In 1998, in a interview with “60 Minutes”, Jack Kevorkian stated, “You don't know what will happen when you get older.” “I may end up terribly suffering. I want some colleague to be free to come and help me when I say the time has come. That's why I’m fighting, for me. And if it helps everybody else, so be it.” Kevorkian also known as Dr. Death was a Michigan physician who assisted many people in death. Kevorkian said, any doctor who turns his or her back on a suffering patients is a coward. People who inquire about physician assisted suicide have a terminal illness. They are in pain and wish to be free. A terminal illness is an incurable disease that cannot be adequately treated and is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer or advanced heart disease than for trauma. There are a wide range of different illnesses. People can have a single disease or a number of them. Many of the patients are in hospice care. Hospice care is care designed to give supportive care to people in the final phase of a terminal illness and focus on comfort and quality of life, rather than cure. The goal is to enable patients to be comfortable and free of pain, so that they live each day as fully as possible. …show more content…
The policy of physician assisted suicide has been developing slowly over many decades in the United States. European countries were the first to legalize physician assisted suicide as well as protecting the physicians who participated in the practice. There are five states in the United States that legalized physician assisted suicide, as well as protecting physicians that participate in the practice. These states had court cases that set up the framework with help in getting legalized. The following information will look at the policies of physician assisted suicide in the United