Euthanasia Essay - Should Physician-Assisted Suicide be Legal? :: Euthanasia Physician Assisted Suicide

Should Physician-Assisted Suicide be Legal?           Throughout the twentieth century, major(ip) scientific and medical advances have greatly enhanced the demeanor expectancy of the average person. However, there are many instances where doctors can preserve life artifici every(prenominal)y. In these cases where the longanimous suffers from a terminal disease or corpse in a persistent vegetative state or PVS from which they cannot function their wishes for continuation or termination of life, the question becomes whether or not the patient has the freedom to choose whether or not to prolong their life eventide though it may consist of pain and suffering. In answer to this question, proponents of atomic number 101-assisted suicide, intimately notably, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, are of the opinion that not however should patients be subject to abstain from treatment, but if they have a terminal and/or super painful condition, they should be abl e to seek out the assistance of a doctor in order to expedite their death with as puny pain as possible. Contained herein are the arguments for and against the le galization of doctor-assisted suicide, as intimately as where the state courts stand in respect to this most frail of issues. In the hopes of clarification, we must early distinguish between active and unresisting euthanasia. Passive euthanasia involves the patients refusal of medical assistance. It involves the right to die which is protected by the fall in States Constitution clauses of due process liberty and the right to privateness (Fourteenth Amendment). The right to doctor-assisted suicide, or active euthanasia, consists of, ...a patients right to authorize a physician to perform an act that intentionally results in the patients death, without the physicians being held civilly or criminally liable for having caused the death . The passive form of euthanasia was first deemed legal by the New Jersey State Su preme romance in 1976 In re Quinlan . In the Quinlan case, the court allowed a skilled patient to terminate the use of life- sustaining medical machines to prolong life. Since New Jerseys decision, all fifty states have enacted similar statutes which contain living will provisions. However, although the United States Supreme Court upheld the Quinlan decision in re Cruzan , it changed the parameters of passive euthanasia . With the Cruzan decision, the Supreme Court held that passive euthanasia was legal but only for competent adults or those who are