Advantages of the Premature-Death Approach to the Right-to-Die
Focuses on Results rather than Procedural Details

    Life-ending decisions under laws against causing premature death
encourage everyone to ask this simple, ultimate question:
Is today the best time for this patient to die?
All of the fulfilled safeguards have weight because they support the claim
that this set of life-ending decisions had the best outcome:
This human life was completed not too soon and not too late.

    Other approaches to affirming the right-to-die
sometimes get preoccupied with tiny matters of procedure:
Was one of the witnesses for a particular document not qualified?
Did the helpers hold the patient’s hands too tightly?
Were the waiting periods between requests for death too brief?
At the end, was the patient really capable of re-affirming the plans for death?
Was the death correctly reported as 'assisted suicide'?
   
    When asking about the best time for death to take place,
the whole life of the patient is taken into account.
When the process of planning for death begins,
everyone involved can ask what would be the ideal date of death.
If there are differences of opinion,
how many days apart are the proposed dates?

    Because the safeguards are optional, rather than mandatory,
critics will not be able to focus on some safeguard that was not fulfilled.
The safeguards are named only for the purpose of defending against
any possible question or charge that this death was premature.
Any trial that might result from this death
will focus on one single question that any layperson can understand:
Was this death too soon or at about the right time?
Evidence or testimony only becomes relevant
if it has some bearing on the question of the best timing for this death.

    The prosecution will have to prove that this death was premature.
The defense will only have to show that this death was well timed
—the result of a very careful process of planning for death.

    The helpers need not concern themselves with technical details.
They only need to ask: What is the best time for this patient to die?
They will weigh the benefits and burdens of each option considered.
Since they are not applying to any government body for permission,
they do not need to convince any strangers of the wisdom of their choice.
The people who will decide the best time and methods of death are:
first the patient if still able to make meaningful choices
and then the duly-authorized proxies if the patient is no longer capable.

    Instead of getting lost in a tangle of technical procedures,
the deciders can ask what would be the best outcome for this patient.


Created April 14, 2012; Revised 7-24-2012; 9-7-2012; 4-7-2013; 6-19-2013; 7-25-2013;
6-21-2014; 3-18-2015; 7-16-2015; 8-10-2016; 2-28-2018; 12-2-2020

When we shift from granting permission to banning harms,
the death-planning process asks deeper questions:
When we take everything into account,
what is the best time for this patient to die?

This is Section L of Chapter 60 of
How to Die: Safeguards for Life-Ending Decisions:
"Focuses on Results rather than Procedural Details".

Go to other Advantages of the Premature-Death Approach to the Right-to-Die.

    Because the section above is the last section of the last chapter of
How to Die: Safeguards for Life-Ending Decisions,
the summary of PART SIX is appended here.
If you would like to read any chapter,
simply click the chapter number below.
Summary of Part Six

New Laws Can Clarify Our Right-to-Die

    Clinical practices at the end-of-life
already include several kinds of life-ending decisions.
And the written laws of any location on Earth
can acknowledge these reasonable end-of-life medical choices.

    Some early attempts to change laws concerning the right-to-die
created systems of applying for permission from government agencies.
When the stated safeguards were fulfilled,
the physician could write a prescription for a life-ending chemical,
which would be taken by the patient when the patient decides to die.

    An entirely different approach puts the right-to-die under homicide.
This new law would ban causing premature death.
And the new law would include specific safeguards.
Each of these safeguards could be used as a defense
against the charge of causing a premature death.
Fulfilling the safeguards proves that the death was not premature.       Chapter 54

    Most jurisdictions on Earth have repealed their laws against suicide.
But 'assisting suicide' usually remains a criminal offense.
These laws were really attempting to prevent
helping someone commit an irrational suicide.
And they should never apply to making wise, end-of-life medical decisions.
Laws against 'assisting suicide' should not apply at the death-bed.      Chapter 56

    Because prosecutors almost never charge doctors for life-ending choices,
it would be possible for prosecutors to publish their guidelines
for deciding whether to bring criminal charges in end-of-life situations.
Such criteria would clarify what life-ending choices are permitted.        Chapter 57

    Eventually the guidelines already in use for deciding not to prosecute
could be embodied in new laws against causing premature death.
Such laws could easily replace outdated laws against 'assisting suicide'.
Fulfilling the stated safeguards would prevent prosecution.                     Chapter 58

    The next chapter is draft legislation outlawing causing premature death.
Each of the 26 recommended safeguards is briefly described.
When most of the named safeguards have been fulfilled,
everyone can proceed with the reasonable plans for death                      Chapter 59
without worrying that someone might be charged with a criminal offense.

    Adopting this completely new approach to right-to-die laws
has several advantages over laws that grant government permission for death.
All life-ending decisions are covered, not just the few 'right-to-die' cases.
The burden of proof shifts to the prosecution.
Instead of creating elaborate paperwork, this law focuses on results.   Chapter 60

Go to the Right-to-Die Portal.


Go to the beginning of this website
James Leonard Park—Free Library