Our country is in the midst of an opioid crisis which has resulted in what I call the criminalization of pain.
Many people who depend on opioids and similar medications to manage pain are now finding that their access to them has been limited and they are being subjected by doctors to drug testing and pill counting. They feel as if they are being treated like criminals, charged with the crime of having chronic pain.
It is common for those living with painful conditions to be treated as addicts and drug seekers when they have to go to the emergency room. Some who live with chronic pain, myself included, resist going to avoid this treatment.
As more and more people experience poor pain management, it is easy to see that in states where doctor assisted suicide is legal, there will be an increase in requests for lethal drugs. How ironic that it may become easier in some places to get a prescription to die than one to relieve pain.
Unfortunately, as some states have no requirement to keep records of why assisted suicide is sought, that information will be difficult to obtain. In other states, like Oregon, pain, or the fear of it, was listed as a reason for requesting assisted suicide, but it’s impossible to know whether those cases involve actual current pain or fear of future pain.
While assisted suicide laws are only supposed to affect people determined to be terminally ill, with six months or less to live, loopholes in the law allow people whose chronic conditions would become terminal with no treatment, to be eligible for assisted suicide. As people lose access to healthcare, medications, and pain management, assisted suicide requests are likely to increase.
The opioid crisis and the resulting criminalization of pain, and assisted suicide are a deadly combination. Disabled people and seniors from communities of color and poor people will be especially vulnerable to assisted suicide due to disparities in healthcare delivery and the tendency of the medical profession to devalue their lives and undertreat their pain.
Policymakers should be working to increase access to pain management and palliative care, not enacting laws that allow doctors to kill us. Having pain shouldn’t be a crime whose penalty is death.