Advantages
of the Premature-Death Approach to the Right-to-Die
Prevents
Attempts
to Ban the Right-to-Die
Using Physician Licenses
When only licensed physicians are permitted to
prescribe life-ending drugs,
opponents of the right-to-die will attempt to use
the laws about the licensing of physicians
as a way to prevent the life-ending behavior they deplore.
For example, a state law might provide
that any physician who prescribes a deadly drug
will lose his or her license to practice medicine in that state.
There is even explicit basis for such a law in the Hippocratic Oath:
"I will give no deadly drug, even if asked."
If physicians are threatened with losing their
licenses to practice medicine,
they will stop prescribing life-ending drugs.
And the right-to-die laws that authorize
life-ending prescription drugs will become useless.
We can think of this being somewhat more likely
in the most conservative countries of the world.
In fact, it might come as no surprise
that conservatives would pass such a law
—preventing
physicians from prescribing deadly drugs—
even before any right-to-die legislation is introduced.
Whenever the right-to-die is contained within
the health-care section
of any set of laws,
those laws with regard to the licensing of physicians
will always provide pathways by which opponents of the right-to-die
might try to prevent or overturn laws
that explicitly permit doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs.
However, if the right-to-die is contained within
the homicide section
of any set of laws,
then no laws with regard to licensing physicians will be relevant.
Instead, those who believe that some harm has come to the patient
will have to prove that harm by looking at the specifics of each case.
And anyone considering helping with a voluntary death or a merciful
death
will know that if they are
actually harming the patient,
they might be prosecuted under the law against causing premature death.
On the other hand, the same laws that prohibit
causing premature death
will also specify safeguards to separate premature death from timely
death.
And everyone who helps with a timely death will not be prosecuted
because no harm has been visited upon the patient.
The dying patient benefits from a wisely-chosen time of death and means
of death.
Created March 30,
2007; revised 3-31-2007; 2-1-2008; 8-25-2008