Ethics Of Assisted Suicide Essay

assisted suicide in a very interesting way. Finally, I will discuss the ethics of assisted suicide. This is the focal point for most people when it comes to this topic as it naturally draws philosophical inquiries of morality and ethics. At the heart of all the issues to do with assisted suicide we see that the value that is placed on human life is ultimately the main factor in whether people are for or against assisted suicide. Although there is a very long history of euthanasia that dates back to the 15th century (“A General”), the story of the modern movement starts out in 1975 when a man named Derek Humphrey “assisted” his wife, who had breast cancer, in killing herself. “Five years later, Humphry founds the Hemlock Society, the first right-to-die organization in the U.S., in his garage in Santa

Kevorkian would help to kill 130 people (“The Evolution”). When the year 1992 comes around, the movement had taken major strides in court but “voters soundly defeat a ballot measure, backed by the Hemlock Society, that would have legalized physician-assisted suicide.” (“The Evolution”) We see the fist state to legalize assisted suicide in 1994 when “Oregon voters approved Measure 16, a Death With Dignity Act” (“A General”). The voting was extremely close and came out to be 51 to 49 percent (“A General”). This is extremely close and as we will see later in the paper, the number of people for assisted suicide has steadily increased in the years proceeding. Assisted suicide got it’s first “major study” when The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study called SUPPORT (“The Evolution”). “A massive study of end-of-life care with the objective of improving end-of-life decision-making, and reducing the frequency of a “mechanically supported, painful and prolonged process of dying.”” (“The Evolution”) This was a major step forward in advancing assisted suicide, and also gave it legitimacy in the scientific world. In 1999 we see the