(Olean Times Herald) – Assisted suicide. Or, if you like, you can use the more genteel term adopted by New York state: Medical aid in dying. Take your pick. It’s a distinction without a difference to me.
Either way, the active involvement of the state in people’s end-of-life actions is a slippery slope littered with unintended consequences. Look no further than the case of UK resident Wendy Duffy, 56. Duffy paid a clinic in Switzerland a reported $13,500 to help her end her own life last Friday.
Duffy was not chronically physically ill. She was not in the final stages of a terminal disease. She was not in unendurable physical pain. She suffered from none of the conditions put forward as justifications, encouragements, even, that in many places allow people to end their lives with the help of the state and the medical establishment. CONTINUE