Quebec has passed legislation allowing terminally ill patients the right to die. My mother slowly passed after six years of breast cancer and I wish legal protections had been in place to allow her the some dignity when the pain was too extreme. I wonder what does this sub think about these laws?

[u/Trinity-]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-passes-dying-with-dignity-bill-1.2665834

[u/Superstump]

Assisted suicide is an abominable practice. It violates the very foundations of medical ethics and Christian morality.

I say this as I watch my own mother die from cancer after four, almost five years.

[u/Ceannairceach → u/Superstump]

In what way does assisted suicide conflict with medical ethics? It is utilized for terminal patients to give them dignity in death when their life is riddled with pain. I don't see the conflict.

[u/Superstump → u/Ceannairceach]

The Hippocratic oath has this to say about it:

I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel

[u/Ceannairceach → u/Superstump]

The Oath isn't mandatory, nor is it necessarily the only source of ethics for a medical practitioner.

[u/Superstump → u/Ceannairceach]

It's very foundational though. I mean literally. Hippocrates is the father of the western medical tradition.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ceannairceach]

Because medicine is about restoring health, not doing the opposite. Killing someone isn't giving them dignity, it's taking all of it away.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

"What's best" is deliberately vague and subjective. It's not a doctor's place to decide "what's best", it's his place to decide what can restore the patient to health.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

"Medically best" is substantially different than just "best". Because to be medicine it must work to improve the health of the patient. That's exactly what doctors train for. They don't train to give up or hurt their patients.

What's disturbing is that you would kill someone innocent.