Physician-assisted suicide: a bad idea

The fallowing essay is a shorter version of an article that is being published in the October 1996 issue of Issues in Law and Medicine. That article in turn is based on a talk given at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in May at New York. It would be hard to deny that there is a great deal of support in this country - and ever-growing support - for legalizing physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Why is this so?

I believe there are a considerable number of reasons. I shall discuss five common reasons - and explain why I do not find any of them convincing.