To Kill or Not to Kill: Is That the Question? The Ethics and Law of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Lunch provided at NOONTalk begins at 12:15PMEthical and legal principles have long distinguished between the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and physician-assisted suicide. Assisted suicide has been prohibited not because it is meaningfully different from treatment withdrawal, but because the distinction between suicide assistance and treatment withdrawal has served as a useful "proxy" for distinguishing between morally acceptable and morally unacceptable decisions by patients to end their lives. The trend toward recognition of a right to assisted suicide reflects a refinement of the law's effort to sort morally permissible from morally impermissible patient deaths.David Orentlicher, MD, JD is professor of law at the School of Law, Indiana University and an adjunct professor of medicine at the School of Medicine, Indiana University.