The Supreme Court said Tuesday that it would decide whether the Bush administration can block Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law by using federal prescription-drug laws to prevent doctors from helping terminally ill patients die more quickly.
The announcement that the court will review the only law in the United States that allows physician-assisted suicide sets the stage for a debate on individual liberty, federal authority and personal privacy.
Oregon's law was approved twice by the state's voters and took effect in November 1997. It extends a right to die to adults who are diagnosed as ``suffering from a terminal disease'' that is likely to take their lives within six months. A second doctor must confirm the patient is dying, is acting voluntarily and is competent to choose to end his or her life. Only then may the doctor prescribe lethal medication
It's my life why shouldn't I be able to end it on my terms.I talked with a gentleman that coaches in our league last night he lost his daughter to Cancer yesterday.She had to be fed through a tube the last three monthes of her "life." If this women had opted for an injection to end her suffering what would be wrong with that decision?
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This, like so many others here, is a very touchy subject. Personally, I agree with Kevin in that I don't believe in suicide. However, on the other hand I also don't believe in telling others what they should and shouldn't do as long as it doesn't affect me. I feel that it's your fate in your own hands when you make a decision such as that. You have your own beliefs and feelings on what the ultimate outcome will be...not me. I just think we as a human race try and run each others lives way too much. We are always worried about who else does what WE as individuals think is right or wrong, I have to agree with Montgomery Gentry on this one. You do your thing...I'll do mine.
__________________ Last edited by CalHunter; 08-10-2009 at 01:21 PM. Reason: Inappropriate--called a mbr "douchebag"
I think suicide is as wrong as wrong can be. But using the Constitution as a guide there really shouldn't be a law against it -- assuming it's done in a way that doesn't burden society.
I don't believe in anyone in public or private has the right to tell another person what they can and can't do to themselves. If someone wants to commit suicide, so be it.
However, unless the medical profession abandons the Hippocratic Oath, I don't think doctors should have any part in the matter. This is the only reason I'm against physician-assisted suicide.
don't have the oath in front of me, but i guess it depends on how you define "harm". Is the greater harm allowing a person to live in physical agony? Course, I realize that doesn't apply in every circumstance.
Turns out I didn't quite know what I was talking about. It seems there are various versions of the oath that sometimes differ from country to country or even school to school. And some of the oath is left to interpretation by the swearer. I had believed the oath legally bound doctors only to save life, not take it. It appears things aren't so black & white.
Maybe I should change my views about doctors assisting suicide.
The old oath
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.
The new oath.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
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i've always joked with my wife that, should the need ever arise, my youngest boy was the one with the stones to smother me in the nursing home. hope i could get an Rx to do it, though.
Assisted suicide
