page?
Really? I mean, really?
Ms Ireland should have said something like this: “After a MAID patient had been administered at least two drugs (perhaps more) to obliterate consciousness, a muscle relaxant is also given to paralyze the respiratory muscles WHILE THE PATIENT IS UNCONSCIOUS.
Please note the capital letters in the previous five words.
The simple fact is this: in many ordinary anaesthetics (ie not involving MAID) the anaesthetist administers what is known as an induction agent, eg propofol. This puts the patient to sleep and is also used in MAID procedures. The dose makes it an anaesthetic agent in one scenario, a fatal dose in the other.
Propofol leads to almost immediate loss of consciousness and is then followed by (among other drugs) a muscle relaxant such as those recommended for MAID. This is ordinary anaesthetic practice in operating rooms, so common that it is not even discussed in the OR tearoom or any where else, but Ms Ireland chooses to make this yet another point of departure for spreading misinformation.
However, if (her) description of the situation in MAID is correct, then every anaesthetic should also involve a desperate struggle for breath.
There are established protocols for administering MAID, and these protocols stipulate fatal doses nearly ten times the “ordinary” doses.
I have no problem with opponents of MAID voicing their objections, but when they oppose it on philosophical or religious grounds (which seems to be the case here) then they should clearly state the nature of their objections and not serve a dog’s breakfast of false statements pretending to be medical facts.
Leon Retief
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
