Suicide is tragic, but it is not unlawful. Legalizing physician-assisted suicide, as California did last week, is not about giving patients the “right to die,” but it is about giving doctors the right to assist in self-killing. The law protects physicians, but it is dangerous for healthcare, patients, their families and society.

Frankly, I resent those who are corrupting my profession. Doctors prescribing lethal drugs is not a new idea. Before Hippocrates, doctors both cured and killed. Patients were terrified until physicians began swearing “they would give no deadly drug, even if asked for it.” Trust was built on that moral foundation, allowing Western medicine to prosper because patients knew their physicians would “do no harm.”