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Some patients get suicide prevention while others get suicide assistance.

A close up on a paid of hands pointing at a clip board. The hands have blue medical latex gloves on and the paper is white. The torso of a person sits in a hospital gown in the background.

Assisted suicide is dangerous and discriminatory. One example of this is that some medical professionals decide which patients to give suicide prevention to and which patients to assist. 

“Interviews with hospice staff in Washington in the US, where a form of medically assisted dying is available, found that they encountered different types of suicide, and felt conflicted and powerless about wanting to prevent suicide on one hand and supporting a patient’s decision on the other.”

This judgment is inherently discriminatory in the context of assisted suicide because the socially devalued group, people with life-threatening disabilities, will always get suicide assistance when requested while an otherwise non-disabled person will receive the standard of care for suicide prevention care and services. Talk about disparate treatment and unequal protection under the law!

Read more: Oncologists say Cancer Patients Experience Mental Distress. Assisted Suicide is not the answer.

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