Diane E. Meier

About the author: Diane E. Meier is an associate professor of geriatrics and director of the Palliative Care Initiative at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

The risk of abuse of physician-assisted suicide outweighs the benefits offered by the practice. It is true that many dying patients endure agonizing pain that still cannot be satisfactorily relieved by modern medicine. However, if doctors could legally assist the dying in taking their lives, even carefully tailored safeguards would be unable to prevent vulnerable patients from being coerced into choosing death. Family members and health insurers would be tempted to encourage and promote assisted suicide, hoping to avoid extended emotional anguish and tremendous financial costs. Rather than legalize assisted suicide, society should focus on minimizing pain and try to provide the dying...