Attorney and author Bill Colby spoke about the need for families to discuss their wishes concerning medical treatment at the end of life at the UNM School of Law Thursday.
Colby, one of the leading health law attorneys in the U.S., said that doctors, lawyers and families have similar responsibilities in talking about how the end of life should be treated.
"It's about caring health care providers, together with caring families making the best decisions they can," Colby said. "If that breaks down, we can make all the laws we want, but it won't make a difference."
Medical treatment at the end of one's life becomes a legal issue when people are not clear about the individual's wishes, Colby said. He added that documentation is a helpful tool, but that making a list of the treatments that one doesn't want to receive, and leaving it at that, only confuses the issue.
"The important thing is to give the power to an advocate, a third party, who can speak on your behalf about your wishes when you're not able to," Colby said.
Colby's recent book, "Long Goodbye -- the Deaths of Nancy Cruzan" chronicles the story of a family caught in the middle of a legal firestorm regarding the right to die. He discussed how frustrated the Cruzan family became with the slow pace of the legal system, as the case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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"(But) this is not a law book," Colby said. "It's a book about a family. It's a book for and about people and what they do in extreme circumstances."
The Cruzan's story, and ensuing Supreme Court case, became the forum for an enormous social debate over the right to die. People on both sides of the issue rallied around the case in such a heated manner, that Colby compared its significance to Roe vs. Wade, the landmark abortion case.
The case, eventually lost by Colby and the Cruzans, is the only one of its kind ever heard by the Supreme Court. Colby said that he hopes his book will help keep such matters out of the courts in the future.
"I'd like people to take the book, read it, and discuss the issues with their loved ones," Colby said. "When the stressful time comes, it really is a gift for families to have the issues on the table."
Colby is a significant health law attorney, who tried a landmark case that changed how the right to die is interpreted in this country, said Kathy Kunkel, president of the UNM Student Health Law Association.
Kunkel said that one of the reasons her group brought Colby to speak was that health law is something that the UNM School of Law is looking to expand upon.
Colby's speech ended with a short question and answer session, during which audience members inquired about a number of related topics, including the future of the "right to die" issue.
He also noted that there is a difference between stopping medical treatment at the end of a person's life, and medically assisted suicide. Colby said that he is not personally a supporter of medically assisted suicide.
"There will be some hard questions ahead," Colby said.
