Category Archives: physician-assisted suicide

Assisted Suicide Needs to be Stopped

Friday, 19 March 2021 12:36
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Source: Hartford Courant

By: Lisa Blumberg

It defies imagination that Connecticut is contemplating legalizing assisted suicide when COVID-19 deaths have exceeded 500,000 nationwide. The virus has laid bare the inequities and prejudices of our health system. Low-income people and people of color are dying at disproportionately high rates. Connecticut has the highest COVID-19 nursing home death rate in the Northeast. An appalling 91 out of every 100,000 nursing home residents in Connecticut have died. Early in the crisis, members of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics wrote chillingly that “typical medical options may soon not be available to everyone.”

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Assisted Suicide Hurts People with Disabilities

Friday, 04 September 2020 11:51
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Doctor

Source: Real Clear Policy

By Kristen Hanson

Melissa Hickson’s husband, Michael, was a 46-year old quadriplegic suffering from COVID-19 who died after the hospital ended his treatment because of what they considered to be his low quality of life. Hickson’s experience, like mine, highlights the ableism that permeates our medical system and often results in a refusal to treat those whose lives are considered not worth living.

Navigating a system where the doctors and insurers hold all the power is overwhelming, but that is where I found myself in May 2014. When my late husband, J. J. Hanson, unexpectedly had a grand mal seizure at 33 years old. I quickly realized that J.J. would surely die if I did not advocate fiercely on his behalf.

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Assisted Suicide Puts the Most Vulnerable at Risk

Monday, 10 February 2020 12:14
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Hospital

Source: Fredericksburg.com

By Dr. Thomas Eppes and Dr. Kurt Elward

WITH THE newly elected Virginia state legislature taking power in 2020, the debate over assisted suicide has returned to the General Assembly with a name change to disguise the real meaning.

The bill [Health Care Decision Making, HB 1649] introduced by Del. Kaye Kory, D–Fairfax, also intends to expand assisted suicide authority to nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

As physicians, we strongly oppose any effort to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Virginia or elsewhere. This also is the longstanding position of the Medical Society of Virginia and the American Medical Association.

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When Healers Become Agents of Death, Not Life

Monday, 09 December 2019 14:55
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Pills

Source: Washington Times

By Frederick J. White

Assisted suicide makes for bad law and bad medicine. It is dangerous public policy that negatively impacts everyone and profoundly changes medicine’s role in society. Performing assisted suicides damages the physician-patient relationship and violates our calling to heal.

Many medical groups globally and in the United States reject assisted suicide. The World Medical Association (WMA), for example, recently announced its continuing firm opposition, writing “utmost respect has to be maintained for human life.” The WMA reached this conclusion after holding consultative conferences around the world, and states that the WMA position “is in accord with the views of most physicians worldwide.”

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Assisted Suicide is not the Answer

Thursday, 05 December 2019 13:02
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Hands--holding

Source: Madison.com

By Cori Salchert

As more and more states consider passing assisted suicide policy, it is important for Americans to realize that this dangerous policy puts vulnerable lives, like mine and my children’s, at risk.

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