Persuasive SpeechCarol Ward

Physician Assisted Suicide

Number of deaths from terminal illness - 2010

Heart disease: 597,689Cancer: 574,743Alzheimer's disease: 83,494Diabetes: 69,071

Center for Disease Control, Deaths and Mortality

Definition:

Assisted suicide occurs when a physician provides a patient with the medical means and/or the medical knowledge to commit suicide.

American Medical Association, CEJA Report 8 – I-93, Physician-Assisted Suicide

Death with Dignity Act

allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.

Oregon Health Authority Public Health

Oregon Health Authority Public Health

The law states that, in order to participate, a patient must be:

18 years of age or older, A resident of Oregon, Capable of making and

communicating health care decisions for him/herself, and

Diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six (6) months.

Oregon Health Authority Public Health

The following steps must be fulfilled:The patient must make two oral

requests to the attending physician, separated by at least 15 days;

The patient must provide a written request to the attending physician, signed in the presence of two witnesses, at least one of whom is not related to the patient;

The attending physician and a consulting physician must confirm the patient's diagnosis and prognosis;

Oregon Health Authority Public Health

Steps continued:The attending physician and a

consulting physician must determine whether the patient is capable of making and communicating health care decisions for him/herself;

If either physician believes the patient's judgment is impaired by a psychiatric or psychological disorder (such as depression), the patient must be referred for a psychological examination;

Oregon Health Authority Public Health

Steps continued:The attending physician must inform the

patient of feasible alternatives to the Act including comfort care, hospice care, and pain control;

The attending physician must request, but may not require, the patient to notify their next-of-kin of the prescription request.

A patient can rescind a request at any time and in any manner.

“It leads down a slippery slope to indiscriminate killing of the ill, weak, and disabled, among

others.”

University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Topics : Physician-Assisted Suicide

“Requests for death are induced by poor care and/or

unrecognized psychological needs.”

University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Topics : Physician-Assisted Suicide

“The practice damages physicians by desensitizing

them to human needs.”

University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Topics : Physician-Assisted Suicide

ABC News, Advocates for Assisted Dying Deflated by Massachusetts Defeat, November 12, 2012

Jim and Margie Carberry

New York Times, How the ‘Death With Dignity’ Initiative Failed in Massachusetts, December 6, 2012

Compassion & Choices,http://www.compassionandchoices.org

“There is a certain right by which we may deprive a man of life, but none by which we may deprive him of death; this is mere cruelty.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche