Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Vermont : An Enlightened State
Physician assisted suicide takes a step forward
According to an article in today's New York Times, it is Vermont which could possibly be the next state to offer its people the choice of physician assisted suicide.
Extracts:
"Supporters of assisted-suicide laws around the country say that legislation is necessary as a matter of justice, said Nancy Dubler, a professor of bioethics at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Without a law, she said, "people of a certain education and class and profession will have access to it when others will not." Oregon, she said, "has demonstrated that it's socially and morally responsible, socially and morally possible to have a physician-assisted suicide program."
"Dr. Diana Barnard, 40, who was the last member to join the core group, said she wanted to give terminally ill patients an alternative to "going out in the barn with a gun."
Link:
In Vermont, a Bid to Legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide
By JOHN SCHWARTZ and JAMES ESTRIN
NY Times
According to an article in today's New York Times, it is Vermont which could possibly be the next state to offer its people the choice of physician assisted suicide.
Extracts:
"Supporters of assisted-suicide laws around the country say that legislation is necessary as a matter of justice, said Nancy Dubler, a professor of bioethics at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Without a law, she said, "people of a certain education and class and profession will have access to it when others will not." Oregon, she said, "has demonstrated that it's socially and morally responsible, socially and morally possible to have a physician-assisted suicide program."
"Dr. Diana Barnard, 40, who was the last member to join the core group, said she wanted to give terminally ill patients an alternative to "going out in the barn with a gun."
Link:
In Vermont, a Bid to Legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide
By JOHN SCHWARTZ and JAMES ESTRIN
NY Times
