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Legal aspects of physician-assisted suicide
Implications of physician assisted suicide
Legal aspects of physician-assisted suicide
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Oregon's Euthanasia Program
Since 1998, due to a legal opinion by U.S. attorney general Janet Reno, Oregon physicians have used their federal prescribing licenses from the Drug Enforcement Administration to order controlled substances - usually secobarbital - for use in terminally ill patients' suicides. However, new attorney general John Ashcroft was an outspoken critic of the Reno opinion when he served in the U.S. Senate. He authored a 1997 letter to Reno signed by seven other Senators urging a contrary opinion, and criticized her final ruling as "bending the law" to facilitate assisted suicide. George W. Bush also criticized the ruling and endorsed a bill to reverse it, the Pain Relief Promotion Act, during the presidential campaign.
The Oregon Health Division's third annual report on operation of the "Death with Dignity Act," summarized in the New England Journal of Medicine, was said by the law's supporters to offer "compelling evidence" that the Act "has given Oregon citizens comfort and control at the end of their lives." Said Estelle Rogers, executive director of the Death with Dignity National Center: "Oregon is a model for the nation, a place where doctors and patients alike approach end-of-life issues with due seriousness and compassion. We believe it's time for President Bush and the Attorney General to do the same" [U.S. Newswire, 2/21/01].
But the same report hailed by Rogers as "a third year of good news" was said by a prominent critic of Oregon's law to confirm that "the assisted-suicide experiment has failed." Dr. Gregory Hamilton of Physicians for Compassionate Care says that Oregon officials monitoring the practice of assisted suicide "have neglected to report meaningful results." Case reports are chiefly self-reporting by the physicians involved, and no effort is made to find "complications" or problems not reported by those assisting the suicide [PCC press release, 2/21/01].
The Oregon Health Division reported 27 deaths from physician-assisted suicide in 2000, the same number as in 1999. The only case it found of incomplete compliance with the Act was one in which a physician submitted a consent form signed by one witness instead of two. Dr. Hamilton notes, however, that the chief case of assisted suicide to receive extensive news reporting in 2000 showed more irregularities than this.
The case of Joan Lucas received feature-length coverage for two days in her local newspaper in June. Suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease, she originally tried and failed to commit suicide by herself on January 16 - but she and her family soon found more expert "assistance" and she died on February 3.
Currently, Oregon is the only state that has legalized assisted suicide. The Oregon statute, which came into e...
This investigation will be an evaluation of President Kennedy’s Executive Committee and the repercussions of the decisions made during the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Tape recordings and files had been deemed classified, but these files are now released and the decisions made by the government can be assessed to the fullest extent. This can produce major implications regarding the relationship between what was then the Soviet Union and the United States. The public was kept in the dark about several courses of action, including the removal of American missiles and many other surprising judgment calls that may be a cause of international security between the two country’s today.
Soviet chairman, Nikita Khrushchev, guaranteed President Kennedy that there was nothing going on in Cuba. The U.S. was not fooled with Khrushchev's act and began to discuss the ideas of a quarantine or a military attack. RFK and Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, became the blockade's strongest advocates. They did not accept the idea of the U.S. raining bom...
The controversial act known as the physician aid-in-dying (PAD) challenges us to question our ethical, religious, and cultural values or beliefs. Although it is tragic and perceived as morally inappropriate, suicide is sometimes the only answer. In certain cases this act is a way to end excruciating pain and suffering. The state of Oregon passed a law known as the Death with Dignity Act in 1994. PAD is defined as “a practice in which a physician provides a competent, terminally ill patient with a prescription for a lethal dose of medication, upon the patient's request, which the patient intends to use to end his or their own life” (Braddock, and Tonelli). PAD also raises the question, is it a constitutionally guaranteed right for people to have the power and the medicine to take their own life? PAD, if operating under careful supervision, is an alternative to patients who may have to endure physical, mental, and financial struggles. Doctor Peter Goodwin, a physician from Portland, Oregon campaigned for the Death with Dignity Act, which he called his greatest legacy. Goodwin became a terminally ill patient towards the end of his life. Doctor Goodwin was 83 years old when he took the very medicine that he campaigned so long for. Goodwin was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder, which he had been battling for 6 years prior to PAD.
The Cuban Missile Crisis began with a set of photographs taken over Cuba by an American pilot.2 These photographs showed that Russians were building missile bases in Cuba and placing missiles and atomic weapons there that were easily within range of the United States. President JFK and Robert Kennedy were both stunned. From this point a board of advisors was created and called the Ex Comm, who met every day during those thirteen days and debated the various courses of actions, and consequences of each, that the president could take. Kennedy emphasizes the making of this board as a lesson for future government officials because he believes that it "proved conclusively how important it is that the President have the recommendations and opinions of more than one...point of view."3
(1) A student raised with the Culturalcentric lens may have difficulty adopting some of the traditional classroom norms of group behavior.
D. One of the biggest policies that Kennedy had was that he would not back down. After the 2 meetings with Khrushchev, Kennedy wanted to prove that he wasn’t a weak President. Another was that Kennedy wanted to hold strong to the Monroe Doctrine, which said that no one would “mess'; with the Western Hemisphere unless, the U.S. knew about it. Also see C.
Although widely condoned around the world, only one nation, the Netherlands has made physician assisted suicide legal. Five states tried Washington in 1991, California in 1992, Michigan in 1998,and main in 2000, Oregon in 1994 approved the “Death with Dignity Act” it won 51 percent to 49 percent. 91 people committed suicide with the aid of a physician in the first four years the law was in effect.
"Legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon ñ The Second Year." Amy D. Sullivan, Katrina Hedberg, David W. Fleming. The New England Journal of Medicine. February 24, 2000. v.342, n.8
The Oregon Death With Dignity Act allows Oregon residents the access to physician-assisted death with restrictions. An eligible patient must be at least 18 years of age, diagnosed with a terminal illness resulting death within 6 months, and be in the right psychological state to make informed, rational decisions. The Death With Dignity Act implemented a protocol physici...
Steinbrook, Robert. "Physician-assisted suicide in Oregon--an uncertain future." New England Journal of Medicine 6(2002):460. eLibrary. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
Life is essentially a constant victory over death. Although this feat seems ideal, there is a category of society that wishes to lose. Some of these people turn to assisted suicide in order to fulfill their ultimate desires. Oregon, Washington, and Vermont are currently the only states that allow this act to be carried out. Commonly assumed to be synonymous to euthanasia, the most palpable difference between to two is who performs the task. In euthanasia, a physician will administer a lethal dosage of medicine, while assisted suicide is characterized by the patient administering it to him or herself. As the issue of legalization gains more momentum, a general argument has formed for the most popular opinions. Supporters believe in “death with dignity,” while the opposing side views assisted suicide as the gateway to physicians killing their patients. Being the first state to legalize assisted suicide, what views did Oregon consider when making the decision?
The reader of this paper will learn how the Right to Life movement is getting involved in a dramatic way in the assisted suicide battle in the state of Oregon. The NRLC(National Right to Life Committee), as well as the state RTL group, is participating in the court battle resulting from Oregon's November, 2001 judicial challenge to Ashcroft's decision -- initiated to keep assisted suicide practices functioning smoothly in Oregon.
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