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Man Kills Himself after Being Denied Cancer Treatment

Bioethicist Wesley Smith criticizes "quality of life" ethic that redefines killing as palliative care

By Tim Waggoner

EAST SUSSEX, U.K., June 25, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A U.K. man committed suicide after he was denied coverage for a drug that could have prolonged and improved the quality of his life.

Alex Baxter, a terminally ill bus driver, was suffering from renal cancer, a common type of cancer that affects the kidneys. His oncologist, Dr Fiona McKinna, prescribed a new miracle drug, Sutent, as his only hope.  Trials of the drug have been successful, with results indicating it can prolong the lives of terminally ill kidney cancer patients for up to two years, as well as reduce the size of their tumors.

Unfortunately for Baxter, his local primary care trust (PCT) did not feel his life was worth the high cost of the drug.

The East Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust refused to cover the £25,000/year cost of the treatment, citing the expense and clinical effectiveness as reasons for doing so.

Dr. McKinna appealed the Trust's March decision, but on June 5, 2007, she had to break the news to Baxter that she could not provide him with the drug.  Baxter's partner found him dead the next day in his East Sussex home with a bin liner pulled over his head.

Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith commented on Baxter's death, comparing the situation to that of an Oregon woman, Barbara Wagner, whose health provider refused to cover a cancer treatment, but offered to pay for her to kill herself.

Smith observed that in many cases life has been given a monetary value and death is now considered a treatment: "Look at the total picture that is emerging! Extending life is being redefined as medically inappropriate or not worth paying for, while at the same time, killing is being redefined into palliative care."

Smith warned that the push to legalize euthanasia will only result in more patients being rejected vital healthcare.

"This is abandonment: If we legalize assisted suicide, one consequence would be to make treatment denials more palatable - since we will always offer abandoned patients 'death with dignity,' which is really just another way of saying, 'one-way street.' Caveat emptor!"

"What is amazing to me is that assisted suicide advocates would probably respond, 'He should have had a doctor available to do it!' More to the point, this story again shows the money nexus between treatment denials and euthanasia, in which treatments needed by those with a low 'quality' of life in order to stretch limited resources are denied - even if it would extend life - supposedly in order to allow greater access to the more deserving of care," concluded Smith.

See related coverage:

Oregon Offers to Pay to Kill, but Not to Treat Cancer Patient
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08060402.html

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