In Let us
die our own way, New Jersey Star-Ledger
guest columnist Laurie Wilcox made an impassioned plea on behalf of herself and
her sister for passage of NJ’s Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Act (A1504/S1072). The Act would legalize doctor-assisted suicide that “would
provide terminally ill New Jerseyans with six months or less to live the option
of medical aid in dying to peacefully end intolerable suffering.”
One of the objections opponents raise is that
there is a risk that unscrupulous people will abuse the freedom by coercing
disabled people into unwanted suicide. Wilcox made the most effective argument
against this objection, one that I have used. After pointing out that “the New
Jersey legislation has more than a dozen safeguards to prevent abuse and
coercion,” Wilcox argued:
The reality is there will never be enough safeguards for some
people who oppose medical aid in dying. All my sister and I ask is that our
lawmakers not allow a minority of New Jerseyans to deny this option to a
majority of their constituents like us who want it.
I have been a strong supporter of the
legalization of assisted suicide.
I left these comments, slightly edited for
clarity:
The "option" to use medical aid in
dying is more than that: It is an inalienable individual right, derived from
our rights to life and liberty. By the logic of the opponents, no rights, and
no freedom, is possible. After all, what rights, including rights to freedom of
speech, religion, and property, are not subject to abuse by a small number of
people?
My main concern is that doctors be free to
decide whether to participate in aid in dying, based on their own individual
conscientious moral beliefs. Given our mandate-happy politicians, that freedom
for doctors is not at all a given. For all the talk of patients’ “rights,” the
one group that gets the least consideration--the group without which there are
no healthcare issues to discuss--is the doctors.
As a person nearing 70, the right to manage
one's own end of life is important to me. So I support the concept of legalized
medical aid in dying, but only insofar as doctors' equally important freedom to
choose is equally protected.
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