I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan.

So reads the Hippocratic Oath, sworn by physicians for 2000 years. Before its adoption, doctors accepted bribes to kill or heal a patient. Trust was unknown. The physician’s standard since the ancient Greeks, the oath defines the duty of doctors to be preserving life. Legalizing physician assisted suicide, Initiative 1000 would directly contradict the foundation of ethical medicine.

Kristin Kennell asserts that one cannot qualify for I-1000 unless, “you are terminally ill and mentally competent.” Yet the safeguards in Oregon’s similar law (what I-1000 is modeled after) are inadequate to stop abuses from occurring.

Kate Cheney received a lethal dose of medication from a physician – despite the fact that another doctor and psychiatrist found her mentally incompetent – and therefore ineligible for assisted suicide. Although there were questions about her daughter being somewhat coercive in this decision, Kate died under Oregon’s law.

Kate’s story is not the only case of potential abuse in Oregon, and secrecy shrouds many deaths.

I-1000 purports to help those suffering from terminal illnesses – yet pain control today is the best the world has known. When we deal with deadly drugs, can there be accountability past the point of no return?

– Sarah Chaffee