The state Legislature is debating Hawaii allowing physician-assisted suicide. I am adamantly opposed to Hawaii allowing physicians to prescribe medication to cause someone to die. It is inhumane and Hawaii should not take part in this.

I will agree that this is a complex issue. Hospice care should be available, and people who are suffering from a painful illness should be made as comfortable as they can by whatever means necessary. Any medication for comfort, even if it hastens death, is reasonable. This is called the principle of the double effect. And that is OK. We can already do this as physicians.

Having a physician prescribe a drug specifically for the purpose of death is against the Hippocratic Oath, is wrong, and should not be supported by our state. Any physician who does this is violating the Hippocratic Oath; no matter how they may spin it, they are violating that sacred oath. Sometimes right is right and wrong is wrong. This is one of those cases.

Please call/write your state representatives and senators and let them know that we are better than this in Hawaii. While we should always care for those suffering, having physician-sanctioned suicide is the wrong way to go about it.

Andrew V. Kayes, M.D.

Kahului