Daniel Sulmasy

I think it's bad medicine, bad ethics, and bad public policy, and a grave mistake for society.

The logical slippery slope suggests all of the safeguards that are built into laws eventually become seen as barriers to access.

All these restrictions are vaporware.

Every place they've been put in, every guardrail becomes a barrier.

The states that have had waiting periods are now eliminating waiting periods.

The requirement for residency gets waived by states.

As a medical student, I was drawn, actually, to caring for patients who were ill and dying, and at a time when other people would sort of run away from them.

There's nothing more to do, right?

It was experiences like that and an interest in philosophy, theology, that led me to really think that my contribution in medicine would be through medical ethics.

Sure.

I think it's bad medicine, bad ethics and bad public policy and a grave mistake for society.

I think it's bad medicine because at this point in history, we can do more than we have ever been able to do to treat patient symptoms.

And the data will bear out that the reason people want euthanasia or assisted suicide when they actually follow through are reasons like loss of control, feeling like a burden to other people, loss of autonomy.

These are not medical diagnoses and they're not

good reasons to give lethal medication.

I also think that it's bad medicine because the trust that is necessary for a patient to be able to bare their body, bare their soul, all their intimate secrets before a physician requires some very fundamental basic rules.

And these go back to Hippocrates.

In a nutshell, the Hippocratic Oath says, I won't disclose your secrets, I won't have sex with you, and I won't kill you.

And that's the bottom line.

I think I'm fighting a battle, and I think that it is a difficult one because of the social valuing of control.