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Article: Hospice, not hemlock: the medical and moral rebuke to doctor-assisted suicide.
- Article from:
- Policy Review
- Article date:
- March 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Hoover Institution Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The medical and moral rebuke to doctor-assisted suicide
In the deepening debate over assisted suicide, almost everyone agrees on
a few troubling facts: Most people with terminal illnesses die in the sterile settings of hospitals or nursing homes, often in prolonged, uncontrolled pain; physicians typically fail to manage their patients' symptoms, adding mightily to their suffering; the wishes of patients are ignored as they are subjected to intrusive, often futile, medical interventions; and aggressive end-of-life care often bankrupts families that are already in crisis.
Too many people in America are dying a bad death.
The solution, some tell ...