The New Push for Assisted Suicide

Physician-assisted suicide: new protocol for a rightful death.

concepts not specifically rooted in the Constitution. However, in finding that the New York statutes violate the Equal Protection Clause, the Second Circuit itself seems to expand upon the meaning of "similarly circumstanced," positing a specific meaning to the phrase which cannot necessarily be proven. These two appellate decisions, Compassion in Dying v. Washington and Quill v. Vacco, clearly...

The case for physician-assisted suicide?

Physician-assisted suicide.

Medical professional codes have long prohibited physician involvement in assisting a patient's suicide. However, despite ethical and legal prohibitions, calls for the liberalization of this ban have grown in recent years. The medical profession should articulate its views on the arguments for and against changes in public policy and decide whether changes are prudent. In addressing such a conte...

Physician-assisted suicide.

On election day, November 14, 1994, Oregon voters elected a physician, Dr. John Kitzhaber, as their governor and, simultaneously, granted physicians the legal authority to help people end their own lives. By passing Ballot Measure 16,1 the voters decided that a physician may, at a patient's request, prescribe a medication "for the purpose of ending his or her life in a humane and dignified mann...

Assisted Suicide and Unassisted Suicide: What's the Difference?

Introduction Discussions about whether or not to legalize assisted suicide often fail to take into account the fact that unassisted suicide [1] is already legal.[2] Failure to consider this fact means that unless there is a significant difference between assisted suicide and unassisted suicide that justifies prohibiting the former while permitting the latter, one must either accept inconsistenc...