Today, a bill was proposed intending to legalize physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. The definitions of this amendment would be that they must be 18 years or older, must be a Texas resident, and capable of communicating health care decisions. An argument that one of the delegates made immediately caught my attention. The delegate stated that many young adults’ minds are not fully developed until their mid-20s.
Without a developed mind, patients might make poor decisions that can greatly affect their families in the future. Another delegate stated that physician-assisted suicide is a fairly controversial topic, and because of this, an issue may come up with a lack of participation from physicians, which, with a lack of supply, prices would increase for the procedure. Another statement from a delegate was that the medical term “terminally ill” is very broad and sometimes doesn’t mean what it may sound like. Terminally ill can mean many different diseases or infections. The delegate speaker was concerned about the gray area in the definition of
terminally ill. Overall, the bill is still very controversial and would need some revisions to be enacted.
Written by: Elan Rodriguez