Tom A. Coburn

The Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention Act, introduced as a congressional bill in 1998, would ban the prescribing of lethal narcotics for the purpose of physician-assisted suicide. This proposed federal law, if passed, would override states laws, such as Oregon’s, that permit physician-assisted suicide. As of 2000, such legislation had not passed. In the following viewpoint, Oklahoma congressional representative Tom A. Coburn argues in favor of this law. He contends that allowing doctors to prescribe drugs with the intent of killing undermines the medical goal of healing and preserving life. Such a practice also wrongly pressures the severely ill to consent to assisted suicide for the convenience of others, maintains Coburn.

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