Canada Looks to Legalize Physician-assisted Suicide: Should the U.S. Follow Suit?

Earlier in April, the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation to legalize physician-assisted suicide for Canadian citizens. The momentum for such a law has been building since the fall, when the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously struck down a criminal ban on the practice. With the Liberal Party's control of Canada's Congress, the House of Commons, the bill is expected to pass in the next few months. Given the geographic and ideological similarities between Canada and the US, is it time for the US to implement a similar law? The history of physician-assisted suicide -- also known as "right to die" or "death with dignity" -- laws in the US has been long and controversial. In Massachusetts, our home state, such laws have been proposed six times over the last twenty years but failed -- sometimes narrowly -- each time. Currently, assisted suicide is legal in only California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont, although courts in several more states have protected the rights of patients to end their own lives. The question over whether an individual has the right to end their own life with the assistance of a medical professional has long been a complicated one. It draws on debates regarding medical ethics, patient autonomy, the value of human life, issues of societal inequality and mental illness, the professional responsibilities of doctors, and the (im)morality of suicide and murder. Many organized religions formally oppose assist...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news