Existential distress not pain drives euthanasia

Here is an interesting story on a study about the reasons patients request assisted suicide. The primary reason cited was “existential distress” and not pain. Interestingly, in the oral arguments in Myers v. Schneiderman, the New York case involving the constitutionality of New York’s ban on assisted suicide, the plaintiffs’ lawyer repeatedly emphasized that the plaintiffs sought assistance in committing suicide due to unbearable pain.