Letters: Editorial is badly flawed in its stance against Illinois medical aid in dying legislation

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The bill for medical aid in dying is well thought out. It clearly defines who qualifies and how the option can be utilized.

Suzy Flack, shown at her home in Naperville on Feb. 16, 2024, supports medical aid in dying. Her son, Drew, was terminally ill with cancer and wanted to die on his own terms in Illinois, where most of his family lives. Instead, he had to exercise the option in California, where he lived at the time.

This bill does not apply to someone with a disability and poor quality of life but rather someone with a known short-term life expectancy. The notion that this process would be encouraged by a medical professional is simply outrageous. Two key tenets of the editorial arguing against passage of the “right to die” bill under consideration by the Illinois legislature are grounded in unsubstantiated conclusions rather than data. The first is that physicians’ implicit biases against disabled people will lead them to coerce members of this vulnerable population to seek assisted death.

Let’s trust that our legislators will approach the “right to die” option in a more humane, compassionate and evidence-based fashion.It is important to remember that elder abuse — physical and financial, two kinds that are closely intertwined — is on the rise. Approximately 1 in 10 seniors are victims of elder abuse, according to. Most abuse is by family members — for example, family power of attorney overreach, which can end in premature death and the release of assets.

The bill does not permit a family to request medical aid in dying for someone or to force a patient to carry it out. Nothing in the bill requires physicians to participate in medical aid in dying. Nothing requires a pharmacist to fulfill the prescription. The Illinois legislation is largely modeled on Oregon’s 1997 Death with Dignity Act, which has avoided the pitfalls that many critics have raised as concerns.

 

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