On Friday, members of the No DC Suicide Coalition testified against a bill that would legalize physician assisted suicide in our nation’s capital. The Center for Bioethics and Culture is a proud member of the coalition, and our board member Elaine Petty, a D.C. resident and registered nurse, testified against the bill.

The hearing was sponsored by the City Council and doctors, nurses, lawyers, and patients were on hand to advocate against the passage of the bill.

“We physicians know that predicting the duration of a terminal disease is nearly impossible to do accurately. Rather than enable our patient’s suicide, we should be improving palliative care and hospice options near the end-of-life. That would allow patients to truly live their final days with comfort and dignity,” said Dr. Kevin Donovan, Director of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics and Professor at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Here at the CBC we will continue to monitor this bill and work together with the coalition to fight against physician assisted suicide in our nation’s capital—and anywhere else that it is introduced.

Image by deanhochman via flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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Christopher White, Ramsey Institute Project Director