万花筒 2010-04-27&04-29 自杀，还是有尊严地死去？（在线收听）

Stuart Lane is terminally ill. He isn't sure how long he has to live but he’s absolutely sure how he wants to die, quickly, peacefully, no suffering.

--I’m petrified. I am petrified of suffering.

But if Stuart's doctor gives him medication which he then uses to intentionally overdose and die, his doctor could go to jail. That’s the law in Connecticut where Stuart lives.

--If you could die on your own terms, what would that look like?

--I like to have the ability to die you know comfortably in the way I wanna die and not you know the way that society says I should die. I mean why should I have to go through that.

Stuart has HIV and hepatitis C. He got both decades ago through intravenous drug abuse. Today at 53, he is clean, married, with a son in college. Only problem: his liver is failing.

--Do you think about dying?

--I think about it like every day ,every day, every single day.

Stuart has discussed dying with his physician Dr.Gary Blick. Dr.Blick and another doctor are suing the state of Connecticut, so doctors don't go to jail if patients like Stuart overdose on medication they've prescribed. Under the current law it’s a felony to intentionally cause or aid another to commit suicide.

--If they tip that bottle of xanax and that bottle of Percocet and they kill themselves with that, then I could potentially go to jail for secondary manslaughter.

Dr.Blick told me patients have begged him for drugs, so they can die on their terms.

--We want to help terminally ill patients that are mentally competent to make these decisions. Help them in counseling, help them with prescriptions, and then plan for that death so they could die in a nice, dignified, comfortable death.

--If the law stands as it is here in Connecticut, Dr.Blick says patients won't be able to get the medication they need to die peacefully. He worries that would lead to desperate measures, such as shooting themselves or some other miserable end without the assistance or guidance of their doctor.

Dr.Blick says he knows some of his patients have used prescriptions he has written for pain to end their lives.

--I know that probably patients have taken full bottles and have died rapidly as a result of that.

Wesley Smith with the International Task Force on euthanasia and Assisted Suicide says Dr.Blick is looking to legalize intentional killings.

--Any doctor thinks the only way to keep a patient from suffering is to help kill that patient, may need to refer the patient to a better doctor.

Smith says Dr .Blick is abandoning his patients.

--It says that we are not going to take the time to care for you properly, and if you want to die, we'll give the pills to do it. That's just not right.

The state of Connecticut wants the lawsuit dismissed. Arguing it will create a suicide market targeting the terminally ill. A judge will decide. In the meantime, Stuart Lane will continue taking medication to keep his HIV at bay and his liver functioning. In the face of death, he is counting his blessings.

--I mean I am pretty blessed, well, I am still alive and I 've got a nice house and a nice family and a great doctor.

A doctor who he hopes would be able to help him when his time comes.

Randi Kaye, CNN,Norwalk, Connecticut.