Pro

The American Geriatrics Society wrote in their Position Statement, "Physician-Assisted Suicide and Voluntary Active Euthanasia," last updated in Nov. 2002:

“It is the general consensus of the AGS [American Geriatrics Society] that most individuals who consider PAS [physician-assisted suicide] or VAE [voluntary active euthanasia] do so out of fear of the dying process. The vast majority of patients can be comfortable (which might require sedation) and potentially could find meaning in the last phase of life and choose to forgo a life-sustaining treatment and accelerate dying. All of these options for care, are already legal. Most would choose to live if they had full confidence that the care system would serve them well. A thorough search for the underlying reason for the request for death may uncover several areas amenable to potential interventions (e.g., undertreated physical symptoms, psychosocial or spiritual crisis, clinical depression, etc.).”

Nov. 2002