Maryland lawmakers first considered assisted-suicide legislation 20 years ago, but no measure has passed. (Photo by Peter Dazeley/Getty Stock Photo)
Maryland lawmakers may again consider legalizing physician-assisted suicide (PAS) this session. Before they do, they should confront an uncomfortable truth: In a state where African Americans already face stark inequalities in health care, PAS, even if intended compassionately, would introduce the power of state-authorized death into a system that has long failed to protect Black Marylanders’ health, dignity and, too often, their lives.
The Maryland Department of Health documents clear and persistent inequalities in health outcomes in this state. Black residents are more likely to die of cancer even though they are less likely than whites to develop it. Black infants die at more than double the rate of white infants. Black mothers die in pregnancy at twice the rate of white mothers. And the proportion of Black physicians in the state is far lower than their share of the population. What happens when we add the power of prescribing death to a health care system that already does not treat all lives equally?…