Alan B. Astrow

Physicians should not be allowed to honor requests for assisted suicide and euthanasia, contends Alan B. Astrow in the following viewpoint. Granting doctors a “license to kill” would contradict the life-serving purposes of medicine and ultimately create more difficult conflicts for the terminally ill and their loved ones. Instead of endorsing euthanasia, Astrow argues, medical policymakers should see that doctors and nurses acquire better training in pain alleviation and comfort care for the dying. Astrow, a medical doctor, is the program director in hematology and oncology at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center of New York.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Astrow, what two problems are central to the medical profession’s treatment of the dying...