Should I Help My Patients Die?

In June 2016, California became the fourth state to allow physicians to aid terminally ill patients end their lives. Specifically, the law gives doctors the ability to prescribe a lethal mix of medications to adults diagnosed with a terminal illness and with a life expectancy of fewer than six months. While the physician can authorize the deadly concoction, the patient must be able to self-administer the mix and must have the mental capacity to make this weighty decision.

This presents an issue for physicians who are now legally able to prescribe the medication to suffering patients, but who may have moral qualms with actually prescribing the drugs. Some of this discomfort may stem from the solemn oath physicians take upon graduation from medical school: “I will not administer poison to anyone when asked to do so, nor suggest such a course,” is a weighty part of the Hippocratic Oath. Fortunately, the law does allow doctors and some institutions to opt out of the program.

See Jessica Nutik Zitter, Should I Help My Patients Die?, The New York Times, August 5, 2017.

Special thanks to Lewis Saret (Attorney, Washington, D.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.