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Brittany Maynard’s Lethal Prescription

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As you may know, Brittany Maynard is a 29-year-old woman diagnosed with a malignant incurable brain tumor. She has moved to Oregon, and plans to commit suicide this Saturday, November 1, under Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law. She plans to take an overdose of medication prescribed legally by a physician.

Ms. Maynard’s plight is a terrible one, and we in the medical community should (and do) work very hard to ease her suffering, even if we cannot cure her disease. But physician-assisted suicide is the wrong thing to do, both for Ms. Maynard and for others who are suffering terminal illness.

Killing is not medical care. It is not a "treatment" for suffering, any more than killing is a "treatment" for depression (e.g., Robin Williams), or psoriasis or indebtedness. Killing isn’t a treatment for any ailment or circumstance. It is the elimination of the person.

It is morally abhorrent that a state would sanction, and a physician would perform, physician-assisted suicide. It is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath, which explicitly forbids assisted suicide, and it devalues the life of the terminally ill person and implicitly devalues the lives of all terminally ill people.

Suicide is illegal for people who are not terminally ill, and we all agree it should be. If Ms. Maynard were perfectly well, and came to an emergency room wanting to take an overdose to end her life because she was unhappy in her marriage, she would be prevented from doing so, by force if necessary. She would receive mandatory psychiatric care until she was no longer suicidal.

Yet the State of Oregon has separate laws for terminally people — laws that inherently devalue their lives. The enactment of physician-assisted suicide laws sets up a two-tier system. People who are not terminally ill are protected from suicide, by law. Terminally ill people may kill themselves with legal sanction, and even with medical help.

It is horrendous that some lives are protected under law, and some lives are extinguished under law and in cooperation with the medical profession.

It is no justification to insist that Ms. Maynard is merely exercising some hypothetical right to end her life. Such a right has never been recognized under any system of law. All states proscribe killing of innocents. If such "right" exists, it is difficult to see why physicians are empowered to protect suicidal 18-year-olds who have just had a high school romance go sour. Does the lack of a terminal illness deprive you — or your teenage son or daughter– of rights?

And it is na�ve to believe that assisted suicide will always be a choice made only by the patient. Compassionate care for the terminally ill is vitally important, but it is expensive and difficult. Most health care costs are incurred in the last few months of life. As financial pressure builds, the pressure on the terminally ill to make the "right" end-of-life decision will be intense. I see such trends in medical practice even now. In time, the "right" to assisted suicide will become the obligation to assisted suicide.

Ms. Maynard’s tragic situation is not ameliorated by her tragic decision. She needs love and care and prayers, not suicide. I pray that she does not end her life, because in doing so she devalues her life and she devalues the lives of all terminally ill people who need our care and protection, not our lethal prescriptions.

Image source: ep_jhu/Flickr.

Michael Egnor

Senior Fellow, Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence
Michael R. Egnor, MD, is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook, has served as the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, and award-winning brain surgeon. He was named one of New York’s best doctors by the New York Magazine in 2005. He received his medical education at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his residency at Jackson Memorial Hospital. His research on hydrocephalus has been published in journals including Journal of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, and Cerebrospinal Fluid Research. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Hydrocephalus Association in the United States and has lectured extensively throughout the United States and Europe.

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