Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2009-09-21 13:07
I come from a family of doctors -- my grandfather, father and brother. My grandfather died when I was 1 year old, so I don't remember him, but I've had long discussions with my father and brother about treatment of dying patients. They both said that assisted suicide is extremely common.
Even if we reject assisted suicide, I think everyone accepts that a patient can refuse further treatment, knowing that death will come quickly. But there's an indistinct line between refusing treatment and going to the Dignitas clinic. Every doctor who treats the elderly knows patients who hoard a lethal quantity of sleeping pills, and many if not most doctors will prescribe a sufficient quantity to permit this.
It's not a black/white divide between refusing treatment and calling Dr. Kevorkian, and it's rationally, emotionally and ethically defensible for each person to make the decision. I support Pamela Weston absolutely. I just hope I never have to make it for myself, though if the time comes, I know what I'll do.
Ken Shaw
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