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Logi-cal, there's a very legitimate case to be made for refusing treatment which is truly burdensome and futile. Gotta agree with no ventilator, no electroshock, no aggressive CPR when it would be a terrifying, rib-breaking experience for a fragile terminal patient who cannot benefit.

However, that's not what this legislation is about. It's about lethal drug overdoses prescribed by death-docs who aren't even qualified to diagnose depression.

And the only "protection" in all these laws --- which mirror Oregon's law --- is for the prescribing doctor, not the patient. The law protects the doctor from lawsuit, even if there's evidence of coercion on the part of a death-promoting heir (giving grim new significance to the saying "Where there's a will, there's a way.")

The drug-pushing doctor cannot be sued if he claims he acted in "good faith," a claim it is practically impossible to disprove in court, unless he actually took a bribe in front of a witness.

Anyone who wants to commit suicide on their own can do so, and 30 minutes' worth of mousing around on the Internet can tell you how.

But don't insist on "authorization" or "participation" from church or state or medico or politico. Surely in the name of autonomy, a would-be suicider can take care of business without insisting on corrupting the political, legal, and medical professions.

A self-respecting suicider (I am not recommending this) should be responsible for himself. This "legalized" "physician-assisted" crap just puts more death-dealing power in the hands of the State.

I never wrote that doctors needed to be able to do it legally, but that I and other like-minded people should be able to do it legally.

I could give a rat who does it. My/our choice.

The blanket NO crap infringes on my rights and it nerds to stop.

I agree with you fully. It's a precedent that we don't need. Legal assisted suicide does not need a foot in the door in this nation. It will put at risk the most vulnerable patients. Many an Insurer would also likely welcome this as law. I know of no doctors however who would welcome nor endorse such acts. As you say stopping aggressive treatment at end of life where outcome won't change is one thing. Any doctor can and will discuss that aspect as well as honor their patients wishes in that regard. That is part of their job.

Assisted Suicide is a very different matter though and opens a Pandora's Box to genocide upon those least able to defend themselves from it.