Thomas Youk, age 52, suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
ALS gradually weakens nerves to muscles, causing difficulty in breathing, paralysis, and finally death.
Youk had suffered from
ALS for two years and increasingly had trouble breathing and swallowing. He then
contacted Dr. Jack Kevorkian from Michigan.
Kevorkian, called "Dr. Death" in the media, is the most well-known advocate of
physician-assisted suicide for people suffering from incurable diseases like
ALS. Dr. Kevorkian, a pathologist, claims that since 1990 he has assisted more
than 100 such individuals to take their own lives. He even invented a suicide
device he calls the "Mercitron." This enables a person to die peacefully by
self-administering a lethal dose of potassium chloride provided by Kevorkian.
The Michigan doctor argues that competent patients experiencing prolonged
suffering from fatal diseases have a right to die if they so choose.
Kevorkian had been charged and tried in three assisted-suicide cases. But juries
refused to find him guilty of homicide. Then in the fall of 1998, Thomas Youk
asked Kevorkian to inject him with the potassium chloride. Unlike his other
cases, Kevorkian himself would inject the lethal dose for the first time.
Challenging the laws against such "mercy killing," Kevorkian videotaped the
entire procedure and made the tape available for broadcast on the "60 Minutes"
TV program. Charged with first-degree murder, Kevorkian was convicted of
second-degree murder and sentenced to 10-25 years in prison.
Should Dr. Kevorkian be commended for standing up against laws that make
peaceful, dignified deaths impossible for suffering patients who want the right
to die? Or is "Dr. Death" promoting something that would inevitably lead society
down a path ending with people being put to death against their will?
Euthanasia
In general, euthanasia (YOUTH uhn ay zhuh) refers to merciful killing, or
allowing hopelessly sick or injured persons to die in a relatively painless way.
There are several forms of euthanasia:
1. Right to Refuse Treatment: A competent adult has the legal right to refuse
treatment even if this will result in his or her death.
2. Double Effect: A patient may request his or her physician to administer
powerful drugs such as morphine to ease unbearable pain and suffering, knowing
this is also likely to hasten his or her death.
3. Passive Euthanasia: Under certain circumstances, family members may request
that life-sustaining machines or treatment be stopped for patients with little
or no hope of regaining consciousness.
4. Physician-Assisted Suicide: A physician assists in the suicide of a dying
patient, usually by supplying him or her with a lethal drug and the means to
take it. In the United States, only Oregon permits this practice today.
5. Active Euthanasia: A physician performs the death-causing act after
determining the wishes of the patient or the patient's family. This form of
euthanasia is illegal in every state, although only a few physicians like Dr.
Kevorkian have been prosecuted.
Recent polls indicate that a majority of Americans favor physician-assisted
suicide when unbearable pain is involved. But support drops when pain is not a
factor and when doctors themselves administer lethal drugs to end a patient's
life (active euthanasia).
The debate over euthanasia goes back at least to the time of Hippocrates, the
ancient Greek physician known as the Father of Medicine. The famous Hippocratic
Oath says in part, "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for
it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect." Some American medical schools
still use the original Hippocratic Oath, but most have adopted other oaths,
which may or may not permit physicians to participate in euthanasia.
During World War II, the Nazis perverted the idea of humane euthanasia. Nazi
doctors started by euthanizing "impaired" adults and children and ended up
participating in the mass murder of millions of Jews and others who they
considered racially inferior.
Since World War II, The Netherlands has been the only country to permit
euthanasia on a large scale. Euthanasia is still technically a crime in The
Netherlands, but since the 1980s Dutch courts have allowed this practice if
certain guidelines are met:
The patient must make an informed, free, and explicit request that is repeated
over time.
The patient must be experiencing unbearable physical or psychological suffering
that cannot be cured.
The patient's physician must consult with another doctor to confirm whether the
request for assisted suicide or another form of euthanasia is appropriate.
In 1996, the Dutch Supreme Court released a study on euthanasia. The study found
that nearly 10,000 requests for some form of euthanasia are received each year.
About a third are granted. For most of these deaths, a doctor injects a patient
with a lethal drug (active euthanasia).
The study found some disturbing facts. It showed that the guidelines have been
stretched to include patients with long-term, but not fatal, diseases. It also
found cases of non-voluntary euthanasia involving incompetent elderly persons,
newborns with severe disabling defects, and even a 6-year-old with diabetes who
died when his parents chose not to authorize regular injections of insulin.
These developments illustrate what critics of the right to die call the
"slippery slope," gradually leading to cases of individuals who seemingly have a
"duty to die."
Source: CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION
"Should We Have the Right to Die?"
http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-16-1-c.html
