Removing Your Own Ventilator is Not Suicide

The LA Times reports that Palm Springs, CA
police arrested Bill Bentinck earlier this month.  He walked into the room
of his terminally ill wife.  She had disconnected her oxygen supply.
 Bentinck ased her if she was sure.
 She was.  He and his wife then held hands and professed their love
for each other. After a while, she stopped breathing.  "It was a very
peaceful death," Bentinck said. "She didn't struggle at all. She just
went to sleep."  

Bentinck then called
hospice a few hours later.  Even though his wife apparently had a POLST,
he waited to ensure that there would be no resuscitation attempt.  Hospice
called the coroner.  And the coroner called the police.  The police
arrested Bentinck.  But he was later released.

California Probate Code 4653 (and other California law),
like the law in most states, is very clear that withholding or withdrawing
healthcare – even life-sustaining healthcare – does not constitute “mercy
killing, assisted suicide, or euthanasia.”