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There is no charge for On the Issues. Ifyou wish to help defray the costs ofpublication and mailing. $10.00 makesyou one of CHOICES' People. This entitlesyou to back issues (while the supplylasts); our booklet Birth Control:The Choice Is Yours; our yearly calendar;and any future publicationswithin the upcoming year.Birth Control: The Choice IsYours examines and evaluates allmethods, with special consideration toeffectiveness, personalities of individualusers and the best method foreach. $3.00 each (1-10 copies); $2.50each (10-25 copies); $2.00 each(over 25).• Enclosed is $10.00 to help defraycosts.• Enclosed isfor. copies of BirthControl: The Choice is YoursNAME.ADDRESS.(Please type or print)PHONE.ChoicesWomen's Medical Center, Inc.
haltingly—and I knew that I wasthere for a moment in time thatwould be repeated again and again.I didn't disturb Kaplan—theconnecting line was too important. Itouched\his shoulder as I left feelingspecialness of these people.Calvin died last week. He diedin San Francisco.Was he accepting—or was itmore of the "do not go gently intothat good night; Rage against thedying of the light..."Whatever...Did Calvin remember mycaring?The only thing I can think ofnow is that I hope wherever he wasthat they let him have flowers.—Merle Hoffmancontinuedfrom pg. 19\ooThe equality of women requires theirability to abort. This equality cannotbe compromised by medical technology,by legal or Constitutionalarguments and must not be compromisedby moral, religious or ethicalpronouncements. Freedom, libertyand equality must have no boundaries.The Civil War was fought tounite this country as one. Women'sfreedom and equality must not beallowed to exist on a state by statebasis. Any legislation that throwscontrol of these issues back to thestates is tantamount to states rights"Emancipation Proclamations" givingindividual states the power to decidewho should be free and who shouldnot be free. Just as blacks are free inall states, so must women be. Nowoman should have to travel fromone state to another to get adequatemedical care. In America, equalityand freedom must not be determinedby one's geographic location.Liberty and freedom to choose,like breathing, eating, walking andloving, are rights granted to us by ahigher authority. No government, nolegislative body, no religious pronouncementor philosophical treatise,no exploding bombs, noterrorists, nothing and no one mustever stop women from exercisingtheir Constitutional, biological andGod-given right to choose! —M.H.Terminal Illness continued from pg. 6Sense Suicide, has put it, women will"be more easily exploited becausethey're there.. .there for aboutanother eight years, on average."In addition, it is statisticallylikely that a woman will near deathwithout a mate or close contemporaryat her side. Generally speaking,the man with terminal illness willhave the support of his wife. Thetwo will discuss treatment optionsand the likely consequences. Moreoften than not, they will arrive at ashared decision. Difficult as it maybe, on many levels, the wife will, inmy experience, always accede to ahusband's decision to end or avoiddeath-prolonging treatment.Children and other relativesmight not always be so understanding.(As an interesting sidelight, it isusually the estranged or guilty child,perhaps living in another state, whoresists a parent's decision to curtailunnecessary treatment.) A woman,therefore, may find herself explainingher decision to loving relativeswho cannot really share her feelingsabout the situation. Or, she may, as amother, feel that she cannot ask herchildren to share the burden of atreatment decision that will result inher dying naturally. She may not, insum, have the peer support her husbandhad.What about the relationshipbetween the terminally ill womanand her physician? There are no statistics,but, because so many womenare older than men when deathapproaches, it seems to be true thatsome are less likely to question adoctor's treatment decision. Afterall, women in their 80s today grewup in the period when the medicalprofessional changed from a comforting,but fairly helpless, bedsidepresence to a miracle worker. Literally,during a lifetime as long as thecentury is old, medical research hasdiscovered penicillin, insulin and vaccinesfor many fatal illnesses. It wouldnot be strange if women of this andeven later generations were likely tobelieve that any new medical strategyis by definition, a good thing.Probably, as more and morepeople understand and experiencethe realities of medical technology,even these older women will be lesstrusting of the professional's decision.Currently, however, what mayseem like a characteristic of somewomen patients—a willingness toaccept without question—is probablythe characteristic of a generation.As we all have seen, attitudesof women in the older generationsare being influenced by the attitudesof younger women. We may soonhave daughters helping their mothersstand by the decision to resistunwanted treatment.But after discounting differencescaused by greater age, womenwill face the same problems as menaad to the same degree. As oneadministrator at a hospital in NewYork City has said, "When it comesto terminal illness and treatmentdecisions, there is absolutely no differencebetween men and women.Anyone can be unprepared."And that is the real point.Woman or man, each individualshould commit treatment decisionsto paper, then ensure that familyphysician, personal attorney andclose relatives or friends know preciselywhat is wanted.Remember, even with a LivingWill and a Durable Power of Attorney,the terminally ill patient todaymight encounter difficulties in wardingoff unwanted treatment, butpower is gradually moving towardthose patients who have made theirwishes explicit. Today, patients areindeed realizing that, just as theyhave taken charge of their lives, theymust take charge of their owndeaths. Today also, professionals arebeginning to understand that suchaction is an affirmation of a basicfreedom, as fundamental to thiscountry's law as any other right.So my advice is simple anddirect. First, sit down today andwrite your own advance directives.Next, discuss your decisions, as suggestedabove, with everyone whomight conceivably be concerned. Youhave the right to be free from invasive,painful or otherwise unwantedtreatment; you have, in other words,the right to a dignified and peacefuldeath.A. J. Levinson has been executive director ofConcern for Dying since 1976. She has spokenat national and international conferences, haspublished numerous pieces and is a frequentsource of information for the media on terminaldecision making. Concern for Dying is thelargest organization of its kind in the world,directing its energies to the recognition ofthe patient's role in treatment decision making.Those who want copies of the Living Willor Durable Power of Attorney, or who wantto share their experiences, can contact themat 250 West 57 St., New York. NY 10107.21
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