Should Physician Assisted Suicide be Legalized?
The topic I have decided to cover is Physician Assisted Suicide and if it should be legal in all states. Physician Assisted Suicide has been a controversial topic ever since Oregon became the first state to legalize it back in 1994 when the local voters approved a ballot measure that was known as the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. However, an injunction was filed against the act shortly after. Then in 1995 a federal judge ruled that the act was unconstitutional because it failed to offer patients who were terminally ill the same protections against suicide afforded the majority. The ruling of Lee et al. v. State of Oregon is currently under the appeal process in the court system. If the law does pass in Oregon it will then allow attending physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to a terminally ill patient, which they would then self-administer.
The law does have put some restrictions in place prior to being able to choose this route of ending one’s pain and suffering. One, only a competent, adult, residing in Oregon, who has been told they only have less than six months to live is eligible. Two, the patient must make two verbal requests and one written during a 15-day period. Three, the physician’s diagnosis, the patient mental state/comprehension, and the voluntary nature of the request must all be confirmed by a secondary physician. Four, the patient must then meet with a mental health professional, if the patient’s mentality seems to be motivated by a secondary diagnosis such as depression or other psychosis. Five, the physician must then ask that the patient tell their family members of their intentions, although the patient can refuse to do so. Once all of this is done the physician must then report their participation in the physician assisted suicide to the state health division. These steps are what then protected the physician from any liability in the death.
Since there are such strict guidelines that have been set into place before a patient is able to actually go through with a physician assisted suicide shouldn’t it be legalized in every state? People who are stage four cancer and suffering should they be allowed to make the decision to end their own pain and suffering. We make decisions all the time to help our beloved animals who are in pain and suffering by euthanizing them. Why should it be any different of a person to choose to take their own life if they have been deemed to be a mentally competent adult.
As with anything in life Physician Assisted Suicide comes with its own risks. You risk families that are not understanding to the fact that their loved one has chosen to end their life. When it comes to death and dying it is a very emotional thing for families. Working in the Emergency Room I have seen this firsthand. I have seen elderly patient who have DNR’s in place be brought in for a stroke or heart attack or in respiratory distress and are dying. Their family, who is at the bedside, happens to hold their medical power of attorney and because they are not ready to say goodbye, they will override certain decisions the patient had previously made in order to gain more time with them before they pass. This then leads to us performing life saving measures that the patient may not have wanted all for self-serving reasons of the family. Patients kept alive by ventilators and medications sometime in a coma or left in a vegetative state all so the family doesn’t have to make that hard choice and let their loved one go.
By legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide it puts the patient in control completely of their death. The law would also protect the physician from any retaliation from a family who may not support the decision by making it, so the physician is not professionally or legally liable if all the right steps are taken. The physician is only prescribing the medication the patient is the one in the end who is taking the medications themselves, and in turn taking their own life. This act of physician assisted suicide is important because only a patient can determine their own pain and what they can and can’t handle. If their pain and suffering is too great to live with then they shouldn’t have to be at the mercy of anyone else forcing them to endure months of pain.
I am hoping to learn more about why they feel that legalizing physician assisted suicide is unconstitutional. For me it is easy to see why this should be legalized but I am not sure that I understand how it is unconstitutional.
I think that the sources that will be most beneficial for this topic are going to be academic journals and newspaper articles. I think that the medical side of it will be easy to find in academic journals and the research behind it. However, real life stories and information about the court cases involved in trying to pass this law might be easier to find in newspaper articles.
Work Cited
Melinda A. Lee, M.D., Heidi D. Nelson, M.D., M.P.H., Virginia P. Tilden, R.N., D.N.Sc., Linda Ganzini, M.D., et al., Legalizing Assisted Suicide — Views of Physicians in Oregon, The NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL of MEDICINE, February 1, 1996
Somerville MA. Death Talk, Second Edition : The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide. Vol Second edition. Montreal: MQUP; 2014. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.nic.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=759837&site=ehost-live. Accessed June 22, 2020.
Rutter, Terri. “US Supreme Court Decides Physician Assisted Suicide Is Unconstitutional.” BMJ : British Medical Journal 315.7099 (1997): 9-9. Web.
Canetto, Silvia Sara. “If Physician-Assisted Suicide Is the Modern Woman’s Last Powerful Choice, Why Are White Women Its Leading Advocates and Main Users?” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 50.1 (2019): 39-50. Web.
Hillyard, Daniel, and John. Dombrink. Dying Right: The Death with Dignity Movement. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print.