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“Underground Euthanasia” and the Harm Minimization Debate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Extract

I have a hairstylist whose lover was very sick. I’d been seeing this stylist for ten years and we’re good friends. [His lover was] becoming an invalid, not able to get out of bed. He said “I hate to ask you this but would you mind writing a prescription to help us out?” [So] I wrote a prescription to a patient who I had never seen, and I sent it to him in the mail and I heard the next time I went in to get my hair cut that it was the most beautiful experience that my stylist had ever had. It was Valentine’s Day and they had a lovely meal with champagne. And they held each other and then, you know, his partner took his pills and was released.

(Joseph, physician)

Type
Independent
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2004

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References

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