Self-determined Death, the Physician, and Medical Priorities

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Abstract
The bond between patient and doctor is frequently tested by life's challenges. It must be strong enough to buoy the patient until calmer times arrive, and should prove rewarding and renewing for both participants. Too many times, however, there is no bond or it has no substance beyond superficial convention. Patients admitted to acute care hospitals frequently do not know their physicians. In this era of entrepreneurial medicine, business principles are applied. Medicine and government together focus on productivity and "units of service." Rationing, benefit plans, and cost containment have taken center stage in the public arena. It is within this broad and unsettled context that the national debate regarding "rational suicide" and "physician-assisted suicide" has arisen. Whether people have the right to thoughtfully choose the time and means of their death, and what role physicians should play in the process are overlapping, but not identical issues. Ironically, they are

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