Free Euthanasia Essays: We Have the Right to Physician-Assisted Suicide

We All Have the Right to Physician-Assisted Suicide

Physician-assisted suicide presents one of the greatest dilemmas to the medical profession. Should someone who is mentally competent, but deemed terminally ill, be allowed the option of physician-assisted suicide? According to the First Amendment of The Constitution of The United States, "one hasthe freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances." The Fourteenth Amendment states, "The Statecannot deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within itsjurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The group believes that a terminally ill patient has the Constitutionalright to decide whether or not to end his or her life with the help of a licensed medical doctor. There have been many cases overthe years where a terminally ill patient who is mentally competent has made the choice to either partake in physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia.

"Physician-assisted suicide occurs when the physician provides thepatient with the means and/or knowledge to commit suicide"(Death and Dying,91). "Euthanasia is when the physicianadministers the death causing drug or agent"(Death and Dying,92). The most recent case is that of The Stateof Florida v. Charles Hall. "Charles Hall is dying of AIDS and challenged the State of Florida to let him die bya self-administered lethal injection without fear of prosecution"(http://www.rights.org/ deathnet/open.html). On January31, 1997, a Judge ruled that Charles Hall could take his own life with the aid of a doctor. Senior Judge S. JosephDavis, brought in from Seminole County, "found that Florida's strict privacy law and the equal protection clause in theU.S. Constitution entitled Hall, 35, and Dr. McIver to carry out an assisted death without fear of prosecution" (Sun-Sentinel,1A). On February 11, 1997, Charles Hall's ruling was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court: he no longer hasthe right to end his own life. He will have to wait until May 9, 1997 until new arguments will be heard. Hall, whohas been deemed mentally competent, contracted the virus in 1981 through a blood transfusion. "Some of the complicationshe is encountering from the AIDS virus are arthritis, hepatitis, pneumonia and a brain cyst" http://www.rights.org/deathnet/open.html). The Oregon Death with

Dignity Act allows terminally ill adults who are mentally competentto ask for a prescription for medication "for the purpose of ending his or her life in a humane and dignified manner"(http://www.rights.org/deathnet/open.html). This act, "Measure 16," was approved by the voters in 1994.