Medical aid-in-dying laws do not authorize assisted suicide

I am a Harvard-trained physician, but there was nothing I or any other doctor could do to relieve the 17 years of relentless suffering of my daughter, Emily Rose, from leukemia before she mercifully died. Her agonizing death is why I believe in compassionate laws that give terminally ill patients the option to make their own healthcare decisions as they approach the end of life. These options include medical aid in dying to peacefully end intolerable suffering when no other treatment will provid