Tag Archives: physician-assisted suicide

Assisted Suicide is not Peaceful, but it is Permanent

Monday, 05 August 2019 18:32
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doctor-prescribed suicide

Learn why doctor-prescribed suicide is wrong for Pennsylvania

Source: New Jersey 101.5

By Bill Spadea

Over the past few years during the battle over whether New Jersey was going to legalize “physician-assisted suicide,” I’ve gotten to know a person who knows this issue all too well.

Kristen Hanson lost her husband J.J. in December 2017 after he fought courageously to live despite a diagnosis of brain cancer. After being told he had only a few months to live, JJ fought. And he fought hard. This brave Marine grabbed another few incredible years on this earth. Time he spent with his wife and children. Time he spent educating people on the real dangers of preying on people with terrible diseases and pushing an option of having them kill themselves to end the pain.

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Physician Assisted Suicide is Dangerous for Everyone

Tuesday, 02 April 2019 12:39
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Pills

 

Source: PennLive.com

By Karl Benzio, M.D.

Being a psychiatrist for 30 years, I’ve successfully cared for thousands of patients, many critically or terminally ill throughout the United States and experiencing severe trauma in Uganda and Iraq. I see desperate people with unimaginable pain and realize contemplating suicide is complex and never occurs lightly.

But, allowing anyone, especially doctors, to help kill a person, is dangerous to patients, doctors, the healthcare system, and society, especially when much better and safer options exist. The real solution needs to combine proper expertise with true compassion.

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There is No Health Care in Assisted Suicide

Friday, 15 February 2019 13:37
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Hands

 

By M. Zuhdi Jasser

Source: Washington Examiner

Even in our modern age of miraculous scientific advancements, some medical professionals are working to drag us back to the dark ages. In a recent collaborative opinion article, Doctors Josh Bloom and Henry Miller used the horrors of Alzheimer’s disease as the case in point why we should liberalize even more the regulation of physician-assisted suicide.

These doctors do themselves, and the rest of the medical community, a grave disservice.

In their article, they write, “If the goal of physician-assisted suicide is to prevent unnecessary suffering, then why are Alzheimer’s patients and their families forced to suffer for years with no recourse while people with a shorter-duration terminal disease that don’t impair their thinking have the right to choose their own fates?”

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Albuquerque Journal: Physician-Assisted Suicide Too Risky

Wednesday, 30 November 2016 14:17
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Elderly holding hands

Source: Albuquerque Journal

By Dr. Gregg Schmedes

Amidst a surprise presidential election, our neighbors to the north have approved physician-assisted suicide, by a margin of 2-to-1. While I applaud the intention of Coloradans to relieve suffering, let’s examine what they’ve actually done.

Physician-assisted suicide allows terminally ill patents to ask a doctor to prescribe them a lethal dose of sleeping pills. The danger of physician-assisted suicide lies in the financial benefits enjoyed by those involved in somebody’s death.

For example, Stephanie Packer, a terminally ill Californian and mother of four, recently pursued chemotherapy treatment from her insurer at the request of her doctor. She was denied. Instead the insurer offered a $1.20 co-pay for a handful of life-ending pills. If physician-assisted suicide comes to New Mexico, let’s expect our hospitals and insurers to follow suit.

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Washington Times: Physician-Assisted Suicide Often Results from Financial Coercion

Monday, 06 July 2015 12:45
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Source: Washington Times

By Mitchell T. Wallin – – Sunday, July 5, 2015

Earlier this year, legislation was introduced to the D.C. Council that would legalize physician-assisted suicide in our nation’s capital for an adult patient diagnosed with a terminal condition and less than six months to live. Although this initiative has been introduced in 24 states this year (not passing in any so far), its passage in the District of Columbia this year risks setting a dangerous precedent for the rest of the nation.

Self-determination and pain relief are the primary arguments by proponents of physician-assisted suicide. These principles of autonomy and beneficence are clearly important in discussions at the end of life. But can this specific piece of legislation protect those who need it the most, such as those with mental illness, and those easily subject to coercion, such as seniors? As a practicing physician for the past 25 years and based on the experience of similar practices around the world, I have serious concerns with this bill.

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