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

Should Physician-Assisted Suicide be Legal?           Throughout the twentieth century, major scientific and health check advances have greatly enhanced the life expectancy of the average person. However, there are many instances where doctors can preserve life artificially. In these cases where the patient role suffers from a terminal figure disease or remains in a persistent vegetative state or PVS from which they cannot voice their wishes for continuation or decease of life, the question becomes whether or not the patient has the freedom to choose whether or not to prolong their life even though it may consist of upset and suffering. In answer to this question, proponents of physician-assisted suicide, most notably, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, are of the opinion that not only should patients be able to abstain from treatment, but if they have a terminal and/or extremely painful condition, they should be able to seek out the assistance of a doctor in order to expedite their death with as little pain as possible. Contained herein are the arguments for and against the le galization of doctor-assisted suicide, as well as where the state courts stand in respect to this most diffuse of issues. In the hopes of clarification, we must first distinguish between take onive and passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia involves the patients refusal of medical assistance. It involves the right to die which is protected by the unify States Constitution clauses of due process liberty and the right to privacy (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 impudent Jersey State Supreme Court in 1976 In re Quinlan . In the Qui nlan case, the court allowed a competent 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