Assisted suicide is not palliative care

Sheila Liaugminas calls attention to the despicable effort of "right to die" advocates to skew the findings of a recent study on the benefits of palliative care as somehow supportive of their efforts to introduce assisted suicide as a legitimate end of life option for patients.

The former Hemlock Society is using this to suggest to struggling patients a way out. The group renamed themselves ‘Compassion and Choices’ to soft-sell death. Their director recently wrote this letter to the New York Times.

Leven starts by giving kudos to the medical community for offering palliative care, and New York Governor David Paterson for signing into law legislation assuring that patients will be informed of their right to receive it. All the way to the end of the final sentence of the letter, Leven strikes the tone of advocacy for patients and their end of life care.

The law will result in the provision of more and earlier palliative care, which The New England Journal of Medicine study found greatly benefits patients, and more and earlier referrals to hospice, as well as greater respect for patient wishes.

Those last five words hold the key to their agenda. So by sponsoring and advocating for this end of life care, the former Hemlock Society is positioning itself to introduce assisted suicide as one of the options patients may choose, and helping them ask for it more often.

There is nothing compassionate about assisted suicide or euthanasia of any kind. It is not a legitimate form of palliative or end of life care, but a most odious manifestation of the culture of death.