Hiding in the shadows behind all of our end-of-life (EOL) discussions about the desire to maintain an acceptable quality of life is the issue of adequate health care, which is basic to a right to live. Many of us believe that there can be no “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” without a right to adequate medical care.
“When safeguards become roadblocks, Part 2” continues exploring FEN’s eligibility criteria, looks at other impediments to MAID, and considers one minimal change that recently has been made to Oregon’s law.
In the nine states/jurisdictions in which medical assistance in dying (MAID) is allowed through legislation or referendum, the insistence on extensive safeguards has served less to protect vulnerable individuals than to limit access to MAID.
Jay Niver, newsletter editor for Final Exit Network, shares the film made about his dad’s hastened death to end his suffering from terminal prostate cancer.
Ezekiel J. Emanuel, distinguished oncologist and bioethicist, a vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, an author and editor in the health care field, wants to die at age 75. Why would he make such a decision in what many would see as the prime of his life?
A letter to the New York Times by FEN Board President Brian Ruder
A dialogue about the right to die in interview format between the blog editor and a woman who has lived over four decades as a paraplegic.
Slippery slope arguments deny rationality, moral precepts, and legal principles. Few of us who believe in a right to die go beyond the formulation of this right as a voluntary decision of one person about that person’s life. The view that no one has the right to take from us the liberty to make such decisions to end our lives except ourselves appears to be the norm in this society for those who are near the end of their lives because of disease or condition. Voluntariness is inextricably bound up with the decision to die to escape suffering near the end of life.
A brief look at suicide historically, philosophically, constitutionally, legally, and practically as a right to all who value liberty.
A FEN Coordinator discusses how FEN works and explains who FEN can and cannot help.