Death with Dignity

BY: ELLA BROWN

Im not afraid of being dead, I am just afraid of what I might have to go through to get therePamela Bone
Today's medical technologies can prolong someone's life, keep someone alive even when their
brain is no longer functioning, and increase the likelihood of life for those with heart failures by
37 percent. However, people who suffer from fatal or debilitating diseases often have no hope,
but instead, have to go on going suffering. Those who are physically impaired and are incapable
of ending their pain and are not offered the option of human euthanasia are being revoked of
their basic human right to die. To many people, the idea of death is not terrifying, but rather quite
peaceful. Allowing those the option to have a painless death would allow people to live the last
of their lives in a peaceful state.
If the only option for someone with a terminal illness is to stay in the hospital paying the bills for
the medical care comes along with it. For many people it will put their families into debt just for
their family member to live a life they dont want to and they have to suffer through it. Medical
care is a lot more expensive than this one procedure. Medical care costs at the end of life are
extraordinarily high, especially when including costs for nursing homes, medical care, and
outpatient drugs.
The idea of the last memory of a relative being in a hospital bed medicated and in pain can be a
lot worse and impressionable then if someone would be able to end their life and be seen happy.
At the end of someone's life, they should have the opportunity to be seen in a happy state where
they are able to cherish the better moments of their life. In order to receive the euthanasia, you
must go through many different steps in order to complete the process. These include you

making sure you meet the requirements or that your life is not the standard it could be and that it
couldn't improve.
According to CGA.org, in Oregon the requirements in order to receive euthanasia are:
1.) Must be over 18
2.) Must be a resident
3.) Able to communicate health care options (capable)
4.) Diagnosed with a terminal illness
Those who meet those requirements are then able to request a prescription for lethal medication
but must complete the following steps prior to do so:
1.) Must make two oral requests to their physician separated by at least 15 days
2.) Must provide a witnessed, written request to their physician
3.) A diagnosis and prognosis must be provided by the physician and the consulting
physician
4.) Prescribing physician and a consulting physician must determine whether the
patient is capable
5.) If either physician believes the patient's judgment is impaired by a psychiatric or
psychological disorder, he must refer the patient for a psychological examination
6.) The prescribing physician must inform the patient of feasible alternatives to
assisted suicide, including comfort care, hospice care, and pain control
7.) The prescribing physician must request, but may not require, the patient to notify
his next-of-kin of the prescription request.
Between 1998 and 2000 in oregon there were 70 reported assisted deaths and 96 lethal
prescriptions were written. Fifty-two of the reported deaths were patients with underlying
illnesses, six with cancer, five with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and seven with Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
The reason behind the assisted deaths request consisted of:
Fear of being a burden
Fear of losing autonomy
Fear of losing control of bodily functions
Inadequate pain control
Fear of decreasing ability to do
enjoyable activities
Financial implications
Commons arguments for and against Colorado establishing legal human euthanasia include:

Pros

Cons

"The right of a competent, terminally ill

person to avoid excruciating pain and
embrace a timely and dignified death bears
the sanction of history and is implicit in the
concept of ordered liberty. The exercise of
this right is as central to personal autonomy
and bodily integrity as rights safeguarded by
this Court's decisions. In particular, this
Court's recent decisions concerning the right
to refuse medical treatment and the right to
abortion instruct that a mentally competent,
terminally ill person has a protected liberty
interest in choosing to end intolerable
suffering by bringing about his or her own
death.
A state's categorical ban on physician
assistance to suicide -- as applied to
competent, terminally ill patients who wish to
avoid unendurable pain and hasten inevitable
death -- substantially interferes with this
protected liberty interest and cannot be
sustained."

"The history of the law's treatment of assisted

suicide in this country has been and continues
to be one of the rejection of nearly all efforts
to permit it. That being the case, our decisions
lead us to conclude that the asserted 'right' to
assistance in committing suicide is not a
fundamental liberty interest protected by the
Due Process Clause."
-- Washington v. Glucksberg
US Supreme Court Majority Opinion
June 26, 1997

-- ACLU Amicus Brief in Vacco v. Quill

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Dec. 10, 1996
Financial arguments:
Pros

Cons:

"Even though the various elements that make

up the American healthcare system are
becoming more circumspect in ensuring that
money is not wasted, the cap that marks a

"Savings to governments could become a

consideration. Drugs for assisted suicide cost
about $35 to $45, making them far less
expensive than providing medical care. This

zero-sum healthcare system is largely absent

could fill the void from cutbacks for treatment
in the United States... Considering the way we and care with the 'treatment' of death."
finance healthcare in the United States, it
-- International Task Force on Euthanasia
would be hard to make a case that there is a
and Assisted Suicide
financial imperative compelling us to adopt
"Frequently Asked Questions,"
physician-assisted suicide in an effort to save
www.internationaltaskforce.org
money so that others could benefit..."
(accessed May 27, 2010)
-- Merrill Matthews, Jr., PhD
Director, Council for Affordable Health
Insurance
"Would Physician-Assisted Suicide Save the
Healthcare System Money?," Physician
Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate
1998
Having to be assisted in every action you do including going to the bathroom, showering and
even changing your clothes is the reality some people have to live through. However, when you
look into it is this really living? What does it mean to live? A single verb that can describe the
quality of one's life. To me when you use the term to live it means to experience life. In order
to experience life, you must be able to explore and discover new things. For those who are
incapable of stepping outside of one room are unable to experience. People who lack the
ability to experience should not have to stay alive knowing that they aren't living.
Those in a vegetative state or who are terminally ill can be taking up valuable hospital space. It
can be a wasteful drain of medical resources to keep someone alive when they don't want to
anymore when they could be saving a life of someone who wants to live. Legalizing human
euthanasia would provide those who have little hope with a form of control over the amount
they suffer.
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