Organ donor wants to end her life to save others

[Clark]

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/organ-donor-wants-to-end-her-life-to-save-others/-/1719418/21328882/-/112u22gz/-/index.html

Organ donor wants to end her life to save others
MS patient wants to donate organs while still viable

Sherri Muzher is 43 years old. She's young, beautiful and brilliant. But she says she's ready to die.

She has advance stage Multiple Sclerosis. It has slowly, but steadily robbed her of her abilities.

All that's truly left of who Muzher once was is her brain and a small but fading voice. Now, she wants to use that voice to start a conversation about death -- her own.

"I would rather I help give life to others while my organs are still viable," said Muzher.

Sixteen years ago Muzher was bright and effervescent with an appetite for life. Muzher today is a much different person.

"I was diagnosed the summer after my first year of law school," Muzher said. "So it is a lot of loss -- loss with advanced MS. It's a grieving process, because you are losing your independence gradually."

About 90 minutes into the interview, Muzher became exhausted, barely able to speak, a restraint used just so she can sit up to breathe. Nearly the last shred of muscle and skeletal control is gone.

"It is my reality. I'm getting weaker. Weaker muscles on my talking, everything. This ultimately brings reality home," Muzher said.

She would like to control one last thing and that is the time of her death. She wants there to be harvesting of her vital organs while they are still salvageable.

She said it's already too late for her lungs. MS is already squeezing them shut, but her kidneys, liver, heart and every other inch that can save another life, or give quality of life where she has none, should be taken now.

"I ought to be able to donate my organs while they are still viable and can help someone else."

Muzher is talking about physician assisted suicide, in a state that voted it down.

Lance Gable, associate Dean and associate professor of law at Wayne State University, teaches bio-ethics and health law and reform, and specializes in end-of-life issues.

"I think she has a very compelling case," said Gable. "I think it's justifiable and understandable to minimize her own suffering and wanting to help others."

Gable's belief is that Michigan is what he calls "Kevorkian-scarred." He says Jack Kevorkian went about sending the right message in the wrong way. But he believes it's time to re-start the conversation, and Muzher is the one to champion the cause.

"I think it is a conversation worth having. It's an issue that if we approach it carefully, it's something that could be an option for people if it was done safely and wasn't susceptible to coercion and exploitation."

Four states, Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana, have legal physician assisted suicide.

No states have addressed what Muzher calls provisions for planned pre-death organ harvesting.

"Anybody who wants to give a donation is a hero," said Richard Pietroski, CEO of Gift of Life, Michigan. "Only about 1 percent of individuals who die become donors."

Muzher has contacted him with her request, but Pietroski believes, given what she is proposing, asking for it would be difficult to envision how safeguards could be put in place to avoid abuse.

Medical ethicist Dr. Michael Stellini believes in a perfect world, if we allowed assisted suicide, organ donation would be viable and valuable.

"If we wait too long, she couldn't donate." Stellini said. "If we do it too early, she's not terminal, and that raises a whole other set of ethical issues. If we're going to allow physician assisted suicide, we'd have to determine a window to make the determination of terminal state, and the end of viability of the organs, and that's when we would do what she is proposing."

But Stellini said too much bothers him about this scenario.

"I'm not totally opposed to physician assisted suicide. I think there are issues with potential abuse with it," Stellini said.