The Death With Dignity Act (DWDA)

The Death with Dignity Act (DWDA), which allows terminally-ill patients to request physician-assisted suicide, was first introduced in Oregon in 1997. The basic premise of the law is that terminally ill patients, with no outside help, should be able to choose the right to end their life. Since then a few more states have the DWDA or an similar law in their state; an ongoing debate is going on to make the act legal across the nation. The Death with Dignity act allows the individual’s request to die to be acknowledged by the state. Though various of groups and people have spoken against this act, Oregon, with close to two decades of experience with the law, has shown that it can work well even when faced with backlash from the public because

Diagnosed with brain cancer, Maynard decided to research her options to save or extend her life; she reached the conclusion that nothing can be done for her. “There is no treatment that would save my life, and the recommended treatments would have destroyed the time I had left.” Instead of living her last few months in pain, Brittany decided to move to Oregon to legally do receive the medication to die. People argued against her stance, one women with cancer herself asked her to reconsider, but Brittany was firm on where she stood. Brittany, at the age of 29, died in Oregon by lethal medication. A strong advocate for the “right to die” movement, Brittany went on the publicly say that she will not tell others how to die but instead said who has the right to tell her to. She is just one of many who had to leave their home state to die with dignity. The details of her journey and her face itself became the public face or the “right-to-die”

Concerning the cases with Wagner and Bauer, insurance companies will stray away from doing any acts that seem unethical when pertaining to “life or death” medication due to the backlash that Bauer’s and Wagner’s insurance company after their case went public. Additionally, no insurance company wants to be painted badly in the news; they are selling you protection from whatever may occur in the future. They cannot sell themselves as a credible company if they subtly urge you to choose the cheapest route, which can also mean the deadly route. Besides insurance companies being one of the main issues concerning physician-assisted suicide, the hospital itself can prove to be an issue. Since so many deaths occur due to medical errors, one has to wonder how many terminally-ill patients were misdiagnosed. Now, to be prescribed lethal medication the patients have to pass each and every step in the process; mistakes may occur but the system created to ensure that only does who only wholeheartedly want it will receive