Legal papers sometimes ignored

To the editor:

Recent reports from California indicate that physician-assisted suicide is being considered by the legislature. The law would be patterned after the one passed in Oregon seven years ago.

The same tactics of lies and deceptions are being put forward to the public as were used to legalize abortions. The public is being soothed into lethargy while being assured they will never be put to death against their will, if they have legal documents such as living wills and advance directives.

It has been almost two months since Terri Schaivo's legal execution. We are told this would never have happened had she had one of these legal documents. The laws of all but 10 states may already allow physicians and hospitals to disregard advance directives when they call for treatment, food or fluids. According to a recent report from the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics, increasingly health-care providers are ignoring these documents when they consider a patient's quality of life is too low.

It is legal in Missouri for physicians and health-care providers to disregard our desires as stated in these legal documents.

CHRISTINE E. STEPHENS, Cape Girardeau