Assisted Suicide is not an Acceptable Answer from the Medical Community
Dr. Laurie Petrillo MD,
Palliative Care Specialist
“We have an urgent responsibility to improve the experience of dying so no one feels the only
option to maintain their dignity is to hasten their death.”
Dr. Laura Petrillo works everyday with patients who are learning to live with chronic and
terminal illness. Medical literature indicates that inequality leads to earlier and greater effects of
aging among patients from disadvantaged groups who then face under or over-treatment by the
medical community. With these facts in the background, some groups want to legalize assisted
suicide.
Our flawed health care system, steep medical costs, and ageism all contribute to interest in
physician-assisted death, which is an incredibly inappropriate solution to real end-of-life
concerns. People are already dying prematurely in this present system. Assisted suicide will
simply cause more to die prematurely.