Outline For Presentation Of Physician Assisted Suicide

Essay, Research Paper

I. Human Right to Die

A. Patient Self Determination Act

1. Basic Component of Human freedome- right to die

2. Right to Decide one’s own destiny at the end of their life (www.rights.org/~deathnet/Humphry_essay.html)

3. Personal Quality of life

· May be decreased by illness

(www.rights.org/~deathnet/Humphry_essay.html)

· Physician Assisted Suicide will contribute to the emotional wellness of the individual.

· If a medical conditon is unwanted…the quality of life has been decreased

· Right to make decisions about one’s own medical treatment

(www.efn.org/~ergo/wfn28.html)

B. Dignity

1. A person has the right to die with personal dignity

(Issues and Controversies on File; September 1995)

· A personal choice that should be afforded to sick and dying patients

· One should be in Control of their own death

· Physician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia are means of ending any suffering due to

Illness…that is not curable through medication

· Euthanasia and Physican Assisted Suicide facilitate a death and escape from such situations as being at the mercy of others.

C. Personal Decision

1. The Right to die is a personal and private decision

· The right to die is one of a personal nature

· The right to die is private….every person is entitiled to privacy

· Individuals have the right to die in the manner of their choosing should they be terminal or in uncontrollable pain and suffering.

(www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjbasset/page5.htm)

· Suffering from pain, a person has the right to ask a doctor to end their life for them

· 39% of the population approves of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and his practice

of physician assisted suicide.

· The Government has no right to intervene in a matter as private as one’s own death the government is neither directly or indirectly effected.

· A living will, can legalize euthanasia or physician assisted suicide assuming that it was written while the individual was of sound mind and body.

II. Euthanasia is a Constitutional Right

A. Constitutional Application

1. Banning Euthanasia is a consitutional violation.

· Equal Protection clause of the 14th amendment of the Constitution

“ every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental

intrusion into their private life.” (www.lawlinks.com)

· Equal protection laws can not be denied to any person within a states jurisdiction

· The Ninth Circuit Court has found that the right to control the rime and manner of one’s death is protected under the equal protection clause.

B. Court Cases and Rulings

1. Statutes set by court cases

· Washington State; 1996

“When patients are no longer able to persue liberty or happiness and to not wish to persue life, the terminal patient should have the liberty to choose a dignified death in the manner of their choosing rather than be reduced to unwanted helplessness.

(www.lawlinks.com)

· Janet Reno:

Doctors who prescribe lethal medication to end the life of a terminally ill patient, can not be prosecuted by the law.

- Congress does not have a role in resolving moral and ethical questions such as those regarding Physician Assisted Suicide.

(www.lawlinks.com)

· Florida; 1997

State of Florida v. Charles E. Hall

Illness: AIDS

Diagnosis: Terminal

Outcome: The state of Florida ruled that : Under the states Privacy Provision and the federal governments Equal Protection Clause:

“every person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into one’s own private life.”

(CQ Researcher, May 1997)

· Supreme Court has found that there are “protected liberty interests”, in which the state may not infringe…the Ninth Circuit Court found persuasive evidence that the Consitution encompasses a due process liberty in controlling the time and manner of a persons death.

· Arizona; 1995

Nicholas Loving

Age: 26

Diagnosis: Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrigs’s Disease)

Outcome: Fatal; Terminal at all stages

Decision: Nicholas Loving, decided to ask for assistance from Dr. Jack Kevorkian

· Judge Stephen Reinhart of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has deemed that a “dignified” death entails the right to have one’s self killed, based on the Constitutions “due process” clause. Protects Personal liberty and privacy.

(Kavenaugh; 1997)

· Compassion in Dying v. State of Washington

The Constitution guarantees a “fundamental right” to assisted suicide.

(America; May 1997)

III. Relief of Suffering that Medication can not help

A. Hemlock Society

1. Support Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide.

2. Support Terminally ill patients right to die.

(Issues and Controversies on File; September 1996)

B. Knowledge is Comfort

1. Death can alleviate mental suffering.

2. Knowledge that the option to kill one’s self is there provides mental comfort.

(www.rights.org/~deathnet/Hum

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