The Danger of Institutionally-Recommended Suicide
The advocates of suicide prescription by doctors claim that if two doctors proclaim you have six months or less to live, then they should be able to prescribe suicide drugs for you, if you ask. The problem with this logic is that there are thousands upon thousands of people who have been given the “six months or less” spiel and have gone on to live for years. Now these people would be offered a six-month or less diagnosis, followed (after two doctor visits and a signed letter) with a handful of fatal pills. The uneducated, people overly confident in doctors, or those in financial distress, are more likely to opt for suicide. Voting for something like this is a death-sentence for many people who would go on to live productive lives, and a license to kill for doctors.
The Washington Medical Association has opposed assisted suicide since 1991, when the first Washington initiative went to voters.
“We believe physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the role of physicians as healers,” said Dr. Brian Wicks, the association’s president. “Patients put their trust in physicians, and that bond of trust would be irrevocably harmed by the provisions of this dangerous initiative.”
The Coalition Against Assisted Suicide has accused initiative proponents of using paid signature-gatherers to “endanger” Washington’s elderly, low-income and disabled. The campaign to get the initiative on the ballot enlisted 2,500 signature-gatherers.
“The initiative backers spent almost a million dollars and unleashed a small army of paid mercenaries to collect signatures,” said Duane French, head of the disabilities rights group, Not Dead Yet - Washington. “It shows they have very little public support and a very small volunteer base.”
At a press conference in the Secretary of State’s office in Olympia, two physicians warned that the law would give HMOs and insurers the opportunity to exploit assisted suicide to cut costs while subtly encouraging depressed patients to end their lives.
“We’re concerned that an option to die by assisted suicide will, for some folks, come to be perceived as a duty to die,” said Dr. Patricia O’Halloran.
Read more here: Wash. voters may find themselves in national debate.
Original post blogged on b2evolution.
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