Ira Byock, director of palliative care at Dartmouth, has spoken out again against assisted suicide in Massachusetts (http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2012/10/paliiative-care-assisted-suicide#more-23626). In a guest post on CommonHealth, the health blog of Boston radio station WBUR, he writes: We’ll still require terminally ill patients to give up treatment for their disease … [Read more...] about “It will quite literally be easier to get a lethal prescription in Massachusetts than to have hospice care through the end of your life.”
Medical Opinions
Doctor: the top three reasons terminally ill patients choose to end their lives are all symptoms of clinical depression that leads to suicide, and all can be treated.
The article below, from the Lynn, Massachusetts newspaper, The Daily Item, is interesting for its reporting on a physician's insight that the top three reasons the Oregon reports say people request assistance in suicide--"loss of control, loss of enjoyment and feeling like a burden to others"--are all symptoms of treatable depression. It is also good to read that minds are … [Read more...] about Doctor: the top three reasons terminally ill patients choose to end their lives are all symptoms of clinical depression that leads to suicide, and all can be treated.
Doctors’ Beef with Physician Assisted Suicide Stems from Concern for Patients’ Welfare
The author of this letter to the Boston Globe is a physician who deals with aging patients and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. See her biographical information at the end of the letter. Read the letter online at http://articles.boston.com/2012-10-05/letters/34253724_1_patients-lethal-dose-lethal-medication. Doctors’ beef with Question 2 stems from fear … [Read more...] about Doctors’ Beef with Physician Assisted Suicide Stems from Concern for Patients’ Welfare
Lahey Clinic Medical Ethics Lecture Series: The Arguments Against Question 2
The remarks below are directed to Question 2, a ballot measure that would legalize assisted suicide in Vermont's neighoring state of Massachusetts and are meant to explain the opposition of the Massachusetts Medical Society to that measure. The Vermont Medical Society and the American Medical association also are on record in opposition to assisted suicide. Dr. Aghababian … [Read more...] about Lahey Clinic Medical Ethics Lecture Series: The Arguments Against Question 2
Head of German Medical Association: Physician-assisted Suicide “Something from a Madhouse”
A disagreement has arisen in Germany over assisted suicide laws. During a discussion of how to implement a previous agreement by the coalition government to ban commercial assisted suicide, the country’s libertarian justice minister has proposed that the law exempt from prosecution any person or group offering “profit-free” assistance in suicide to a terminally ill person. This … [Read more...] about Head of German Medical Association: Physician-assisted Suicide “Something from a Madhouse”