The hippocratic oath—missing completely from assisted suicide discussion—taken by doctors states: “I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.”
The American Medical Association’s official position is that it does not support doctor-assisted suicide. The US supreme court says there’s no constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide, and it’s up to each state to decide how to handle the question.
To date, in 9 states and the District of Columbia physician-assisted suicide is legal. In 40 states it’s illegal. Montana is the only US state where assisted suicide is legally ambiguous, as our guest explains. State Senator Carl Glimm tells us why he’s trying—for a third time—to fix it.