Assisted_Death

Assisted Death Euthanasia: Whose decision is it''' I. Introduction In a 1988 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, an article titled "It's Over Debbie" describes how an anonymous doctor administers a fatal dose of morphine to a woman dying of ovarian cancer (Anonymous, 1988). In a 1989 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, ten doctors associated with the nation's leading hospitals and medical schools declare their belief that "it is not immoral for a physician to assist in the rational suicide of a terminally ill person" (Wanzer, et. al., 1989). In 1991, the New England Journal of Medicine published a detailed account written by Dr. Timothy Quill which discussed his decision to help a patient suffering from leukemia commit suicide (Quill, 1991). In 1990, Dr. Jack Kervorkian uses his suicide machine to help a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease, one Janet Adkins, end her life in the back of a Volkswagen bus (Risen, 1990). Janet was the first of twenty patients who have been aided by Kervorkian in the past three years. He remains committed to his practice. In 1991 the Hemlock Society publishes a how-to manual on committing suicide. Entitled Final Exit, it zooms to the top of euthanasia, quality, value, intellectual, power, moral, metaphysics, legal, right, profession, medical, life, individual, because, ethical, system, society, social, patient, level, dynamic, debate, static, person, world, should, pirsig, patterns, decisions, choice, two, substance, says, must, morality