By Tommy O'Donnell
In the coming months, dozens of states will be confronted with efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Under the guise of compassion and autonomy, the expansion of this practice would really mean the legalized abandonment of people who are terminally ill. Instead of being encouraged to end their lives, patients need proper pain management, care for depressive symptoms (which may be caused by their sense of helplessness), spiritual guidance, and accompaniment as they approach their final days. In other words, we should kill the pain, not the patient!