Matthew Stewart – Moderator

Physician Assisted Suicide Discussion ON February 16, 2015

March 30, 2015
SOCI 111
Bruce Nelson

Note to reader – PAS is an abbreviation for “physician assisted suicide”.

Person – if someone wants PAS, but the Dr. doesn’t want to do it, how will the Doctor’s feelings come into
consideration?

Person – In Oregon you need to meet specific qualifications for a Dr. to assist in suicide.

Person – But still, legality doesn’t define morality. If a physician doesn’t feel inclined to assist with PAS,
then regardless of whether it’s legal or is demanded by some policies, then the doctor may be subjected to
psychological strain that they shouldn’t have to bare.

Person – I just meant that you can’t decide you’re upset, walk into an office, and be put down. Not without
consideration.

Person – Fair enough. There will for sure be some serious deliberate consideration into each patient’s
unique circumstances, I’m sure, by some committee or something. Well there really should be haha.

Person – Will health care costs decrease? Less people on life support… How many people will even do it?

Person – You think that killing someone will be cost efficient. But I read that capital punishment, as
opposed to life in prison, is more expensive. Not like the two are the same, but supporting an inmate for
25 years can “apparently” be cheaper than capital punishment, so who knows—maybe PAS will also be
quite expensive—as it will probably call for the time of many professionals to come to a decision? I think.

Person – What will the parameters be? Is it a personal decision? Familial decision? Probably will require
an advanced directive. The proxies and decisions around it will be interesting and complex.

Person – Will be interesting to see how mental health comes into play. If people have a treatable mental
illness, such as depression, at what point will PAS be acceptable? Do no harm? When is PAS for someone
with mental health issues maleficent? When is it beneficent? How do we know if a psychiatric patient’s
autonomy has been compromised? If their decision making skills are compromised. How do me ensure
justice? So many questions, I just don’t see how any overarching set of policies can cater to every complex
patient that may present with a request for PAS.

Person – The weight on the shoulders of the health care professionals will be profound. How will it
threaten their ethical conscience and moral fiber? I personally don’t think it’s fair for a doctor to have to
do it if they were to ever disagree with a patient’s choice in favor of PAS. There must be a clause in
legislation that states a doctor has the right to refuse administering a lethal dose for PAS.

Person – Well PAS would be partly a specialty for nurses.

Person – So many people comment on, “if I ever turn out like that, kill me”, but that’s a hard decision to
make to “kill” someone because they aren’t living a normal life. Especially if they aren’t miserable but
aren’t living a life you know they’d likely not want to live. Yeah, what if they change their minds. I couldn’t
imagine “putting down” some old person with dementia because they had an advanced directive
specifying to do so in those exact circumstances.

Person – How will the rights of parents and decision makers come into play in the complexities
surrounding PAS of minors.

Person – I don’t know, but those aboriginal parents in the news who took their daughter, Makayla Sault,
off of chemo, pretty much killed her. The hospital took them to court because the chemo had a 90%
survival and success rate, so they wanted Makayla to remain on the treatment. But the child was getting
sick, as expected with a treatment that wreaks havoc on your body, so the parents took the daughter off of
it. The court ruled in the parents favor because of some specific aboriginal rights. She died shortly after.
Canada sort of failed her in my opinion. The ignorance of her parents condemned her to death.

Person – Are we supposed to include swear words in these discussions?

Person – Well a video we watched had them.

Person – Hmm, I didn’t put them in. Would’ve probably be more entertaining for the TA that reads this
though…

Person – Either way PAS will be super complicated. And considering the Federal Government passed the
bill, they placed the weight of really dissecting it and putting proper legislation into place on the
provinces, I doubt we’ve heard the last of it. I’m sure each provincial government will have some struggles
in deciding exactly how PAS should play out in writing.

Person – Yeah, I don’t think anyone should be in a position to dictate whether another has the right to die
or remain alive in a life they don’t see “worth living”. But I do think that all the complexities aside, PAS
may provide many people with graceful ends of life. My grandpa made it to 100, and my other grandpa is
97, and neither ages were too pretty. I wouldn’t have wanted to see them die by PAS… But I would bet
that both of them would opt for it. The one poor 97er hates life right now.

Person – Matt, do you have a full page? Could you keep up with us?

Person – Yeah, typos everywhere. But I’ll just clean it up a bit to my best knowledge before submission.

Person – To tell you the truth, my greatest insight and wisdom into this whole topic is that I know
nothing. At least relative to the ocean of considerations around this subject that need to be contemplated
when discussing it. It’s almost too complex to state much of an opinion on. I’d need more time to really
think about it and learn more about it.

Person – Yeah, I agree.

Fin.