Physician Assisted Suicide Argument Analysis

There’s a lot of propositions that we could have written about so we had to narrow them down. We chose to do our ballot proposition analysis on proposition 161 which is physician-assisted suicide. We chose to do this proposition because we both remembered being interested in it. We both agreed that it should have passed in more states. We both mentioned remembering from 2014 when a girl named Brittany Maynard shared her story of having inoperable brain cancer. It was on the news a few times and was even on the Today show. She lived in California (where physician-assisted suicide is illegal) and had to move to Oregon (where it is legal) so she could choose "Death with Dignity". Whenever it was on the news or in an article we would both read …show more content…
The Hemlock Society was founded by Derek Humphry in 1980, Mr. Humphry had chosen hemlock as symbolic of voluntary suicide. Mr. Humphry had written a book about helping his wife Jean die which was titled “Jeans Way” It was through his first wife’s experience that Mr. Humphry decided to found a society that would advocate for euthanasia for terminally ill patients. According to information from the Secretary of State of California website the Hemlock Society is not listed as a financial supporter, although both The Americans Against Human Suffering INC and Californians Against Human Suffering are listed on the website. The main focus of these groups and the reason they believed in and supported proposition 161 was their belief in giving compassion and the choice of “Death with Dignity” to people who were suffering from untreatable terminal illnesses. There was not any financial information listed on the website, the farthest back the dates go was 1999 and does not give any information for 1992. According to a poll that was done in 1992 for the Hemlock Society, it showed that Californians supported physician-assisted suicide by a 3 to 1 margin. However, due to a lack of funds, the supporters were relying on free air time on television and on radio talk shows. Meanwhile, the opponents, which include “American Cancer Society and California Medical association” (Jacobs 1992) relied on financial support from the Roman Catholic Church. The campaign manager for Yes on 161 said: “There would not be a campaign against 161 of any significance if the Catholic hierarchy were not leading the charge.” (Jacobs 1992) The reasoning for the Catholic Church to be against physician-assisted suicide is based on their faith and the belief that to take