Washington State: Physician-Assisted Suicide Bill Being Considered

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Nay

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Nay

Why not?

I'd rather err on the side of caution in situations like this.  When people can give consent to others to end their life that scares me.  Consider this hypothetical:

A certified medical doctor loses 200 grand on the Super Bowl.  He can't pay his bookie, so he decided to kill him.  Instead of just murdering him, however, he locks the bookie and his family in a room and threatens his families' life if he fails to sign a waiver to certify his murder.

The next day, the doctor proclaims the patient terminally ill, and the murderer kills the bookie legally.

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I realize all of this is EXTREMELY unlikely, but I'd rather not mess with issues like this.

[© tweed]

Nay

Why not?

I'd rather err on the side of caution in situations like this.  When people can give consent to others to end their life that scares me.  Consider this hypothetical:

A certified medical doctor loses 200 grand on the Super Bowl.  He can't pay his bookie, so he decided to kill him.  Instead of just murdering him, however, he locks the bookie and his family in a room and threatens his families' life if he fails to sign a waiver to certify his murder.

The next day, the doctor proclaims the patient terminally ill, and the murderer kills the bookie legally.

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I realize all of this is EXTREMELY unlikely, but I'd rather not mess with issues like this.

Well, the Oregon legislature has wisely found a way around this problem. Under the assisted-suicide law, doctors are not allowed to directly participate in the killing of their patients. Rather, they can only write prescriptions: the patients must administer the drugs themselves.

Hardly foolproof.  Force the patient to take the pill with a gun to his head, or his child's.

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Force the patient to take the pill with a gun to his head, or his child's.

That could happen even without a physician-assisted suicide bill having been passed.

Of course, but this bill makes it easier for a physian to do so, and enhances its legality.