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BioEdge: Ohio makes assisted suicide a felony

BioEdge: Ohio makes assisted suicide a felony
Bioedge

Ohio makes assisted suicide a felony

by Michael Cook | 14 Jan 2017 | 1 comment

The Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio

While several states in the US have passed legislation allowing assisted suicide, Ohio ended 2016 by passing an act making it a felony. Until now, courts could only issue injunctions against people who assisted others in killing themselves. The bill passed unanimously in both chambers of the State Legislature.
Helping someone die is now a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The measure passed along with a raft of other amendments to the criminal code, including making cockfighting a felony, reducing abortion limits from 24 weeks to 20 weeks, and permitting employees to keep guns in their cars while parked on company property.

Transplant surgeons in Belgium and the Netherlands are already harvesting organs from patients who have requested euthanasia. Could this happen in Canada, the new kid on the euthanasia block? Perhaps. In a recent article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, two bioethicists from Quebec argue that organ donor euthanasia is a homage to autonomy and needs to be legalised. Apparently the Quebec government and the society of transplant surgeons in Quebec are also on board.

Of all the bad ideas associated with euthanasia, this must be one of the worst. The potential for exploiting vulnerable people is immense. Imagine that you are a quadriplegic. Your organs are healthy; you are lonely, frustrated, discouraged. You see a TV program in which a doctor praises the unforgettable generosity of So-and-so whose life was not worth living but found a way to give life to others, etc, etc. Wouldn't you think of ringing up the doctor and asking him how to go about it?

Will Canada be able to stop this from happening?