The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has recommended that Canada's discriminatory "Track 2" of their assisted suicide program which allows people who are experiencing a grievous and irremediable medical condition leading to unbearable suffering to receive lethal drugs. The suggestions from this committee show what disability rights advocates have been saying since the start of this program - these laws are dangerous and discriminatory for people with disabilities.

"A doctor’s mission is to heal and comfort – not to measure a patient’s value. Doing the latter contradicts the very heart of the medical vocation. The oath to “do no harm” applies to all patients, not just those fortunate enough to be free from terminal illness. Preserving the integrity of medicine means valuing all lives equally – without conditions," writes Dr. Aida Cerundolo (Dartmouth Health, specializing in Emergency Services).

Michael Vest, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, specializing in Critical Care Medicine, speaks in this podcast on his opposition to assisted suicide and shares why these laws are inevitably a slippery slope and are not in line with the medical practice of doing no harm.

Wayne Miller says, "This isn’t a fine point, but an immensely important one: is the purpose of the treatment specifically to relieve suffering? Or is the purpose to end the patient’s life? If a patient must worry about a provider who would offer death as a treatment, that’s a disquieting, dangerous and toxic relationship." 

PRAF is a leading national, non-partisan single-issue organization that protects the rights of patients, people with disabilities, older adults, and other historically underrepresented groups from deadly harm and discrimination inherent in assisted suicide laws.

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