C'mon, let's extend assisted suicide to children

The issue boils down to what steps should be allowed to alleviate the suffering of terminally ill patients who are in great pain and choose to end their lives at a timing of their own choosing, rather than waiting for nature (medically extended as it might be) to take its course. Five U.S. states recognize physician-assisted suicide, or “aid in dying,” as proponents call it. California is not among them, despite several attempts to get such laws through the legislature. The Times’ editorial board has gone on record supporting the right of terminally ill patients to end their lives on their own terms, and I hope state lawmakers — or voters — eventually agree.

And that right should extend to children, in tightly controlled circumstances and with legal protections. I suggest a system, much like the Belgians approved, in which the child (first and foremost), the child’s parents or guardians, the attending physician and a court-appointed lawyer, medical doctor or psychologist acting as the child’s agent all agree that assisting the death is the humane thing to do.

It’s not an easy conclusion to reach. But if we believe that it is humane to give terminally ill adults the right to end their lives with medical help, how can we not extend that ability to terminally ill minors? Because of their age, they should be forced to suffer more than an adult?