Assisted Suicide legislation makes the death of the patient a treatment option. What happens when the patient’s choice is between a lethal prescription and a costly alternative? Are we prepared to trust insurance companies and HMOs to do the right things instead of the cheap thing?
Many Massachusetts doctors and other medical professionals strongly oppose the legalization of Assisted Suicide. Patients have been denied insurance coverage in legal states; depressed patients have received lethal prescriptions; in short, patients are not meaningfully assessed. Assisted suicide does not constitute healthcare.
Massachusetts is not the first state to be threatened by Assisted Suicide. The practice has been legal in Washington and Oregon for some time. While pro-suicide advocates claim everything is working well, there are serious concerns about abuse, lack of transparency and the sacrifice of meaningful patient assessment.
Make them get down to nuts and bolts! Will physicians use the same experimental, lethal drug cocktails to induce death as are being concocted in legal states? Which state department with be responsible for collecting data? Which for investigating suspect cases? What does it mean if, as in Oregon, the majority of patients list “being a burden” as a leading reason for their request?
Patients diagnosed with lung cancer who opted for “medical assistance in dying” often proceeded without consultation with their radiation oncologist or medical oncologist, a researcher said. In a Canadian study of 45 individuals diagnosed with lung cancer who used medical assistance in dying (also known......
13 September, 2021In response to an essay on the Victorian fantasy of a peaceful death, two letter writers (“Beyond the fantasy of a gentle death,” Aug. 29) called on the state Legislature to pass the proposed assisted suicide bill. Paula Bacon and Molly DeHaas Walsh describe the circumstances......
07 September, 2021Assisted suicide is already legal in California through the so-called End-of-Life Option Act, narrowly passed by the California Legislature and signed by then-Gov. Brown in 2015. The bill was opposed by both Democrat and Republican Assembly members and Senators, but passed during a contested Special......
14 May, 2021
Assisted suicide is already legal in California through the so-called End of Life Option Act, narrowly passed by the California Legislature and signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015. The bill received opposition from both Democrat and Republican Assembly members and state senators but was......
22 April, 2021