Columbia University doctor warns assisted suicide makes life disposable
As medical aid-in-dying laws continue to spread across the country, a New York-based physician and ethicist is warning about the dangerous ripple effects that can follow laws intended to ease suffering.“I can completely empathize with the sense that this is a very effective and efficient way to end suffering,” Dr.Lydia Dugdale told Fox News Digital.
“But are we creating new problems by normalizing the taking of life or the taking of one’s own life?”Dugdale, the Dorothy L.and Daniel H.
Silberberg professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, has been outspoken about what she sees as the ethical fallout of legalizing physician-assisted suicide.In February, New York Gov.Kathy Hochul signed the Medical Aid in Dying Act, allowing qualified, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to self-administer medication to end their lives.
The law’s passage followed Illinois legalizing its own version in December, when Gov.JB Pritzker signed the measure.
The practice is now legal in 13 states and the District of Columbia.New York’s law is similar to others around the country, Dugdale said, but includes additional safeguards.Under the law, a patient must undergo a mental health evaluation by a psychiatrist or psychologist to determine whether the patient is capable of making the request.
The law also requires an audio or video recording of the patient’s request and imposes a five-day waiting period between the request and filling the prescription.Patients must also be legal residents of the state.Advocates of such laws, including the group Death with Dignity, argue that allowing terminally ill people to end their lives gives them agency and dignity over the manner and timing of their deaths.Dugdale said she sympathizes with families who want to ease a loved one’s suffering or who face heavy financial burdens caring for someone who is seriously ill.But she questions what “...