Death With Dignity Pros And Cons

Death with Dignity is the painless end of life option for a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease. This practice is incredibly controversial and illegal in most countries. In the United States, however, the conflict of physician-assisted suicide has been left up to the states. After various arguments, the “right-to-die” has been legalized in only five states. Despite opposition, both Oregon and Vermont legalized the death with dignity due to passionate groups fighting for physician-assisted suicide, and the support from local political figures. Death with Dignity laws, also known as physician assisted dying or aid-in-dying laws, stem from the basic idea that those who are terminally ill, and not the government, politicians, …show more content…
The goal of physician-assisted suicide legislation is to define an effective policy and defend it against legal challenges. As of February 2018, the states that have legalized the option of death with dignity include: California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Vermont. Oregon’s first physician-assisted death bills were introduced by State Senator Frank Roberts, who was suffering from prostate cancer, in the late 1980s. Roberts introduced three different bills, none of which made it out of committee, however all of which became templates and inspiration for later bills that would end up passing. In Vermont, the bill was first introduced in 1995 when the Death with Dignity National Center and Patient Choices Vermont (PCV) joined together. The Death with Dignity National Center’s mission is to promote Death with Dignity laws based on the model in Oregon, both to provide an option for dying individuals and to stimulate nationwide improvements in end-of-life care. Patient Choices Vermont (PCV) is a non-profit organization dedicated to end-of-life choice (“Patient Choices Vermont”). The two …show more content…
Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) and Representative Henry Hyde (R-Illinois) “…urged the US Drug Enforcement Administration to investigate and penalize doctors who prescribe federally controlled drugs for dying patients to hasten their death” (“Oregon Death with Dignity Act…”), but their attempt failed. Only five years later, US Attorney General John Ashcroft attempted to block the Oregon Death with Dignity Act by issuing his Ashcroft Directive, which authorized Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents to investigate and prosecute doctors who prescribed federally controlled drugs to help terminally ill patients die (“Oregon Death with Dignity Act…”). A year later, arguments regarding the Ashcroft Directive were heard in a US District Court and Judge Robert Jones ruled that the US Justice Department lacks the authority to overturn an Oregon law allowing physician-assisted deaths. Following the ruling, Ashcroft filed an appeal with the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Oregon Death