Is there a law in the United States that grants a citizen the right to take their own life and in so doing give them the ability to get proffessional help in choosing the least painful and most effective way to go about doing it?
Ref:
Is there a law in the United States that grants a citizen the right to take their own life and in so doing give them the ability to get proffessional help in choosing the least painful and most effective way to go about doing it?
Ref:
If I recall correctly, Oregon passed a law similar to this, but it has been blocked in the courts until recently. I think I heard that the first assisted suicide under this law took place a few weeks ago.
As far as I know, no other state has such a law.
Some stats:
Interesting reading.
In an example of VERY unfortunate ad placement, however, when I first went to this page I got a bright banner add shouting “It’s Easy And Fun!”.
:eek:
(it turns out to be a scrolling thing, the first line of “it’s easy and fun… to help your kids…learn letters and words”, from PBS Kids, but YEESH!!!).
The Right don’t need a law for it. They just up and die. It’s the same for the Left.
There is not a federal law for it, but in practice, the use of progressively higher doses of palliative pain meds, at least in things like advanced cancer, have the effect of euthanasia.
If you’ve got something else, move to Washington State, or overseas.
I’ve wondered what would happen if someone started a Last Cruise business, where you could book a room, cruise offshore into international waters, then do the deed.
You’re not far off the mark. Google “suicide tourism” some time.
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/12/16/swiss-suicide-tourism/
WAG: At a minimum, you’d have to register the vessel in a country that allows PAS. And you probably wouldn’t be able to sail it out of any US port.
At first glance I thought you said “do the dead” and I let out an audible ‘eeeeew.’
Not quite the same, though: With progressively higher doses of pain meds, the goal is relief from pain, with the risk of death considered an unfortunate side effect. With euthanasia, death is itself the goal. As I understand it, the former is actually allowable under Catholic doctrine, for instance (though of course it’s not a decision to be taken lightly), while the latter is not.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I can almost see it…an ad for a death camp featuring teenage blondes…" You got the blues? No life? End of the road? Kill yourself. It’s easy and fun!"
Re: the law…I could have sworn that it was common “off label” practice to gradually increase the dose of pain meds…b/c the dividing line between painkiller dose and death causing dose can be very tiny.
I think that the law is a good option for those people who are still alive but in incredible pain… It should be reserved for the worst off cases… It should not be used lightly at ALL.
Oregon produces an annual report about how many avail themselves of their PAS rights. You can find all the reports online at The Oregon Dept of Human Services site. So far, 401 people have done so over 11 years (1998-2008 inclusive). Since Oregon has some 3 million people, it’s not like everyone’s offing themselves left and right.
Washington’s law is closely modeled on Oregon’s but if they produce reports, the first won’t be coming out until next year. They just started doing it this year, as you can see from friedo’s link above.
I should also note that the laws in both states make the PAS applicant jump through several hoops in order to get the prescription. I understand that some people jump through the hoops, get their prescription, and then never actually take it. They just like to have the option available.