Steven Petrow's sister was dying of cancer. She chose to take advantage of a law that lets doctors prescribe terminally ill patients life-ending medications.Journalist and author Steven Petrow remembers his sister Julie Petrow-Cohen as a self-described troublemaker with a huge smile. She loved the beach, gardening and her wife and two kids.
To use these laws, people must go through several steps. Most states require a person to be mentally capable and have two doctors confirm that they're within 6 months of death. They then must make multiple requests — oral and written — and wait for a period of several days between those requests.Supporters argue these laws prevent unnecessary pain and suffering.
And then very, very close to the end, her shirt just happened to sort of ride up a little bit and I hadn't seen her abdomen in a while. And that's where many of the tumors were. It looked like the lunar landscape, because you could see them pushing out, and you could see these rounds and mounds. It's like, oh my God, you know. No wonder there's so much pain.
Time is often not an asset that dying people have. Fortunately for Julie, she moved things ahead early enough that none of these were encumbrances to her, but for some people it certainly is. Of course we have to listen to all these groups. Nobody should be pushed to make this kind of decision. And so how do you balance those two aspects? When you look at the numbers — 186 individuals in New Jersey, that's since 2019, less than 9,000 nationwide — it does not seem that people are being pushed. But it's a conversation that needs to take place as part of this larger conversation because we need to make sure that we protect everybody.