Open to Debate: Legally Assisted Suicide
OPEN TO DEBATE: We choose how we live our lives, but how much agency should we have in determining how and when we die? This week’s debate is, yes, about policy and quite timely, given New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s agreement with the state legislature to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act, legislation that would permit terminally ill and mentally competent adults with less than six months to access life-ending medication. But this debate is also very personal and poignant, as several of the debaters with lived experience on this topic share deeply moving experiences. This debate is from our archives, but it remains an essential listen as modern society continues to grapple with ethical, medical, and legal issues surrounding an issue that was once considered fringe, but is now a practice adopted in some form in a growing number of states, in Canada, and across Europe. Let us know what you think. ARGUING YES:
Peter Singer: Co-Founder of the Effective Altruism movement; Professor Emeritus of Bioethics at Princeton University …There is a lot of unnecessary suffering. Whether it’s excruciating pain or not, there is suffering and distress of various sorts, which continues and is going to continue for the foreseeable future in this system, and it could be relieved by a relatively simple legislative reform that exists already and has been shown to work. Andrew Solomon: Author of Far From the Tree; Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College It’s nothing short of medical arrogance to say that palliative care and hospice can adequately deal with the end of every life.
ARGUING NO:
Ilora Finlay, The Baroness Finlay of Llandaff: Former President of the British Medical Association; Member of the House of Lords When you normalize physician-assisted suicide, the underlying social dynamic changes; laws aren’t just regulatory instruments. They send a message. The message they send is that if you are terminally ill, ending your life is something that you probably ought to think about. Daniel Sulmasy: Andre Hellgers Professor of Biomedical Ethics in the Departments of Medicine and Philosophy and Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University You see, assisted suicide flips the default switch. The question, the terminally ill here, even if never spoken, is ‘You’ve become a burden for you and for us. Why haven’t you gotten rid of yourself yet?’
