Latest / Chuck Douglas / Assisted Suicide in Ohio

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Assisted Suicide in Ohio · Chuck Douglas

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  Speaker 1: Check Douglas on six to ten WTV and welcome to
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  Speaker 1: my Power Hour for this Monday. The number eight two
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  Speaker 1: one nine eight eighty six A two one WTV, and
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  Speaker 1: it is a It is a plan in place to
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  Speaker 1: at least try to accomplish suicide in the state of
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  Speaker 1: Ohio legalizing medically assisted suicide in the state of Ohio
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  Speaker 1: for terminally ill patients. As I was saying going into
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  Speaker 1: the break, insurance companies will not be able to withhold
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  Speaker 1: benefits if death occurs by medically assistant suicide. You know,
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  Speaker 1: there's no way they're going to stand for that, and
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  Speaker 1: people are going to go, that's good. The insurance company
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  Speaker 1: is standing up for No, they're standing up for money,
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  Speaker 1: is what they're standing up for. They're not going to
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  Speaker 1: be good with this until they are allowed to not
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  Speaker 1: pay benefits to a beneficiary for a medically assistant suicide.
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  Speaker 1: They would rather think about this. They would rather allow
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  Speaker 1: somebody to suffer whatever they're suffering with their terminal illness
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  Speaker 1: as long as possible. So you got what insurance that
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  Speaker 1: wants you to last as long as possible, so they
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  Speaker 1: don't have to pay out on your life insurance. You
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  Speaker 1: got another insurance company that's going, yeah, well, we're the
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  Speaker 1: health insurer and we just like to cut the cord
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  Speaker 1: right now. Can we get that done? Hilarious. We'll have
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  Speaker 1: to see which one wins, because ultimately, I think that's
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  Speaker 1: what's gonna come down to the other considerations here. I
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  Speaker 1: don't believe that the laws as they exist right now
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  Speaker 1: are going, even if this goes into effect, are going
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  Speaker 1: to accommodate both suicide and frame of mind because you've
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  Speaker 1: got to show competence. Well, I think it is assumed
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  Speaker 1: and right now that you are incompetent if you commit
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  Speaker 1: suicide it was I don't is it still illegal because
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what they would do. Can they can't
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  Speaker 1: lock you up? But at one point the suicide was
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  Speaker 1: actually a crime. Killing yourself was a crime.
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  Speaker 2: What do they find you?
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  Speaker 1: I don't, I don't, I don't know. Maybe send the
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  Speaker 1: bill to the insurance companies. I have no idea, But
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  Speaker 1: I don't think that the laws the way they are
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  Speaker 1: written right now are going to allow you to be
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  Speaker 1: both competent and taking advantage of medically assisted suicide at
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  Speaker 1: the same time. And then, frankly, there's there's that nasty
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  Speaker 1: old moral issue define terminally ill, Well, they've tried six
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  Speaker 1: months or less for your prognosis. Statistically, somebody's going to
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  Speaker 1: be able to challenge that. I've shared before, the story
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  Speaker 1: about my gri grandmother who had stomach surgery in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: fifty eight. They told her she had an obstructed vow
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  Speaker 1: they needed to go in and fix it. She was
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  Speaker 1: just a woman, so they didn't tell her what was
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  Speaker 1: wrong with her. She had stomach cancer, and they told
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  Speaker 1: Grandpa and my mom at the time, you know, because
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  Speaker 1: she was an adult at that point, you know, six
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  Speaker 1: months to a year. Grandma died at one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: one years old. She lasted fifty some years afterward when
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  Speaker 1: she had six months to a year. But see, she
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  Speaker 1: didn't know she had stomach cancer, so she didn't bother
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  Speaker 1: to give up. And in those days, unlike these days,
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  Speaker 1: that the C word sh you didn't even say it
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  Speaker 1: out loud, just cancer had to whisper it because it
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  Speaker 1: was it was a death sentence. Today, not so much.
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  Speaker 1: We have all kinds of treatments and so many research
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  Speaker 1: facilities dedicated to doing nothing but eradicating various types of cancer. Today,
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  Speaker 1: not at all. Nineteen fifty eight, it was. But our limitations,
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  Speaker 1: although maybe different, are still limitations. In twenty twenty six,
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  Speaker 1: you're terminally ill, you get six months to a year.
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  Speaker 1: What if you want to live another fifty years? What
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  Speaker 1: if they find out the diagnosis? Is the doctor going
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  Speaker 1: to be liable? Well, he's not liable for helping with
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  Speaker 1: the suicide, okay? Is he liable for giving wrong information?
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  Speaker 1: Now that we've gone back and concluded this patient wasn't
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  Speaker 1: going to die at all, they needed this instead of that,
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  Speaker 1: the autopsy revealed that the diagnosis was completely incorrect, So
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  Speaker 1: who assumes that liability? Finally, I think it should be
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  Speaker 1: like becoming a freemason. You can't you can't go talk
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  Speaker 1: to him about it, no medical facility, no medical staff.
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  Speaker 1: You should be able to talk to you about it.
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  Speaker 1: You you should have to initiate the conversation. And if
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  Speaker 1: anybody brings it up and says, you know, there's something
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  Speaker 1: we could do, bam, that should be an offense. That
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  Speaker 1: should be a crownal offense, as well as for being
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  Speaker 1: inferred or again it. My heart is again it. But
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  Speaker 1: you know the practical side of me, my brain and
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  Speaker 1: my heart don't always agree. Sometimes they have to fight
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  Speaker 1: it out. Usually that requires at least a sandwich. Don't
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  Speaker 1: know if this is a good thing or a bad thing,
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  Speaker 1: but it's definitely in the works here in the state
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  Speaker 1: of Ohio. My numbers A two one to ninety eight
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  Speaker 1: six A two one WUTV. And I'd love to get
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  Speaker 1: your thoughts. Dave's been hanging on here for a while.
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  Speaker 1: You're on six to ten WUTV And Dave, what do you.
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  Speaker 2: Think, Hi, Chuck. I don't see how the they're going
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  Speaker 2: to be able to get the pharmaceuticals to participate in
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  Speaker 2: this because already, thank you, they are refusing. They are
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  Speaker 2: refusing to follow through with with death row.
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  Speaker 1: Inmates, right, and if they provide these medications, then it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be questioned. Then why will you not? You
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  Speaker 1: are standing in the way of justice. You are not
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  Speaker 1: making a moral ethical stand. If you're willing to kill
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  Speaker 1: somebody for a scenario that you like, but not for
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  Speaker 1: a scenario you don't like, you are defying justice. You're
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  Speaker 1: not taking a moral stand.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, sir, it's it's a conundrum. And when I was
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  Speaker 2: in the army in nineteen sixties, I was able to
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  Speaker 2: wrangle myself a a Christmas time, Oh sabbatical, and we
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  Speaker 2: we talked about, we debated suicide, we talked about and
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  Speaker 2: debated taking the baby's life in the womb. We covered
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  Speaker 2: a lot of these things that are still unresolved. And
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  Speaker 2: that was sixty years ago, for Heaven's sakes, So we
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  Speaker 2: haven't discovered how to how to come to a you know,
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  Speaker 2: a good, a good and final solution on any of this.
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  Speaker 1: Getting other people involved is always a complicating factor for me, Dave.
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  Speaker 1: And it's uh, and it's really it's not. It's not
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  Speaker 1: even that I'm endorsing somebody taking their own life. But
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  Speaker 1: if if you, if, if you do it of your
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  Speaker 1: own accord, your own way, you know that at that
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  Speaker 1: point it becomes between you and God. I've got nothing
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  Speaker 1: to do with that.
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  Speaker 2: But we already have, We already have the option of
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  Speaker 2: a DNR do not resuscitate in place, right, that's everybody's right.
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  Speaker 1: And I you know, that's that's something else. I as
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  Speaker 1: long as I've got a fighting chance, I want to.
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  Speaker 1: I want them to do what you have to to
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  Speaker 1: resuscitate me, shock me, stab me with the needle, put
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  Speaker 1: a sandwich in my mouth, whatever it takes.
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  Speaker 2: Can I have the video rights on that.
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  Speaker 1: On the sandwich or the shots.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, well, whatever you're gonna do, you're gonna fight
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  Speaker 2: them to stay a lot. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, as long as as long as I can
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  Speaker 1: stand up and think, then I've got something to offer
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  Speaker 1: and I want them to do whatever they can until
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  Speaker 1: I can't.
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  Speaker 2: Sounds good, brother, I appreciate you day.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks very much for the call eight two one night
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  Speaker 1: six A two one w TV and I I you know,
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  Speaker 1: and I've I've been really the people that I love,
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  Speaker 1: that that allegedly love me. I question them sometimes because
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  Speaker 1: I think they're nuts, but I've been very open with them.
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  Speaker 1: As long as I have my mind, I'm that's the
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  Speaker 1: most important thing to me. If if I lose it,
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  Speaker 1: and I pray that I don't, I don't necessarily want
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  Speaker 1: somebody to give me a pill to make me stop breathing.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to be out. I don't want people
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  Speaker 1: to see me. I want to go away quietly and
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  Speaker 1: let you know, God and nature do what they do.
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  Speaker 1: But even in that condition, I wouldn't want to do that,
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  Speaker 1: and I wouldn't want to involve other people. I wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: want the queen or one of my kids having to
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  Speaker 1: say yes, give Dad those pills, because he was mentally
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  Speaker 1: competent when he wrote this will and said, yeah, give
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  Speaker 1: me the pills. If I have Alzheimer's, dementia or whatever,
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  Speaker 1: and I don't know who I am or where I am, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: I'm completely competent, and I sign that will with that
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  Speaker 1: statement in it, then I'm putting it on somebody else's
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  Speaker 1: doorstep for them to do it, to make it happen,
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  Speaker 1: and I, who I couldn't. And that's something that's everything
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  Speaker 1: that I've read so far is not addressed in this
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  Speaker 1: What if a competent person creates a will, You can
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  Speaker 1: have a living will. Now, you can do not resuscitate, now,
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  Speaker 1: you can make all those decisions now. If I can
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  Speaker 1: make all those decisions now, then I should be able
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  Speaker 1: to make this decision too. And if I make the
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  Speaker 1: decision to put that on somebody else, I would go
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  Speaker 1: to my grave thinking I was the most heartless man ever.
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  Speaker 1: I just couldn't do it to him. So unless unless
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  Speaker 1: it can be completely self contained, I'm gonna have a
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  Speaker 1: hard time saying this is a good idea. And even
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  Speaker 1: those things that start off as good ideas, somewhere, somehow someway,
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  Speaker 1: someone will find a way to abuse it in the
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  Speaker 1: name of profit. Always follow the money. Six ten, you're
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  Speaker 1: on six n WTV and.
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  Speaker 3: I hey, thanks for taking my call for what you said.
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  Speaker 3: What you'd like to have, you could have your own
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  Speaker 3: medical directive here in the state of Ohio. My father
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  Speaker 3: had a stroke on a Sunday morning, Sunday evening. The
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  Speaker 3: hospital was given the Ohio Medical what he wanted done,
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  Speaker 3: which was nothing, no oxygen, no pain meds, no nothing,
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  Speaker 3: And in four days he was gone peaceful. Nobody did
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  Speaker 3: any resuscitation or anything. He had suffered a massive stroke.
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  Speaker 3: They could see it. They just it was in an
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  Speaker 3: area they couldn't get to. And I've done a lot
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  Speaker 3: of thinking about this because I've had many many surgeries.
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  Speaker 3: My wife's gone through countless hours of me seeing the
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  Speaker 3: light coming back and all that. And I would be
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  Speaker 3: one to sign because they don't need debt trauma anymore.
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  Speaker 3: If I have two competent doctors, I believe it takes
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  Speaker 3: more than one in the state of Ohio. If I've
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  Speaker 3: got something terminal, so be it. Uh Asta lavista. You
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  Speaker 3: know I'm no good to anybody, and I'm not going
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  Speaker 3: to just rack up medical bills.
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  Speaker 1: That's that's another consideration, Tim, especially that story I did
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  Speaker 1: before with you know, care source cutting back right now
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  Speaker 1: we're talking mental health. What happens with another insurance company
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  Speaker 1: or another medicaid company they start cutting back on other
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  Speaker 1: things too. Then as a man, you're laying there in
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  Speaker 1: the bed thinking, man, the insurance isn't going to cover this.
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  Speaker 1: I am burying my wife. I am leaving her nothing
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  Speaker 1: but medical debt. So much goes through your head in
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  Speaker 1: that situation, you're it's, uh, this is.
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  Speaker 3: This is Yeah. We had a relative that had to
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  Speaker 3: go on Medicaid and we were unbeknownst to us. She
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  Speaker 3: was everly, but she had her home paid for. But
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  Speaker 3: after she died, Medicaid came knocking on the door and
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  Speaker 3: they needed reimbursed for her last couple of weeks of
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  Speaker 3: medical care.
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  Speaker 1: YEP. They wanted that house sold and they wanted the
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  Speaker 1: bill paid out of the proceeds from the house. That's it.
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  Speaker 1: They're all so wonderfully charitable until you're dead. Then they
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  Speaker 1: come in like vultures so they can swoop up on everything.
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  Speaker 1: That's Nothing is free, exactly, nothing is free, Tim. I
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your call. Thank you very much. Yeah, I've seen
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  Speaker 1: that in my real estate capacity several times. Well we oh,
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  Speaker 1: we've got this program that will help, in this program
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  Speaker 1: that will help. And these elderly people getting all this
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  Speaker 1: help from all these programs, they have no idea when
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  Speaker 1: they're gone, all these programs are coming in to take
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  Speaker 1: their property. They want the property sold, and they need
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  Speaker 1: to be reimbursed for this.
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  Speaker 3: I I.
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  Speaker 1: It's a sick world sometime. But again, you follow the money.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know seriously, and we'll end up doing another
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  Speaker 1: This one may require a podcast because I don't think.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think we can knock it out in one
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  Speaker 1: power hour. I'm going to keep an eye on it.
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  Speaker 1: I will let you know. As this thing progressive, it
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  Speaker 1: progresses and stuff and maybe becomes you know, it gets
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  Speaker 1: a little head of steam going through the legislature. Right now,
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  Speaker 1: it is conversation, but it's a scary conversation. Instead of
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  Speaker 1: finding new ways to live longer and live better and
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  Speaker 1: happier and healthier, we're finding new ways to pull the plug.
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  Speaker 1: Seems like the reverse of what we should be doing,
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  Speaker 1: or as always, maybe that's just me