The Right to Choose Physician-Assisted Suicide

The Right to Choose Physician-Assisted Suicide Choosing the time to die is a very sensitive and controversial topic of around the world and as people suffering from terminal illness make the hard choices to seek an end to their suffering, governments debate the legality, ethics, and morality of physician-assisted suicide. As thousands of people around the world suffer from terminal illnesses, it is important to explore options that allow people to make the choice to die on their terms and physician-assisted suicide is one option for people looking to end their lives on their terms with dignity. History of Physician-Assisted Suicide in the United States Physician-assisted suicide it not a new idea and has been around as long as medicine itself dating back to Greek Roman times in the 5th century BC when the Hippocratic Oath was written. When discussing assisted suicide it is important to make the distinction between euthanasia and assisted suicide. Euthanasia is the intentionally administering medication to cause the patient 's death and physician-assisted suicide is a physician providing medication interventions to a patient with the understanding that the patient intends to use them to end his or her life. It was not until 1902 that the subject of assisted suicide made its way to the courtroom. According to Cassity (2009), “In 1902, a criminal appeals court in Texas attempted to legalize assisted suicide, reasoning that if suicide was no longer a crime, then assisting suicide should not be a crime either” (p. 519). It was not until the 1970s that the subject made its way back to the courtroom when the right to die movement was born and began to examine the rights of patients to refuse medical treatment that would prolong their lives treatments. In 1976 the California Natural Death act allowed patients to instruct doctors to cease life sustaining medical treatment. Although there were discussions and

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