By Richard P. Morin
Sharing the belief that physician-assisted suicide should be an option available to competent patients, Dan Brock and several colleagues in the fields of economics, law, medicine and patient advocacy economics drafted a model statute to authorize physician-assisted suicide.
The statute was published in a recent issue of the Harvard Journal on Legislation.
Under the provisions of the statute, competent patients 18 or older, who either have "a terminal illness or are suffering from unrelievable and unbearable distress, due to bodily illness, that is so great that they prefer death," could be given the option of physician-assisted suicide.
In recent years, the prerogatives of competent patients to make end-of-life medical treatment decisions have been clarified, afforded legal protection and increasingly accepted in medical practice, paving the way for such a statute, the authors say.
With two recent federal court decisions ruling that the prohibition of physician-assisted suicide is unconstitutional, the draft "all of sudden become more practical and useful than we thought it would be," said Brock, director of the Center for Bioethics. "This is a statute that would regulate the practice and provide appropriate safeguards to ensure that the authorization for physicians to do this isn't abused."
Under the statute, four basic conditions must be met before a physician may grant a patient's request for assisted suicide: The patient must be competent, fully informed, voluntary and enduring.
Before providing medical means of suicide, a physician must among other things offer to the patient all medical care, including hospice if available; the chance to speak with a social worker to determine whether services are available that could improve the patient's circumstances; counsel the patient to inform the patient's family; discuss the patient's medical options; secure a written second opinion from a consulting physician and a written opinion from a psychiatrist.
After death, full reports would be provided to regulatory agencies, such as the Department of Public Health.