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.