Legalize Assisted Suicide?
Open to Debate
Closings: Solomon on limits of medicine
Andrew Solomon emphasizes that not all pain is treatable and law should honor autonomy and relieve suffering.
In December of 2025, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul announced that after months of negotiations with the state legislature, she was finally ready to sign into law a new bill allowing some patients to request medical assistance in dying, or MAID. That bill is currently sitting on her desk waiting for her signature.
This type of bill has become more and more common. In 1994, Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act, becoming the first state to allows physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Now 12 states plus the District of Columbia have laws on the books allowing physicians to assist patients in ending their life, within limits. Patients must have a prognosis of less than six months to live, and they must take the medication themselves.
As more and more states discuss passing their own versions of these bills, we revisit the debate we had on this very topic in 2014. The motion that we debated: Legalize assisted suicide. While the preferred language has changed to Medical Aid in Dying, the thorny ethical questions and the complicated medical judgments remain unchanged. Will these laws lead to a slippery slope, where the vulnerable are pressured to choose death and human life is devalued? Or do we need to recognize everyone's basic right to autonomy, the right to end pain and suffering, and the right to choose to die with dignity?
This debate was recorded live in November of 2014 at the Kaufman Music Center in New York.
Arguing Yes:
Peter Singer: Co-Founder of the Effective Altruism movement. Professor of Bioethics, Emeritus, Princeton University. Podcast host, "Lives Well Lived"
Andrew Solomon: Author of “Far From the Tree”, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medical College. He also researches at Yale School of Medicine. Currently writing a book about suicide.
Arguing No:
Ilora Finlay, The Baroness Finlay of Llandaff: Former President of the British Medical Association, Member of the House of Lords.
Daniel Sulmasy: André Hellgers Professor of Biomedical Ethics in the Departments of Medicine and Philosophy and Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.
A few links to articles on the topic:
New York to become latest state to allow aid in dying. What is it? ,USA Today
Do Patients Without a Terminal Illness Have the Right to Die? New York Times
The country gave its citizens the right to die. Doctors are struggling to keep up with demand. The Atlantic Magazine
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