Amid existing health care disparities, assisted suicide, although ostensibly voluntary, imperils the ill and disabled.
indicates that a fear of going into a nursing home is much more likely than pain to fuel a desire to hasten death. These are not uniquely end-of-life concerns. These are the solvable concerns of people who want to control their lives but need kinds of help that others currently do not.
VanHook's and Tischer's fear about the blurring of the line between terminal illness and chronic conditions that are life threatening without treatment is well founded. In states where assisted suicide is legal, persons have been deemed eligible based on conditions like diabetes, arthritis, andKnowledge gaps may play some role in a person not being offered certain services.
Assisted suicide can hardly be called a"choice," as proponents do, when people do not have access to necessities such as home health aides or breathing support, or persons they trust are giving them cues that living is no longer a good option. Such"steering" is part of a pattern of devaluation and discrimination that pushes people to despairingly believe that their only option is assisted suicide.
If the California law is found to be invalid, so can the assisted suicide laws in the few other states that have them. Should any further state enact such a statute, they will be similarly embroiled in controversy.
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