Tag: Death with Dignity Act

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Opposition to medical-assistance-in-dying–Part 3

In this third part of a series analyzing the arguments against medical-assistance-in-dying (MAID) by opponents of physician-assistance in hastening a person's death in the face of a terminal illness, Lamar Hankins looks at a major reference for most MAID opposition articles – a 2008 Michigan Law Review article, "Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon: A Medical Perspective," by psychiatrist Herbert Hendin and neurologist Kathleen Foley.  Both oppose what they term "assisted suicide." (Continue reading ...)
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Opposition to medical-assistance-in-dying–Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I addressed ten criticisms of MAID laws, particularly those in Oregon and Washington, though most such laws are modeled largely on Oregon's law.   In Part 2, I look at criticisms of MAID laws concerning economic pressures, coercion, depression, inadequate resources for MAID clients, doctor shopping, inadequate Medicaid rules, ableism, and the failure of the drugs prescribed to MAID clients.  My hope is that we can learn from opponents of MAID laws how to make the laws better. (Continue reading ...)
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Considering Gorsuch’s critique of Oregon’s DWDA

In his 2006 book about death with dignity and the right to die (The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia), Neil Gorsuch leveled several criticisms, by implication, against Oregon's Death With Dignity Act (DWDA), a law that deals not at all with assisted suicide or euthanasia.  Under the Oregon law, a person desiring a hastened death in the face of terminal illness may take his own life with a lethal prescription drug or drugs, unassisted by another person.  Nevertheless, Gorsuch argues that we can't determine the value of the DWDA for other jurisdictions without knowing how Oregon's law is working in practice, and he asserts that we don't have enough information about that. (Continue reading ...)
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DWD and disability–Part 2

The idea suggested by some disability rights advocates, that most of us will be disabled in one way or another by the time we reach the end of our lives, has been borne out in my experience.  Virtually everyone I have known who has died has met, days or weeks or months before their deaths, the definition of disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. How can we assure that those who are disabled are not coerced into ending their lives too soon? (Continue reading ...)
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Medical Aid in Dying: When Legal Safeguards Become Burdensome Obstacles

In 2017, the District of Columbia (DC) became the seventh jurisdiction in the United States to legalize medical aid in dying,  which gives terminally ill patients the option of how and when they die. The new DC statute is nearly identical to earlier enacted medical aid in dying statutes in California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington State.  Only Montana legalized medical aid in dying through a court decision, but subsequently, proponents of the act have failed in every attempt to legalize medical aid in dying through constitutional or statutory litigation. (Continue reading ...)
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How do we improve DWD laws? – Part 1

Oregon's Death With Dignity Act (DWDA), implemented in 1998, was a monumental step forward in pursuing the primary goal of permitting those suffering from illness or disease to hasten their own death. But its advocates realized that, out of political necessity, it was not a universally applicable law, covering everyone in need. And the DWDA did not assure that all people have excellent medical care to meet their needs, though Oregon did dramatically improve palliative care in the state, diminishing the need for many people to make use of the DWDA. (Continue reading ...)

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