Some right-to-die laws have elaborate requirements
for paperwork related to waiting periods.
For example, they require some requests for death to be verbal
and some to be in writing, with specified waiting periods between the
requests.
Some proposed laws even impose severe penalties
for any violation of such paperwork requirements.
This really puts the emphasis in the wrong places.
The purpose of waiting
before death is to make sure that death is
really a wise choice.
So every effort should be made to use the waiting periods
for the purpose of looking more deeply into options for the patient.
What additional medical treatments should be considered?
Is the patient being given the best kinds of physical and emotional care
so that the decision for death is not premature?
Are there more distant friends and relatives
who want to visit the patient before death?
What new facts and opinions might appear
that would change the life-ending decision?
The very process of fulfilling other safeguards will
necessarily take time.
And seeking the opinions of others who care about the patient
will be more meaningful than proving that a certain number of days
have passed between the various required requests for death.
No one should be punished because of incomplete
paperwork.
But if someone was really rushed prematurely into death,
then that harm to the patient might warrant some form of legal sanction.
Instead of just waiting for a certain number of days
to pass,
spend each additional day working to fulfill the most meaningful
safeguards.
We do not merely want to delay
death.
We want to make sure that this death was wisely decided.