CQR Assissted Suicide
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A n 9 1 n 0 9 iv th 2 er 3 sa -2 r 0 y 1 Res earc her 3 Published by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. CQ www.cqresearcher.com Assisted Suicide Should doctors be allowed to help terminally ill patients die? ec isions about sustaining life, allowing it to end or even hastening death are among the most difficult choices terminally ill patients and their families D can face. Such decisions also are at the heart of a debate about what is commonly called “physician-assisted suicide” — or “aid-in-dying” by supporters. Oregon and Washington — and now likely Vermont — allow physicians to write a prescription for lethal drugs if requested by someone who is terminally ill and Vermont nurse Lynne Caulfield, whose husband Jack (pictured) died of cancer, opposes physician-assisted mentally competent. A Montana court also has allowed the proce - suicide. “It is a sad day when our lawyers are asking health care professionals to help [people] die rather dure. Supporters of assisted suicide say it allows the terminally ill than extending compassionate care to ease pain and suffering,” she told state lawmakers, who approved the procedure on May 13. to avoid unnecessary suffering and meet death on their own terms, and they say safeguards in the laws prevent abuse of the procedure. I But opponents say assisted suicide devalues life, opens patients to N THIS REPORT S exploitation by relatives or others and could lead to widespread THE ISSUES ....................451 I euthanasia of the sick and vulnerable. BACKGROUND ................458 D CHRONOLOGY ................459 E CURRENT SITUATION ........463 CQ Researcher • May 17, 2013 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ........................465 Volume 23, Number 19 • Pages 449-472 OUTLOOK ......................466 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ................469 EXCELLENCE N AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ..............470 ASSISTED SUICIDE CQ Re search er May 17, 2013 THE ISSUES OUTLOOK Volume 23, Number 19 MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Billitteri • Do the terminally ill Young Movement [email protected] 451 have a right to choose 466 The future of physician-assisted suicide will depend on med - ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch when to end their lives? [email protected] • Does permitting assisted ical advances, the aging of suicide lead to abuse? baby boomers and religious SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: beliefs. Thomas J. Colin • Do physicians’ ethics [email protected] codes prevent doctors from helping patients die? SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost STAFF WRITER: Marcia Clemmitt ACKGROUND B Physician-Assisted Suicides CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sarah Glazer, 452 Rise Under Oregon Law Peter Katel , Reed Karaim, Robert Kiener, ‘Robes of the Executioner’ Seventy-seven took their own Barbara Mantel, Tom Price, Jennifer Weeks 458 Assisted suicide has had lives in 2012. many controversial figures. SENIOR PROJECT EDITOR: Olu B. Davis Americans Slightly Divided ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa 453 on Assisted Suicide Battle in the States FACT CHECKER: Michelle Harris 461 Several states have pushed Forty-five percent find it morally acceptable; 48 per - for right-to-die laws; cent find it morally wrong. Oregon, Washington and now likely Vermont have Cancer Most Prevalent enacted statutes. 456 Malady in Oregon Cases Three-quarters of those who An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. Global Measures used assisted suicide in 2012 462 VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, The Netherlands, Switzer - had the disease. HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP: land, Belgium and Luxem - Michele Sordi bourg have legalized Chronology 459 Key events since 1967. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ONLINE LIBRARY AND physician-assisted suicide. REFERENCE PUBLISHING: Researchers Seek Advances Todd Baldwin 460 in Pain Management CURRENT SITUATION Copyright © 2013 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Pub - “Death isn’t a medical lications, Inc. SAGE reserves all copyright and other condition.” Landmark Legislation rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. No part of this publication may be reproduced 463 Several states are taking At Issue: steps to pass laws similar 465 Should the terminally ill have electronically or otherwise, without prior written to Oregon’s Death With the right to assisted suicide? permission. Un au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis - sion of SAGE copy right ed material is a violation of Dignity Act. federal law car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. In the Courts FOR FURTHER RESEARCH CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional 464 A patient-rights group is Quarterly Inc. challenging state laws pro - For More Information 468 Organizations to contact. CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- hibiting physician-assisted free paper. Pub lished weekly, except: (March wk. 5) suicide. Bibliography (May wk. 4) (July wk. 1) (Aug. wks. 3, 4) (Nov. wk. 469 Selected sources used. 4) and (Dec. wks. 3, 4). Published by SAGE Publica - Health Care Costs tions, Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. 466 Supporters and opponents The Next Step Annual full-service subscriptions start at $1,054. For of physician-assisted suicide 470 Additional articles . pricing, call 1-800-818-7243. To purchase a CQ Re - disagree over whether searcher report in print or electronic format (PDF), medical costs influence Citing CQ Researcher visit www.cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single 471 reports start at $15. Bulk purchase discounts and patients’ decisions. Sample bibliography formats. electronic-rights licensing are also available. Periodicals postage paid at Thousand Oaks, California, and at additional mailing offices . POST MAST ER: Send ad dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Wash ing ton, DC 20037. Cover: AP Photo/Jason R. Henske 450 CQ Researcher Assisted Suicide BY REED KARAIM But Clish was not the only THE ISSUES person who felt strongly about the issue. In a written state - ee Johnson, a retired ment, John Norton, a retired federal worker in Port - bus driver from Florence, L land, Ore., had started Mass., offered his own life as a second career as a furni - evidence — in opposition to ture maker. When he devel - the measure. oped terminal brain cancer, When he was 18, Norton he opted for radiation treat - said, he noticed a twitching in ments and chemotherapy to his right hand. Doctors at the extend his life, even though University of Iowa Medical the disease “was undeniably School diagnosed Norton with going to kill him,” says his the usually fatal amyotrophic daughter, Heather Clish. lateral sclerosis (ALS), com - But as his condition de - monly known as Lou Gehrig’s teriorated and he became disease. “I was told I would get e bedridden, with blurred vi - e progressively worse, be para - L . sion, sores and pain, John - J lyzed and die in three to five w son didn’t want to go on, e years,” he wrote. h t she says. In March 2011, John - t The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, a M son took advantage of Ore - / Minn., confirmed Norton’s di - e b gon’s Death with Dignity Act o agnosis, and for awhile his con - l G and swallowed a lethal dose dition worsened. Twitching n o of pills prescribed by a doc - t began in his right hand and s o B tor.* He was 66. both got weaker. Then the dis - e Before he ended his life, h ease’s progression stopped. That T / s Clish says, Johnson and his e was in 1960. Today Norton is g family talked a lot about his a 75 with a wife and family. He m I values. “The essence of his enjoys singing in an amateur y t t being was that he was a deeply e choir and still volunteers occa - G independent person who re - Opponents of a measure that would have legalized sionally as a bus driver. ally came to believe in living physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill in None of that would have by choice,” she says. “What Massachusetts celebrate the measure’s narrow defeat on happened, he wrote, if as - he ended up doing was very Nov. 6, 2012. Religious, medical and disability groups sisted suicide had been avail - said the measure was open to manipulation and relied consciously going about on diagnoses that could be wrong. able when he was initially dying with dignity and grace. told he had the disease. “If, If this was what he needed to have when I was diagnosed with ALS, I had as an option to be the person he is, ** Supporters prefer the term “death with dig - been given an easy way out with a we understood. That was okay.” nity” or “aid in dying,” arguing that because doctor’s prescription and support, I Clish felt so strongly about her fa - the terminally ill already are dying, “assisted would have taken that opportunity,” ther’s decision that when Massachusetts, suicide” mischaracterizes their choice. Oppo - he said. “I would have missed the bulk where she lives, voted on an assisted - nents, who view the procedure as suicide, of my life.” suicide ** law modeled on Oregon’s in note that the Oregon, Washington and likely Johnson’s and Norton’s cases are a ballot initiative last November, she to be enacted Vermont laws require only a not identical. Johnson was almost cer - physician’s diagnosis that a patient is going to volunteered her family’s story in tainly in the final days of his life, where - die within six months. That is too far out to support. know when the end will occur, and thus those as Norton’s ALS stopped progressing who take lethal doses of medicine are choos - before he reached that stage. But their * The fatal prescription is most often a lethal ing to end their lives prematurely, the oppo - stories testify to the deeply personal dose of barbiturates, usually Seconal or Pen - nents contend.