The debate over the right to die has been an ongoing
debate for many many years. The right to
die is a moral principle that allows terminally ill patients to undergo
voluntary euthanasia to stop life-prolonging treatments, where continuing with
the disease would pro-long suffering. As
of now, only a few European countries (Belgium, The Netherlands, France,
Germany, and Switzerland), Colombia, and five U.S. states allow some form of
assisted suicide. The two most popular
forms of the right to die are assisted suicide and euthanasia. The two forms do not seem to be different;
however, the key difference is the doctor’s role. Assisted suicide is when the lethal drug is
given to the patient, and the patient himself must do the act. On the other hand, Euthanasia is when the
doctor does the act and euthanizes the patient using the lethal injection.
The right to die debate has been an ethical and moral
dilemma among societies for hundreds of years.
There have been many cases involving removal of life support throughout
the 1950s-1980s that started the modern concerns over the right to die. However, in 2006, the case of Gonzales v.
Oregon upheld the Oregon’s “right to die” law constitutional and was a
monumental case in the movement of legalizing the right to die through
euthanasia and assisted suicide. Oregon
enacted the Death with Dignity Act in 1994.
This state law was the first to authorize physicians to prescribe legal
doses of controlled substances to terminally ill patients. However, in 2001, Attorney General John
Ashcroft declared that the Death with Dignity Act violated the Controlled
Substance Act of 1970, and he made a comment that he would revoke physician’s
licenses if they practiced physician-assisted suicide. Oregon sued Ashcroft, and the court ruled
that Ashcroft’s accusations and directive was illegal. The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision
that the CSA only prevented doctors from dealing illicit drugs, not to define
standards of medical practices. The
court also ruled that Ashcroft was not authorized to declare a practice
illegitimate. As of now, Washington,
Oregon, California, and Vermont have all enacted the Death with Dignity
Act. The Death with Dignity Act is legal
in Montana by court decision; however, it is not a law.
Supporters of the right to die say that tremendous
pain and suffering of patients can be saved, health care costs can be reduced,
reasonable laws can be made that protect the value of human life, and organs
can be saved. However, people who oppose
the right to die claim that it violates a doctor’s Hippocratic Oath (First, do
no harm), demeans the value of human-life, opens the gates to non-critical
patient suicides, and gives doctors too much power.
I believe that the right to die through either
assisted suicide or euthanasia should be legalized nationwide. People with terminal illnesses or patients
with dementia should be allowed to make the decision on whether or not they
want to end their life. It is morally
right to let these people die with dignity because their quality of life is so
low, that it is hurting them more being alive.
More states have started to consider the Death with Dignity Act. I also believe that the proper way to
nationally legalize the Act would be to include provisions that require
multiple doctors to approve, have families approve, and specify what illnesses
are protected under the act.
