Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Discussion Continues

Over the last week, I’ve responded to many emails and inquiries that have come in as a result of my statement about Brittany Maynard’s decision to end her life. Several described how their dying loved ones suffered greatly due to the inability of morphine to allay confusion, disorientation, and pain. My heart goes out to such families! I, too, have watched several family members suffer great anguish at their life’s end, and it breaks my heart. No one – absolutely no one – wishes a hard death on anyone. However, should such deaths warrant legalizing physician-assisted suicide across the US? Physician-assisted suicide would be an incredibly broad blanket approach to individual and select family situations. For every individual with a stable family who’s not at risk for abuse, there are others who are at risk… others who may be subtly steered toward assisted suicide by their insurance company or pressured by their family. Not every family who faces serious illnesses – even aging – are as extraordinarily supportive as Brittany’s.

As a disability advocate, I agree with my coworkers in our Christian Institute on Disability and my friends at the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund: we are concerned that “profit-driven managed health care” will subtly steer the sick in the direction of so-called dignity. A far better approach is to aggressively invest more research dollars in better pain management, as well as better education for doctors who help people in pain. Let’s work harder on improving hospice care; on improving new drug therapies and more. Palliative care specialist Dr. B.J. Miller of the Zen Hospice Project has stated, “Globally speaking, people do develop intolerance to morphine, and delirium is very common at the end of life” for patients with brain cancer, he noted, but “it’s also true that much of that is treatable.” Yes, we have a long way to go to alleviate the physical and mental anguish at life’s end, but I do not believe physician-assisted suicide is the answer – we must not hijack the word ‘compassion’ to mean 3 grams of Phenobarbital in the veins.