Physician Assisted Suicide
Many voters throughout the United States are taking the measure to legalize physician assisted suicide to the polls. If it is legalized, the United States will have legalized a much quicker, more humane method(as opposed to terminal sedation) of ending the suffering of terminally ill patients. The only legal process of this sort in the United States is terminal sedation, a method that can oftentimes add to a patient's problems. Although Oregon is the only state to have successfully passed such a bill for the legalization of physician assisted suicide, the pressure to confront this issue is growing along with the movement for legalization. Opponents of the Oregon bill, mostly Christian conservative groups, are planning to appeal this case to the Supreme Court in hopes of a reversal of the Oregon Supreme Court's decision. Though the emotional battle of physician assisted suicide is the prerogative of voters on both sides of the issue, the fundamental question that will have to be answered by the Courts is whether or not the liberty observed by the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment contains a right to perform suicide, which itself includes a right to assistance in doing so. This clause states, "No State shall make
Terminal sedation also prevents patients from maintaining control over when and how they will die. Although the debate for and against physician assisted suicide is far from over, the recent legal conclusions leave a rather vague understanding of the Supreme Court's intentions for the future of physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, and terminal sedation. Terminal sedation serves fewer of the purposes of a "right to die" law than assisted suicide or euthanasia. Thus in its fundamental actions terminal sedation bears a greater resemblance to euthanasia that to mere mercy killing. Tierce, 5 Another such case was that of Quill v. The hazards and indignities imposed by terminal sedation are still fundamentally unnecessary when one looks to assisted suicide for comparison. The court concluded that a state can legally countenance this form of palliative care if it is "based on informed consent and the double effect. Thus in 1993 the Dutch Parliament passed measures to clarify the state of physician assisted suicide laws. The patient must first make the request for euthanasia, and then repeat the request explicitly acknowledging their desire to die. Tierce, 6Terminal sedation is the introduction of a barbiturate-induced coma, followed by the withdrawal of food and water, thus leaving the patient to starve to death. The courts found the physician guilty of the crime, but suspended her sentence and effectively ruled out the threat of future prosecution. In many Dutch cases between 1973 and 1984 the courts established necessary conditions for not prosecuting a physician for assisting in a suicide. Vacco, which in the opinion of the second circuit of appeals, stated that New York's regulations against physician assisted suicide were unconstitutional when applied to terminally ill patients who are not sustained by life-support systems, because the laws do not accommodate these patients with balanced protection. The dismissal of physician's ability to use their own discretion on determining who is and who is not a candidate for euthanasia has maintained a legal loophole for physicians.
Common topics in this essay:
Vacco Quill,
Supreme Court,
Supreme Court's,
Quill Vacco,
Dutch Parliament,
Nancy Cruzan,
United United,
,
assisted suicide,
terminal sedation,
physician assisted suicide,
physician assisted,
Journal Medicine,
United Nor,
suicide euthanasia,
assisted suicide euthanasia,
supreme court,
euthanasia terminal sedation,
euthanasia terminal,
life-sustaining treatment,
suicide euthanasia terminal,
food water,
england journal medicine,
journal medicine,
england journal,
|
Acceptance Essays
