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Margaret Battin, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah, wrote in her chapter, "Is a Physician Ever Obligated to Help a Patient Die?" that appeared in the 1998 book Regulating How We Die: The Ethical, Medical, and Legal Issues Surrounding Physician-Assisted Suicide:
“It is my view that even the physician with the most profound moral scruples against physician-assisted suicide can, in certain circumstances, incur an obligation to provide this assistance… I hasten to add that I support the legal recognition of opt-out provisions… But that does not mean that a physician has no moral obligation to help, even if there is no legal one… Where the patient’s request really does originate in autonomy and in the claim to mercy, it does mean that the physician is obligated not to entrap the patient into compliance with the physician’s values rather than the patient’s own values.”
1998