To the Editor:

What a disappointment to read The Bee’s editorial “Death and Dignity,” [3/27/15]. There is nothing dignified about aiding someone’s suicide.  The language of this can be sugar coated with language that makes it more palatable to the public, but let’s say what it is, aiding someone’s suicide.

Most people would agree that the experts in this field would be medical professionals; however, The Bee did not reference even one position statement of any professional medical organization, all of which strongly oppose physician-assisted suicide. This one-sided endorsement by The Bee of such a controversial subject is perplexing to me, particularly because The Bee has been very careful about representing both sides of the gun control story.

People who choose the medical profession do not go into this field to aid in the death of their patients; they go into this field to do all they can to assist in their patients' healing both emotionally and physically. Every day physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, and all the support professions that make up health care, do this through their knowledge, compassion and emotional support.

As a pharmacist, the idea of dispensing a lethal dose of medication to a patient for their consumption is against everything I have trained for. The Hippocratic Oath has guided the practice of medicine for thousands of years. This legislation puts forth an idea that is against that basic tenet. Medical professionals are not advancing this legislation, but legislators, whose ultimate responsibility is to protect the public, especially the most vulnerable. And so this legislation leaves me wondering if the impetus behind it, like many laws, is money. Clearly it’s much cheaper to provide a fatal dose of medication to a terminal patient as compared to long term Hospice Care.

The terminally ill, their family and friends, as well as the professionals that work in Hospice Care deserve our support and funding. Only then, we as a society might help dignify the process of dying, by providing compassionate, palliative healthcare to the patient and their loved ones as they go through the suffering and process of dying.

Kathryn Colucci

28 Clearview Drive, Newtown                     April 8, 2015