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Cleveland State University

Assisted suicide

Health Law and Policy

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Full-Text Articles in Law

A Graceful Exit: Redefining Terminal To Expand The Availability Of Physician-Facilitated Suicide, Browne C. Lewis Jan 2012

A Graceful Exit: Redefining Terminal To Expand The Availability Of Physician-Facilitated Suicide, Browne C. Lewis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

For almost ten years, Oregon stood alone as the state that permits terminally ill persons to choose the time and manner of their deaths. Finally, in 2009, Oregon received company when the state of Washington’s physician facilitated suicide statute officially went into effect in March of that year. Supporters of the statutes hailed the enactments as a victory for persons seeking to die with dignity. Persons from groups like Compassion & Choices vowed to seek similar legislation in the remaining states. Representatives from the Washington State Medical Association, hospice groups and hospitals argued that the mandates of the statutes place …


How We Die: A New Prescription, Martin Bienstock Jan 2006

How We Die: A New Prescription, Martin Bienstock

Journal of Law and Health

The dawn of the twenty-first century brought with it a profound change in the way we experience death. Until the last decades of the twentieth century, our bodies died all at once: when the heart kidneys, lungs, or brain failed, the body's other organs failed with them. Modern medicine now allows us to die in pieces, with failing organs supported or supplanted by technology. Modern death is different not only biologically, but also sociologically. Until the twentieth century, death was a private event that took place in the home with the family. It offered one final opportunity for family members …


Beyond Washington V. Glucksberg: Oregon's Death With Dignity Act Analyzed From Medical And Constitutional Perspectives , Steven B. Datlof Jan 1999

Beyond Washington V. Glucksberg: Oregon's Death With Dignity Act Analyzed From Medical And Constitutional Perspectives , Steven B. Datlof

Journal of Law and Health

This Article examines several aspects of the medical and legal debate on physician-assisted suicide. Part I describes the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, the only existing American law legalizing physician assisted suicide. Understanding the provisions of the DWDA provides a concrete, practical framework for discussing the medical and constitutional issues central to the PAS debate. Part II considers the wisdom of the DWDA in light of current medical knowledge and practice. The law allows a patient, with only a few months to live, a human end to intolerable suffering under controlled conditions. It is carefully crafted to ensure that patient …


Respect For The Bioethical Dilemmas - The Case Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Sixty-Fifth Cleveland-Marshall Fund Lecture, John A. Robertson Jan 1997

Respect For The Bioethical Dilemmas - The Case Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Sixty-Fifth Cleveland-Marshall Fund Lecture, John A. Robertson

Cleveland State Law Review

In this lecture I begin an exploration of the role that respect for human life plays in contemporary bioethics. Although many bioethical dilemmas could be chosen to illustrate this role, I will focus on the case of physician-assisted suicide. This lecture emphasizes the role that respect for human life plays in arbitrating bioethical disputes that involve physician-assisted suicide. I hope to develop some generalizations about how respect for life and autonomy, beneficence and other values interact and thus constitute or define what respect for life means for us. Part I discusses assisted suicide and the ban against actively killing. Part …