But towards the end of his activist phase, it seemed to me that he was getting a bit twitchy on the trigger finger, and I think some people died for him to make a point.

I think he started trying to make a point more than worrying about the patients.

I don't like physician-assisted suicide for the same reason I don't like faith-based science. Both provide too easy an out for the guy in the white coat. I like what happens when the guy in the white coat has to keep doing the hard work.

I'm not opposed to all assisted suicide, but physician assisted suicide means that the doctor has a cost effective procedure that allows him to remain in charge all the way to the outcome. It changes the doctor's relationship to death in a way that I do not think is healthy. The way it is now, death means the doctor lost. Nature took over and the doctor (and his support system) was defeated. With suicide assisted by somebody outside the medical system, that dynamic remains. With physician assisted suicide, death is part of the procedure.

To be fair, doctors already have cost effective procedures that allow him to remain in charge. I have seen doctors have recommended Hospice for patients -- offering them palliative care (which is far cheaper than standard medical care). In fact they weren't willing to discuss standard treatments of chemo.

Hell, I've been there when doctors (intensivists) flat-out admitted that letting the patient die was an option. It can come a point where providing more medical care becomes an ethical situation (as well as a financial one).

(Not the least of which is promising the patient's family that the patient will get better.)

The issue wasn't really ever of the doctors recommendations (although people tried to paint it as such)....the issue is when a 29 year old failing on a ventilator and no one has an issue of it when they take them off of it.

A 29 year old quadriplegic who wants to die...and it might just be depression talking.