It’s not like they are making suicide compulsory. Catholics are free to NOT partake in assisted suicide, and they have right to freedom of speech, which includes evangelizing people and convincing them that suicide is not an option.
The bishop argues that the sick will pressured into killing themselves. Will they really? It is the sick who want assisted suicide, not their families and the general public. Most people who travel to Switzerland for dignitas are convinced of what they want. And I don’t think families are that heartless that they will expect their sick relatives to “just die already”. What is the bishop implying about human nature?
No, they are not making suicide compulsory, but pretending that the legalization of suicide will only effect stable, mentally competent adults is a touch naive. Normalizing suicide, and thereby diminishing or eliminating “suicide taboo”, will lead to more people to believe that suicide is an acceptable to solution in situations far removed from terminally ill patients. When I was younger, and I was dealing with some fairly intense suicidal ideations, one of the things that helped me was that taboo. Knowing that suicide was a morally wrong or bad thing to do helped me choose to deal with my depression in other ways. I shudder to think at what will happen when suicide is not only legal but common place and normal.
Moreover, legalizing Euthanasia will further remove an incentive to improve our woefully inadequate palliative care system. The average physician receives less instructions about end-of-life care than a veterinarian. Improving training in pain management and end-of-life care, and investing in resources such as hospice facilities, can vastly improve one’s experience at the end of life experience. I suspect if those resources were already put into place, many patients who would currently opt for Euthanasia would decide against it. Unfortunately, once Euthanasia is legalized, the system no longer has an incentive to improve palliative care. Why invest resources in end of life care when when its far cheaper (in terms of money and manpower) to kill your patients? Considering how much socialized medicine is going to be stretched in the coming decades (due to an inverted population pyramid), losing a few disease prone elderly patients will start looking awfully attractive. Beyond the system, I wouldn’t be surprised if the relationship between physicians and their patients changes. As a physician, even if its not vocalized, I suspect it will be awfully to difficult to motivate one’s self to provide the best possible end-of-life care when you think the patient should simply be Euthanized.
And then there is the issue of mental competency. How do you propose physicians judge whether or not someone is “deserving” of suicide. Most physicians will tell you they find it hard enough deciding whether it is appropriate to take away a patient’s license, let alone their life. How many physicians will be able to screen for depression? How many patients will be able to fool their physicians anyways? How many physicians will reflexively sign the papers and get another billable service and maximize their revenue. This isn’t hypothetical: in areas where physician-assisted suicide is legal we know that access to that service is only limited by one’s willingness to shop around.
Going beyond that and pushing for legislations which makes your morals the law is a step too far.
And I don’t think families are that heartless that they will expect their sick relatives to “just die already”. What is the bishop implying about human nature?
Pressuring people through secular laws isn’t the answer. You won’t change what they believe, and it will come across as minorities bullying the majority.
All legislation is one group imposing their morals on another. For example, laws forbidding polygamy are an example of society imposing a tradition of monogamy on people who have no such tradition (e.g. Muslims). Laws restricting drug use are an imposed by people who don’t do drugs on those who do.
Choosing to legalize, or not legalize, an activity has broad, social consequences. When a society actively invests resources into suicide, it is a de facto admission that suicide is a good thing. After all, societies don’t intentionally invest resources in things they think are bad.
Ultimately, there are big problems with end of life care. Patients often experience unnecessary pain, most of which can be prevented. Patients can feel lonely and abandoned by their family. Patients can be afraid to die in in a hospital setting. Patients can feel lonely and scared about facing death. They can feel like they are a burden on their family. They can feel a thousand and one things that might lead them to wonder if a quick, controlled death is the answer. As a society we have two choices: do we walk alongside these patients, help them cope with their pain and suffering, and work on solutions to the very real problems plaguing end-of-life care, or do we just kill them?
