Florida judge OKs one-time assisted suicide
A trial judge in Palm Beach County, FL, has ruled in a declaratory judgment that a physician may be entitled to participate in physician-assisted suicide. The case involves a 60-year-old man who is terminally ill with cancer. The man’s attorney asked for a declaratory judgment so his physician could hasten his death and not be prosecuted by the Florida state attorney for physician-assisted suicide.
According to Glenn Simpson, JD, risk manager at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, the ruling does not set a precedent because it was made by a trial judge and has no binding effect on other trial court or appellate judges. "Other trial court judges may well render similar decisions based upon this case," Simpson says.
The ruling is limited, he says, and does not require that any other hospitals or physicians participate in assisted suicide. "While we are a long way from any final resolution on this issue, physicians and hospitals soon must consider their stance and take a position."
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