In town hall, experts discuss dangers, realities of physician-assisted suicide

Panel at Wayne State University discusses 'epidemic of loneliness and isolation,' risks to medically vulnerable populations

DETROIT — Health care and legal professionals gathered alongside pro-life advocates April 13 at Wayne State University to participate in a town hall discussion about the medical and legal realities and concerns regarding physician-assisted suicide.

The town hall was led by Genevieve Marnon, a policy expert with Right to Life of Michigan, and sponsored by the Michigan Alliance for Ethical Care (MAEC), a statewide coalition opposed to assisted suicide in Michigan. The coalition is endorsed by the Michigan Catholic Conference, the official public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Michigan.

The town hall featured a diverse panel of experts on legalized assisted suicide, including Lisa K. Gigliotti, Esq., a bioethics law professor, author, and advocate for people with disabilities and for improving end-of-life care; Jason Negri, Esq., a policy advisor for Patient Rights Action Fund and an attorney who has written and spoken nationally on end-of-life issues; and Dr. Jeanne Lewandowski, a retired pediatrician who specializes in pediatric hospice care.

Each of the three contributed to the Michigan Catholic Conference’s 2024 FOCUS publication on the issue of assisted suicide, part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness of the dangers of assisted suicide, in light of recent efforts to legalize the practice in Michigan and elsewhere.

The issue first surfaced in Michigan in 1998, when the state's voters rejected a ballot measure to legalize assisted suicide following a controversy surrounding Michigan physician Jack Kevorkian, who administered life-ending medication to 130 patients.

The issue surfaced again in 2023, when Michigan legislators introduced bills that would legalize physician-assisted death for terminally ill patients.

Physician-assisted suicide has been legalized in 13 states, the first being Oregon in 1997, and the most recent being New York this February, Negri said.

“Usually, in these states, when they push it in a legislature … very, very often it's come down to one or two votes,” Negri explained.

Language used by advocates of physician-assisted suicide often lacks transparency, Lewandowski explained, and statistics about the circumstances surrounding instances of physician-assisted death are not always accurately or thoroughly reported.

“I think people who support this (often have) a very rosy kind of idea that (physician-assisted suicide) will just make all things better,” Lewandoski said. 

Besides the moral and ethical concerns raised by the Church and others, the rise of physician-assisted suicide laws coincides with what Negri and others described as a "relational crisis" taking place in the United States and elsewhere.

Citing statistics from David Brooks' 2023 New York Times Bestseller, "How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen," Negri illustrated an "epidemic of loneliness and isolation" that has taken root in society. 

“Three years ago, 54% of Americans felt that no one knew them well, and 36% were always lonely. Reports of having no close friends have quadrupled since 2000, while the suicide rate increased by 33% between 1999 and 2019,” Negri said. “Most people, when you have a conversation with them, recognize how sick American society is. We have an epidemic of loneliness and isolation.

“Now ask yourself, how do you think legalized assisted suicide is going to mix with a population that finds itself so lost — where people don't know each other, where families are broken, where people don't have the relational and community supports that we once took for granted in society?” Negri said.

The prevalence of assisted suicide carries particular risks for medically vulnerable individuals, specifically those living with disabilities, Gigliotti said.

A decades-long leader in the work to safeguard Michigan from physician-assisted suicide, Gigliotti's advocacy stems from her own lived experience with severe rheumatoid arthritis and myasthenia gravis, with which she was diagnosed in her 20s. 

“Physician-assisted suicide puts people with disabilities at risk of deadly harm,” Gigliotti said. “People with disabilities feel vulnerable to biases about their worth, they are vulnerable to coercion, and to abuse, and have been advocating (against physician-assisted suicide) for decades,” Gigliotti said. 

Instead of turning to practices that would end the lives of those struggling with disabilities, Gigliotti said society must instead examine how it can provide better support and health care for people with disabilities in everyday life.

“Let's first think about ways that we can help them feel they have more worth and dignity,” Gigliotti said. 

Negri added that while America is a performance-driven society that has led to many great achievements, it has also come at a cost, at the expense of the most vulnerable. 

"That price, too often, winds up being that people are marginalized, particularly the elderly, people with disabilities, people who don't have anybody in life to advocate for them," Negri said. "The coercion and pressure that is inherent in legalizing assisted suicide pushes people to 'choose this' when, in fact, if our society were healthier, they wouldn't be doing this at all. People are choosing assisted suicide out of desperation."