2 full pages only. See the attached file.

Watch the video re: Dr. Kevorkian, who led groundbreaking work on patients' right to die. Then read the article on legalization of physician assisted suicide. Likely we will see this issue voted on in FL before too much longer.

What are your views on this subject? Should people have the right to have physicians help them end their life? Under what circumstances? What about the physician's right to refuse? Where is the line for "do no harm"? Contrast the beneficial aspects as well as potential dangers/pitfalls that could result? Would you participate in a patient's "prescribed" suicide?

Legalization of physician aid in dying. Support for physician-assisted dying continues to increase. Last year, California became the fifth – and the largest – state to legalize the practice, passing a law that allows physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medication for terminally ill patients who want to end their lives. California joins Oregon, Washington, and Vermont, which have similar statutes, and Montana, where physician aid in dying is legal by case law. In New Mexico, however, a lower court decision permitting the practice was overturned on appeal. Legislation to legalize physician aid in dying has been introduced in 22 states. Unlike the laws in the United States, new and pending legislation in other countries do not restrict aid in dying to terminally ill patients. The Netherlands just legalized euthanasia for people with dementiawho had written advance directives that expressed the wish for it should they develop the condition. Pending legislation in Canada could permit physician aid in dying for competent adults who have “a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability) that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition.” The legislation would put into practice a unanimous decision by Canada’s Supreme Court last year. Look for news about more law and policy initiatives in the U.S. and abroad concerning physician aid in dying.

Read more: http://www.thehastingscenter.org/News/Detail.aspx?id=7720&utm_source=News+in+Context%3A+Bioethics+News+Watch+2016&utm_campaign=NewsinContext20160221&utm_medium=email#ixzz3xuJEJaNU