Timothy E. Quill

In the following viewpoint, Timothy E. Quill, a professor of medicine at the University of Rochester in New York, argues that dying patients should have access to physician-assisted death when hospice care fails. Hospice care can be extremely effective, he maintains, but it cannot always relieve a patient’s suffering. Quill believes that in these rare instances when hospice care fails, doctors and patients should be able to discuss assisted suicide without fear of legal sanction. The author acknowledges some of potential dangers of legalizing assisted suicide, but also contends that current prohibitions on euthanasia cause doctors to ignore the suffering endured by terminally ill persons.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What is hospice care’s foremost value to the patient, in Quill’s...