The document discusses the right to die debate. It defines the right to die as a terminally ill person's right to refuse life-extending treatment and the right to physician-assisted suicide. Supporters want to legalize assisted suicide and see it as a fundamental right. Opponents believe it could lead to abuse of patients and suicide for financial reasons. The document outlines laws around assisted suicide in Oregon, Switzerland, and a French court case. It also discusses the US Supreme Court upholding Oregon's Death with Dignity Act.

1. “Every person shall have the right to die with dignity; this right shall include the right to choose the time of one’s death and to receive medical and pharmaceutical assistance to die painlessly.” The Right to die

2. What is the Right to Die? The right of a terminally ill person to refuse to have her or his life extended by artificial or heroic means. The idea that one’s body and one’s life are one’s own to dispose of as one sees fit. The right to engage in assisted suicide. Euthanasia – The practice of ending a life in a manner which relieves pain and suffering.

3. What do supporters of the right to die want? They want to legalize assisted suicide in the United States. They feel that the right to die should be as widely recognized as the right to free speech or to exercise one’s own religion. They want physicians, nurses, and pharmacists not to be held criminally or civilly liable for assisting a person in the free exercise of the right to die. They don’t want assisted suicide to be viewed as killing, but as a fundamental human right.

4. People Against the Right to die Believe that doctors, nurses, or family members may abuse unruly patients that they wish to do away with. Believe that the Right to Die will cause people to die for financial reasons. Believe that it is immoral to assist people in committing suicide.

5. France and Assisted suicide A French criminal court in Perigeux found a nurse and a doctor guilty of assassination for prescribing potassium chloride, a fatal poison to a 65-year old woman suffering from pancreatic cancer. The doctor and nurse claimed that the old women was suffering from fever , incontinence, nausea, pain, and intestinal blockage that caused vomiting of fecal matter. The husband and son of the deceased women even supported and thanked the doctor and nurse for ending the women's pain. The Court eventually charged the doctor and the nurse for poisoning and acquitted the nurse and put the doctor on a one-year suspended sentence.

6. Euthanasia in Switzerland The laws in Switzerland permit assisted suicide, as along as the motive is not selfish and the patient takes an active role in the drug administration. “Suicide Tourists” – People who travel to Switzerland to take advantage of their assisted suicide laws.

7. Oregon’s Death with dignity law In 1994 Oregon enacted a Death with Dignity law which legalizes physician-assisted dying with certain restrictions. Oregon is the first US state to permit terminally ill patients to determine the time of their own death. Under the law a capable adult Oregon resident who has been diagnosed, by a physician, with a terminal illness that will kill the patient within six months may request in writing, from his or her physician, a prescription for a lethal dose of medication for the purpose of ending the patients life. The request must be confirmed by two witnesses, at least one of whom is not related to the patient, is not entitled to any portion of the patient’s estate, is not the patients physician, and is not employed by a health care facility caring for the patient. Any physician, pharmacist, or healthcare provider who has moral obligations may refuse to participate.

8. Oregon’s Death with dignity law – P2 The patient must be determined to be free of a mental condition impairing judgment. After the patient has his or her request authorized, they must wait fifteen days and make a second oral request before the prescription may be written. The patient has the right to rescind the request at any time. If the physician has concerns about the patient’s ability to make an informed decision, or fell the patient’s request may be motivated by depression or coercion , the patients must be referred for a psychological evaluation. A patient’s decision to end his or her life shall not “have an effect upon a life, health, or accident insurance or annuity policy. The law also protects doctors from liability for providing a lethal prescription for a terminally ill, competent adult in compliance with the statue’s restrictions.

9. Results of the death with dignity law As of 2008 401 patients used the law, the average patient age being 70 .

10. Gonzales v Oregon, 2006 In 2006 the US Supreme court ruled 6-3 in favor of Oregon upholding the death with dignity law. United States Solicitor General Paul Clement argued on behalf of the Bush administration, which challenged Oregon’s right to regulate the practice of medicine when the practice entails prescribing federally controlled substances.

11. The 9th Amendment & “The Right to Privacy” “Enumeration in the constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” This amendment mean that the government are limited by the rights of the people, and that the constitution did not intend, by expressly guaranteeing certain rights of the people, to grant government unlimited power to invade other rights of the people. Most judges use the ninth amendment to protect implicit rights such as “The right to Privacy”

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14. The Right to Die