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Hastening death is not always an easy path: What should Jane do?

Many people with debilitating and irreversible health conditions do not have supportive family and friends. They include include people with metastatic cancer, irreversible neurological conditions, and multiple medical problems that have taken away any enjoyment and quality of life as determined by them.  They no longer want to continue living because they know that their condition will only worsen, and for them it is already beyond bad.  There is no realistic hope that their lives will improve.  Most of the time, family members and friends are able to see the suffering in their loved one's life and understand a desire to end the suffering.  But this is not always the case, as illustrated in this post. (Continue reading ...)
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The reality of existential suffering

If we use "existential suffering" as a stand-in for all of the related terms we use, it will help us discuss what we may mean by them.  Certainly, distress, dread, angst, anxiety, anguish, or crisis all suggest suffering at least in a mental or psychological sense, a kind of suffering that all people encounter at one point or another in their lives, or even daily.  Some existential suffering can be mitigated through changes in circumstances or with the help of others, but when one is dying, whether slowly or rapidly, one may wish to forego the suffering whether or not there may be temporary relief for it. (Continue reading ...)
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Opposition to medical-assistance-in-dying–Part 3

In this third part of a series analyzing the arguments against medical-assistance-in-dying (MAID) by opponents of physician-assistance in hastening a person's death in the face of a terminal illness, Lamar Hankins looks at a major reference for most MAID opposition articles – a 2008 Michigan Law Review article, "Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon: A Medical Perspective," by psychiatrist Herbert Hendin and neurologist Kathleen Foley.  Both oppose what they term "assisted suicide." (Continue reading ...)
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Opposition to medical-assistance-in-dying–Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I addressed ten criticisms of MAID laws, particularly those in Oregon and Washington, though most such laws are modeled largely on Oregon's law.   In Part 2, I look at criticisms of MAID laws concerning economic pressures, coercion, depression, inadequate resources for MAID clients, doctor shopping, inadequate Medicaid rules, ableism, and the failure of the drugs prescribed to MAID clients.  My hope is that we can learn from opponents of MAID laws how to make the laws better. (Continue reading ...)
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Opposition to medical-assistance-in-dying–Part 1

With this post, I begin a multi-part series about the views of those who oppose medical-assistance-in-dying (MAID) or have written critically about MAID laws.  I think there are some good ideas that we can learn from these critics to help us improve MAID laws, though that is not their intent.  They will oppose MAID under any law, no matter how carefully written. (Continue reading ...)
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