People invoke this oath in the assisted suicide debate, so I decided to read it for myself. I made it through about ten lines when the doctor entered the room. Now that we have won this particular war, now that physician assisted suicide is legal in at least one jurisdiction on this planet, let's not think we can sit back and bask in the glory of progress. As for stigma, this is why it needs to be a choice. Just as a devout Catholic would be stigmatized by suicide, someone else would be stigmatized by a long, agonizing terminal illness.
Truth is, nobody wants to die.
But when death is inevitable, the matter of when and where and how becomes an issue for some. Suicide, then, becomes the lesser of two evils. We can't go around tossing people into prison for assisting the suicide of a terminal patient. Dr. Jack Kevorkian. So since some people choose suicide, let's come up with the least painful of methods for this already difficult situation.