PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE
"Many physicians have known an old, wise, and respected clinical faculty member who told of helping terminal cancer patients with intractable pain "go to sleep with a bit of extra morphine sulfate; in the days before you could get sent to jail for helping these poor folks." Of course, this action was performed quietly, with permission from the patient and/or his or her family (not written) and the tacit understanding of the nursing staff. "
Distilled water injections and pancreatic cancer
The physician-assisted suicide debate, like the abortion issue, is many sided
there is a constitutionally protected liberty interest in determining the time and manner of one's own death.
the court found no reason to prohibit those in the final stages of their illnesses who are not on life support from making the same choice by requesting lethal medication from their physicians [
permits the debate [about assisted suicide] to continue, as it should in a democratic society"
In January 2006, the Supreme Court upheld Oregon's 1997 Death with Dignity Act, a unique initiative that allows physicians to prescribe lethal doses of prescription medicines to patients diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months
There must be two witnesses to attest that the patient is competent, one of which shall not be a family member; the attending physician also may not be a witness. No criminal, civil, or disciplinary action may be brought against any person involved in implementing or witnessing the act.
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