On November 8, 1994, Oregon became the first
government in the world to legalize physician-assisted
suicide. The law was ruled unconstitutional due to unequal
protection under the law. “What are the boundary lines,
if any, to state-sanctioned suicide?” the federal judge asked
(Lee v. Oregon). “Where in the Constitution do we find
distinctions between the terminally ill with six months to
live, the terminally ill with one year to live, paraplegics,
the disabled, or any category of people who have their
own reasons for not wanting to continue living?”1 In 1997
the Ninth Circuit Court overturned the decision on the
grounds that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to
bring the case to court. In November of 1997 a measure
which would have repealed the law was rejected by Oregon
voters. Oregon became the first jurisdiction in the world
to begin experimenting with legalized assisted suicide.
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It is important to distinguish between physician-assisted
suicide and refusing medical treatment. Physician-assisted
suicide involves a physician prescribing lethal
drugs for a patient with the knowledge that the patient
intends to use the drugs to commit suicide. Refusing
medical treatment is turning down treatment expected to
prolong life. What does this mean? Refusing a ventilator,
or some other life sustaining machine or treatment is not
assisted suicide and is already legal in all states. The intent
of refusing medical treatment is not to end life, but to
allow nature to take its course. With physician-assisted
suicide the intent is to kill the patient. Euthanasia is the
lethal injection of the patient by the doctor.
“For even one patient to be given a lethal overdose instead of being offered hope and treatment for depression or discouragement is a terrible thing.”
Gregory Hamilton, M.D., President Physicians for Compassionate Care
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In the 1997 Supreme Court case, Washington v.
Glucksberg, physician-assisted suicide was rejected as a
constitutional right because “the right to autonomy clashes
with the right to life in our constitutional system? Death
is the extinguishment of rights, not the triumph of one
right over another.”2 The U.S. Supreme Court upheld both
the New York and Washington statutes prohibiting assisted
suicide in all cases by a 9-0 vote.3 Physician-assisted suicide
is not a right protected by our Constitution.
Opponents of assisted suicide are concerned about the
many abuses that could occur if it is legalized. In addition
to the many dangerous effects that opponents and judges
feel it would have on society’s attitudes towards suicide,
they are concerned about:
- The power and pressures placed on physicians and
how it will affect their role as healer.
- Protecting vulnerable groups including the poor, the
elderly, and disabled persons from abuse, neglect and
mistakes; “No matter how carefully any guidelines
are framed, assisted suicide and euthanasia will be
practiced through the prism of social inequality and
bias that characterizes the delivery of services in all
segments of all society, including health care”.4
- Health care cost containment; “The growing concern
about health care cost increases the risks presented
by legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia”.5
The main concern about physician-assisted suicide
is the inability to create safeguards or contain assisted
suicide to any boundaries. In ruling Oregon’s law
unconstitutional the federal judge stated that if assisted
suicide is legalized, it must be legal for everyone, “The
attempt to restrict such rights to the terminally ill is
illusory” (Lee v. Oregon).6
Advocates of physician-assisted suicide claim that it
is meant for patients in uncontrollable pain with only six
months or less left to live. They claim the Oregon law is
successful. However, in the years of Oregon’s law, there
has not been one documented case of assisted suicide
being used for untreatable pain. Instead, patients are using
assisted suicide for psychological and social concerns. Since
legalizing assisted suicide, Oregonians have seen first-hand
what really happens. When physician-assisted suicide is
legalized, safeguards don’t work.
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