…ith a history of depression and suicide attempts have received the lethal drugs. Burden: Financial and emotional pressures can also make people choose death. Unnecessary: Everyone already has the legal right to refuse treatment and get full palliative care, including, if dying in pain, pain-relieving palliative sedation. No true safeguards: Where assisted suicide is legal, the safeguards are hollow, with no enforcement or investigation authority….
…thers for support, or of seeing your caregivers tired and wondering if the world would be better off without you. How do you put a safeguard in to accommodate that? People have an autonomy, but with no independent person there at the time of death, how can we ever know that it was the individual’s choice instead of a person who has been threatened or coerced or feels that they have no other choice than to end their own life. John Voket: So in term…
…fund a second opinion. The second psychologist had the same concerns, but ruled that Kate was competent anyway. On the day that she got back from a nursing home stay as respite for her family, Kate offered to take the lethal overdose. Her family helped her die that same day. Having to choose between a nursing home and a family who sees you as a burden is not a true choice. There is nothing in this or any other assisted suicide bill that can pro…
…ed by Oregon law co-author Barbara Coombs Lee last fall at a Connecticut forum. As the online journal CTNewsJunkie reported, “Coombs Lee also said the [Oregon-style] legislation would exclude people with dementia and cognitive declines, since they could not make the choice for themselves. ‘It is an issue for another day but is no less compelling,’” she said. Coombs Lee is now the president of the group Compassion & Choices, the saccharine rebrandi…
…de of the disability community over the past few years. Today, the college newspaper Georgetown Voice published a response and counter to an editorial that endorsed a proposal that would legalize assisted suicide in Washington, DC. That response is reprinted below, with permission of the author and newspaper. We’ve also included the brief description of Lydia’s work included that accompanies the original article. The original article can be found…
