The Delaware End of Life Options Act (HB 160) is currently making its way through the Delaware General Assembly.
This bill would legalize what has been called “physician assisted suicide” or “medical aid in dying” for terminally ill adult patients. End of life bills have been passed in several states in this country and several countries in the Western world. The bill’s aim is to ease the pain and suffering of terminally ill patients by giving them all the available medical options in our culture’s disposal.
However, well intentioned this bill is, there are serious issues that must be raised in response.
If the state has decided to codify a “right to die,” then how will this so-called right conflict with the personal convictions of a physician?