Patients' Rights Action Fund Issues Response to New Mexico Assisted Suicide Ruling
PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Earlier this week, a New Mexico judge ignored a majority of doctors, virtually all disability rights groups, a number of high-profile progressive leaders and the majority of Americans when she legalized physician assisted suicide (PAS) in the state.
"The court appears to have completely ignored the dangers PAS poses to the disability community," said Marilyn Golden, Senior Policy Analyst for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund. "The medical system often encourages people with new disabilities to reject life-sustaining treatment and embrace death instead, even before the individual learns how good their life will turn out to be."
Groups such as the American Medical Association, which comprises over 300,000 doctors nationwide, have traditionally opposed the legalization of physician assisted suicide. 49% of U.S. adults disapprove of legalizing PAS, according to the most recent Pew Research poll. That number swells to an overwhelming 65% of Hispanics and African Americans who stand in opposition. Last year's New England Journal of Medicine poll found that roughly two-thirds of doctors world-wide opposed assisted suicide.
For more information, please visit www.patientsrightsaction.org.
SOURCE Patients Rights Actions Fund
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