Physician Assisted Suicide

Physician-assisted suicide remains a highly controversial issue. While some view it as a moral issue that goes against medical ethics and religious beliefs, others view it as an individual right and more about money than morals. As one critic of recent government intervention in Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, granting an individual the right to physician-assisted termination of life, notes: "More money and therefore more profit for the drug companies can be made by keeping a person alive longer. This is not a moral issue for President Bush and the gang, it's a money issue" (Davis 2001, B10). Attorney General John Ashcroft is one of the "gang" trying to reverse the Oregon law permitting assisted suicide. This analysis will address physician-assisted suicide, explaining why the issue needs to be resolved through public policy that allows terminally ill individuals the right to die.

Assisted suicide is a concept growing in popularity among many segments of the American population. Terminally ill patients are seeking the right to end their lives with dignity, without pain, and before all of their resources are drained from care that will not improve their quality of life. Dr. Jack Kevorkian is perhaps the nation's biggest advocate of assisted-suicide, being charged with first-degree murder after euthanizing Thomas Youk, a victim of Lou Gehrig's disease, a euthanizing that was aired on 60 Minutes (Sullivan 1998, 003). People

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pting over whether states or the federal government should have authority over such legislation. One factor that gives the US government more power than the states on this issue is law governing drug administration, "Federal law trumps state law in the administration of drugs under the Controlled Substances Act, which governs powerful prescription drugs like morphine that alleviate pain, but which can kill" (Fields 2001, A19). President Bush and his father have long opposed physician assisted suicide. However, before passing the law in Oregon, Oregonian officials solicited the support of former Attorney General Janet Reno who promised she would not prosecute if the law passed. Attorney Ashcroft has made no such promises. One irony of the Oregon law is that the Washington State Medical Association and the Oregon Medical Association have joined forces to oppose Ashcroft's ruling in regard to the law. Physicians are worried that Ashcroft's ruling will expose then to unwarranted investigations if they prescribe aggressive pain medication. Further, physicians say the law allows them to provide better care to patients. As one physician notes, "A lot of the criticism that it would be overused or lead to widespread euthanasia has

Category: Government - P