Assisted Death

TO LIVE OR DIE

Lying hopelessly on her back with a feeding tube lodged down her throat, Susan's final

days of life are coming near. After a near fatal car accident that has left Susan in a vegetative state, she has not been breathing on her own in about 2 months. Susan body is paralyzed from the neck down and has not had consciousness since hours after her accident. The doctors tell the family that her chances of survival and recovery are very slim due to sever head trauma that has left her almost brain dead. Susan parents come to her bed side everyday for often hours on hand hoping for Susan to show reaction through the slightest movement or blinking of the eyes. As the sadness and agony thickens of watching their only child die in a hospital bed, it is soon too much pain for Susan's family to bear. Various thoughts soon began to infiltrate the minds of Susan parents. They approach the doctor with a proposition to take Susan off life support so that their daughter does not have to endure anymore pain. I strongly believe that Susan's family should have the choice or option of taking Susan off life support.

In order to begin to investigate this situation, it is crucial that we define euthanasia and assisted suicide. There is a distinguishing difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide.If a third party such as a doctor performs the last act that intentionally causes a patients death, euthanasia has occurred. Some examples of euthanasia are taking someone off a respirator or putting a plastic bag over a patients head in order to suffocate them. Assisted suicide is performed if the person who dies provides the last act. In example, if a person swallows pills

provided by the doctor to cause death. I agree with both euthanasia and assisted suicide. I do not believe that someone should be forced to stay alive especially when they have been considered brain dead. Furthermore, forcing someone who is in a vegetative state to stay alive would contradict the beliefs that our nation was founded on outlined in our constitution.New York's health care proxy law permits adults to grant an agent the authority to make some or all treatment decisions, including decisions about life sustaining measures. According to the international Task Force on Euthnasic and Assisted suicide, " the law already permits patients or their surrogates to withhold or withdraw unwanted medical treatment even if that increases the likelihood that the patient will die." Also the proposal that death be postponed by every means available is contrary to law and medical practice. Being that euthanasia and assisted suicide are such controversial issues, they raise a lot of significant opposition especially dealing with components of the countries legal system. Attorney General John Ashcroft overstepped his boundaries by issuing a directive saying that;"A doctor could lose his or her federal registration to prescribe controlled substances if the registration is used to prescribe federally controlled substances for assisted suicide..On May 26 2004, in a 2-1 decision, the ninth district declared that Ashcroft overstepped his authority. This was a over powering attempt by General John Ashcroift to change