In an interview, Torres, R-Saipan, said the measure will allow patients and their loved ones to “achieve the best quality of life for patients and their families.”
“This is a very critical bill,” he added, since it’s about providing “comfort and care.”
H.B. 16-173 allows an individual of sound mind, 18 years and above, to execute a declaration governing the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment to a terminally ill patient.
In his or her declaration, a terminally ill patient may direct the attending physician to either keep in place or remove life-sustaining treatment “that only prolongs the process of dying or irreversible comma or persistent vegetative state and is not necessary for [the patient’s] comfort, nutrition, hydration or to alleviate pain.”
The legislation, Torres said is a big step toward the implementation of a palliative and hospice care program in the CNMI.
Experts said since palliative and hospice care is about alleviating pain, it is very important to hear from the patients themselves what they feel about the life-sustaining treatment given to them.
Because part of a palliative and hospice care system is granting a patient’s request to be treated at home, the bill also allows doctors to make declaration of deaths at home.
According to the National Council for Palliative Care, “Palliative care is the active holistic care of patients with advanced progressive illness. Management of pain and other symptoms and provision of psychological, social and spiritual support is paramount. The goal of palliative care is achievement of the best quality of life for patients and their families. Many aspects of palliative care are also applicable earlier in the course of the illness in conjunction with other treatments.”
Palliative care aims to:
• Affirm life and regard dying as a normal process
• Provide relief from pain and other distressing symptoms
• Integrate the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care
• Offer a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death
• Offer a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and in their own bereavement
