Joram Graf Haber

In the following viewpoint, Joram Graf Haber, a professor of philosophy at New Jersey’s Bergen Community College, contends that when a patient’s decision to commit suicide is rational, there are no ethical reasons for physicians to refuse the request for assisted suicide. However, Haber does not believe that physician-assisted suicide (PAS) should be legalized, since in his view that could lead to very ill patients feeling obligated to choose PAS or doctors becoming too quick to recommend the option. Instead, he contends that PAS should be tolerated as a “poorly kept secret”: Assisted suicide should not be officially condoned, but neither should doctors who grant requests for PAS be prosecuted as criminals.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What is the difference between assisted suicide...