Dan W. Brock

About the author: Dan W. Brock is a professor of philosophy and biomedical ethics at Brown University and director of Brown's Center for Biomedical Ethics.

Concerns that the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) would lead to patient abuse are unfounded. Laws regulating PAS would include important safeguards that would protect dying patients. Opponents of PAS fear that many patients would choose physician-assisted suicide because they do not have access to quality end-of-life care, but denying them the option of a speedy death would be an additional cruelty. Although many critics worry that more patients will be coerced into choosing PAS because it is cheaper than providing end-of-life care, there is no evidence that PAS would actually be cheaper nor that people would choose it over other options...