Assisted Suicide

Research Question: When is assisted suicide ethical? Or is it ethical at all?

Ricci, James. "Assisted Suicide Attacked from an Unlikely Front." Los Angeles Times 2007. SIRS Researcher. SIRS Knowledge Source. Edina High School. 7 December 2008 http://www.sirs.com.

In this article by James Ricci, he is showing dissability rights groups who are usually supportive of individual liberty, how they have helped defeat bills out of fear that HMOs would see a chance to cut care. Throughout the article, Ricci goes over cases that assisted suicide has taken place, and how people think that it is just a way of cutting care that should be given to these patients. He shows us what different people view on this subject, and some were quite stong, such as Paul Longmore, a history professor at San Fransico State, as well as a pioneer in the historical study of disability: " HMOs are denying access to healthcare and hastening people's deaths already. Our concern is not just how this will affect us. Given the way the U.S. healthcare system is getting increasingly unjust and even savage, I don't think this system could be trusted to implement such a system equitably, or confine it to people who are immediately terminally ill." He ends with a quote from Remson Mitchell: "I'm tired of fighting it, I'd much rather be working for healthcare reform than battling this, over and over and over again. Killing someone isn't improving anyone's care."

Hirsch, Afua and Gillan, Audrey. "Ask Parliament, Not Courts, Whether Your Husband Can Help End Your Life." The Gaurdian 2008. SIRS Researcher. SIRS Knowledge Source. Edina High School. 7 December 2008 http://www.sirs.com.

In this article Hirsch and Gillan examine the case of Debbie Purdy who went to Royal Courts of Justice because she was determined to have her husband with her holding her hand, when she died. Purdy wanted to be certain that her Husband, Omar Puente would not face prison time if he took her to the Dignitas clinic near Zurich to help her die. Purdy's response the the two high courts rejecting her: "I would be heartbroken if Omar could not hold my hand while I died. It would be the worst thing I could ever imagine. Ambulance men hold people's hands because they don't want them to die alone. It would break Omar's heart if he could not hold mine, and that would be heartbreaking for me." Purdy is still alive, the doctors gave her pain killers because the law was not clear, and Purdy did not want her husband in jail. Representing the DPP, Jeremy Johnson had said there was no compelling reason for the case to be heard on appeal. "Only parliament can provide Debbie Purdy with the remedy she seeks"