Speaking Out: End of Life Decisions

Ensure Your Right to Self-Determination

Washington Post, January 31, 1999

On Oct. 9, Hugh Finn died in a Manassas nursing home three years after an automobile accident left him in a persistent vegetative state. He was survived by his wife, Michele, two children, his parents, two brothers and a sister. Last summer, Michele Finn, believing she knew her husband's wishes, decided not to use extraordinary means to keep Hugh Finn alive. That was when her husband's bedside became a political battleground.

Several of Virginia's elected officials attempted to intervene in the case and countermand the order to remove Hugh Finn's feeding tube. Ultimately, they did not prevail, but they did succeed in making a personal tragedy into a public spectacle, complete with protest marches, placards and television cameras.

The publicity that Finn's family was forced to endure in a time of trauma was unfair and wrong. A bill is now before the legislature to reimburse Michele Finn for the legal fees she incurred during the court case, but we in state government can do little else to right that wrong, other than what we should have done last year: Leave the family alone, and let Hugh Finn rest in peace.

But some good can be salvaged from this tragic story. Hugh Finn's case underscored the fundamental right of individuals to make decisions about the quality of their lives and the type of life-sustaining treatment they want to receive. It also focused attention on the need to preserve that right if people become physically or mentally unable to articulate those decisions. The way to do this is through the use of advance medical directives -- living wills and durable powers of attorney.

Advance directives can help ensure that a person's end-of-life wishes are known and carried out, and they can help reduce the chance of conflict among family, friends and health care providers in emotionally charged times of medical crisis.

Unfortunately, only a fraction of Americans have completed advance directives, and that fraction is even smaller among younger and healthier people (Finn was barely 40 at the time of his accident).

To help improve the situation, I've introduced a study resolution in the House of Delegates to investigate what we can do to encourage Virginians to fill out advance medical directives. We need to know about the categories of people who have completed these documents and the categories of those who haven't so that we can educate citizens about the purpose and worth of such directives. We also need to make sure we're doing all we can to guarantee that health care providers are aware of the existence of patients' advance directives and to examine obstacles that stand in the way of such decisions being carried out.

This study will stand as the Virginia General Assembly's affirmation of a person's fundamental right of self-determination in medical decisions. If it convinces just a handful of boomers that it's time to fill out an advance directive, it also will draw something positive out of an episode that was unspeakably sad both for the Finn family and for the commonwealth.

- Robert H. Brink, a Democrat, represents Arlington in the Virginia House of Delegates.