Tennessee Lawmakers Hear From Key Group in Right-To-Die Debate — Doctors Who’ll Be Asked To Assist

Doctors offered starkly different opinions Tuesday on whether Tennesseans should be allowed to end their own lives.

Their differences foreshadow the difficult debate facing state lawmakers over “right-to-die” legislation next year.

Supporters of doctor-assisted suicide include Vanderbilt physician Barton Campbell. He says right-to-die laws strengthen the relationship with patients by freeing doctors to give them the end-of-life care they need.

“We treat our pets in a humane way, I think, much better than I think we do some of our patients because of what we’re allowed to do.”

But the opposite argument was made by David Stevens, executive director of the Briston, Tenn.-based American Academy of Medical Ethics. He says right-to-die legislation would erode trust in physicians.

“They would be judge, jury and assistant executioner in the end-of-life cases,” he told lawmakers. “This is about giving paid physicians the right to kill.”

Disability-rights groups, including the Tennessee Disability Coalition, echoed his fears. They argued right-to-die laws will lead to coercion and discrimination.

On the other side of the debate was John Jay Hooker, a longtime political activist who has terminal cancer. It was Hooker’s case that inspired the bill.

Details of the proposal are still being worked out. But Tennessee legislators will take it up again when they return for regular session in January.