DESPITE ATTACKS ON ELDERLY AND THOSE WITH DISABILITIES, OKLAHOMA ENACTS BAR TO DISCRIMINATORY INVOLUNTARY DENIAL OF TREATMENT

By Burke J. Balch, J.D., Director,
National Right to Life’s Powell Center for Medical Ethics

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin on April 26 signed into law the Oklahoma Nondiscrimination in Treatment Act after it passed the state Senate 41-2 and the House 85-11.

When it takes effect November 1, if a patient or the patient’s legal representative chooses life-preserving medical treatment food or fluids, the law will prevent health care providers from denying that treatment “on the basis of a view that treats extending the life of an elderly, disabled, or terminally ill individual as of lower value than extending the life of an individual who is younger, nondisabled, or not terminally ill.”

 The protection against forcing people to die against their will based on their age, disability or illness provoked vociferous opposition. An April 24 article on the bill in the Tulsa World stimulated many online attacks on the legislation.

Okierat wrote, “When you are old and sick you are a parasite and should not have a choice in your life.” Iamarock said, “If doctors agree that life will not be qualitatively improved with aggressive treatment then it can and ethically should be withheld.”

A number objected to the cost of protecting the lives of those with disabilities. Major Beige posted, “This bill would secure your right to live three more months as a vegetable if your decision-maker decides to override your doctor’s best medical advice. It should make medical debts incurred from such care non-dischargeable through bankruptcy. If you’re going to extend life at any cost, you be prepared to pay the cost.”

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