Running Head: ASSISTED-SUICIDE

Sebastian Flores
University of Texas at El Paso
Assisted-Suicide

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The year was 1990 and Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a doctor in the state of Michigan and an
aggressive advocate for assisted-suicide, single-handedly put the issue of assisted-suicide back
on the radar of the public eye. How? He assisted Janet Adkins, a deteriorating Alzheimers
patient, into dying, with an apparatus built by Dr. Kevorkian, all it took was one switch for her to
take her life. With that event in which Dr. Kevorkian decided to partake in, he put the issue, the
question back in the minds of Americans all across the nation. What should a doctor do when a
suffering patient, no longer wants to live? In this research paper, the following topics will be
discussed thoroughly, how the legalization of assisted-suicide has affected certain countries and
states, how Jack Kevorkian has influenced the public opinion of assisted-suicide, how possible is
legality in the U.S., and what is the moral point of view of the public regarding assisted suicide.

In countries/states that have legalized assisted-suicide, what does research show about the
impact it has had and the results?
There are various states in the United States that have legalized assisted-suicide,
including, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and California along with other countries such as the
Netherlands. In Oregon a pattern was seen in the process OHD (Oregon Health Division) has for
possible assisted-suicide cases, OHD monitoring reflects the laws predilections (Foley &
Hendin, 2002), this statement talks about how the OHD just ask the right questions, avoiding the
tough questions to possible cases of assisted-suicide. They neglect to collect information from
their hospice patients, which contribute 70% of their cases; hospice staff and nurses are not
interviewed, which is negligence to collect information that may not be disclosed by the patient
for the psychiatric evaluation.

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There always lies two sides to any case, thats why as well as disadvantages there are
advantages. The legalization in European countries has led to the controversial issue, to receive
more attention and raise awareness. In the United Kingdom though a bill was defeated in the
House of the Lords in 2006, Britain shows an 80% approval of assisted-suicide (Casey, 2007).
The legalization of assisted-suicide in certain areas, have made possible further studies to repel
theories of opposing parties, such as rushing death because of pain and being a burden to others,
Rather, other psychological issues such as desire for(and fear of losing) control and selfdetermination, fear of experiencing an undignified dying process (Blevins, 2005). In The New
England Journal of Medicine we find an article specifically about the aftermath and the data
collected after the first year assisted-suicide became legal in Oregon. As shown in the data
collected by the author, the two main reasons for patients to go through with assisted-suicide is
due to the lack of the ability to partake in any activity, and the inevitable loss of autonomy due to
an illness.
How has the public opinion changed in regards to euthanasia/assisted suicide before
Jack Kevorkian and after Jack Kevorkian?
Jack Kevorkian was an eccentric pathologist, graduate from University of Michigan,
always shunned out, because of his peculiar ideas regarding death, and his ideas regarding
assisted-suicide earned him the name Dr.Death. Being an aggressive advocate for assistedsuicide, he finally got the attention he wanted for assisted-suicide in 1990 when he assisted Janet
Adkins commit suicide, Adkins was an Alzheimers patient that made her decision, with the
intention of avoiding further deterioration of her disease. After challenging the law many times,
in many assisted-suicide cases, he finally went to jail on March 26, 1999, due to the fact that he
went on national television on the CBS show 60 minutes and aired a tape of himself injecting a

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patient with Louis Gehrigs disease, with a fatal injection. Charged with second-degree murder,
he was sentenced to 25 years in prison with possibility of parole, he got out in 2007, and on 2011
he died of natural causes (Biography.com editors, 2015)
After Jack Kevorkian successfully brought the issue of assisted-suicide into the public
eye after Janet Adkinss death in 1990, the issue at hand started gaining traction in the public
media, and in the public support. Though the issue remained dormant for years, thanks to Jack
Kevorkian, it became an active issue nation-wide. As seen on Visual 1.1(Saad, 2013) after the
appearance of Jack Kevorkian public support started increasing. It increased to a point that it led
Oregon to propose The Oregon Death with Dignity Act in 1993, and voted through in 1994,
though it kept being appealed, it finally became active in 1997, making Oregon the first state in
the United States to make assisted-suicide legal. After the legalization of assisted-suicide in
Oregon other states followed, Montana, Washington, Vermont and most recently California.
Though Jack Kevorkian began to fade after his incarceration, he single-handedly paved the way
for the assisted-suicide movement. Jack Kevorkian wishes he could have educated more people
on a term he coined, patholysis, instead of assisted-suicide. All the way to end he advocated for
patholysis, which he referred to as the end of a disease or suffering, arguing that in many
states, though he was happy to see the issue at hand being dealt with, that he found the fact that
patients have to be necessarily terminally ill, just a bit upsetting (Gupta, 2010).He found this
upsetting because he advocated for anybodys right to die when they are suffering, not
exclusively terminally ill patients.
Jack Kevorkian opened the doors for assisted-suicide, but not just for supporters, but for
opposing parties as well. Assisted-suicide was not publically discussed or didnt have much
attention, before Jack Kevorkian, therefore, he ignited both support and opposing views of the

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issue. He ignited opposition from the legislation, the government, the police, and the churches, I
think he was an evil character (Haberman, 2015), as stated in this short documentary by Dr.
Ezekiel Emanuel, an advocate for assisted-suicide, even supporters opposed him, due to the fact
that he created a public spectacle of himself and of the issue; many people believe he did it for
the attention on himself and not for the issue, arguing that when he stopped getting prosecuted
for assisted-suicide, he amped it up and committed euthanasia on public television to draw a
bigger crowd and regain the attention that was fading. When the issue came into public-eye it led
to data being collected from states or countries where assisted-suicide was legalized, in order to
construct arguments against the cause. Building both supporting groups and oppressing groups,
which highly influence the movement towards legality of assisted-suicide.
How does euthanasia/assisted suicide stand in regards to possible legality in the
U.S.?
As seen in Visual 1.1 (Saad, 2013) support for assisted-suicide has fluctuated throughout
years, but progressively there has been an increase in the publics approval for assisted-suicide.
Legality in the United States has come a long way, legality begun in 1997 when Oregon put The
Oregon Death with Dignity Act in motion throughout the state, the states that have followed are
Washington, Montana, Vermont, and California; Californias law was voted through in October
in 2015, and will not be active until late fall 2016. In a survey conducted in 2014 showed that
nearly 70 percent of Americans support the cause, being nearly a 10% increase from last year
(Lovett, 2015). Much of the possibility of legality, lies on whether the state is Republican or
Democrat, in a poll conducted by Gallup, the graph shows that the Democratic party as of 2013
has a 60% support for doctor assisted-suicide, whilst the Republican party only showed a 41%
support for doctor-assisted suicide. The states that have legalized assisted-suicide as of 2015, all

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are considered Democratic states. As the road towards legalization of assisted-suicide grows, the
possibility of a Supreme Court ruling favoring assisted-suicide increases.

Since legality hinges directly on political party support for the cause, though the outcome
looks like a promising future, the possibility of legality in the U.S. might not be as close as
thought of. Though there has been legalization in five states, around half of the states are
Republican, which have a 41% support for the issue, which means that legalization in
Democratic states would first have to happen, and then dubiously, Republican states might
follow. Since the legalization of Oregon, data has slowly been collected about the process and
the results of the legalization, creating arguments against the issue, due to faults in the process
and in the system, permitting abuse of the system to happen and permitting non-emotionally
stable patients to benefit from the faults in the process (Foley & Hendin, 2002). Since the
legalization in these states, more ethical dilemmas have been created than existed before the
legalization. These dilemmas are against the assisted-suicide, making progress towards
legalization slow down.

Visual
1.1

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What is the moral point of view of the public regarding assisted suicide/ euthanasia?
There are many ethical dilemmas when it comes to assisted-suicide, many of the
dilemmas are strongly attached to religious views they possess. My third concern is that we
need to reflect on what sort of society we might become if we were to permit assisted suicide
(Welby, 2015). Here the author discusses a big issue when it comes to assisted-suicide, how can
the legalization of assisted-suicide affect society as a whole, when a line is being erased, building
parameters for situations when taking a life is fine. This line could be easily erased, but it is a
fine line that can change a nation as a whole. Other dilemmas that follow, is the process for
assisted-suicide, how coherent possible assisted suicide patients are, and whether assisted suicide
should be limited to terminally ill patients or should it be open to patients in a suffering
deteriorating condition. Possible assisted suicide patients have ignited a big dilemma, a
terminally ill patient, is stricken with depression, anger, loathing, etc. . . So, how can their
decision be considered a healthy and sane decision, when there is external factors clouding their
thoughts. Besides, being emotionally unstable, possible assisted-suicide patients range from
terminally ill patients, to slowly deteriorating patients, so where is the line drawn as to who has
the right to die or not. Does the sole wish to end your life enough reason for the law to permit it?
The ethical dilemmas aforementioned, can be used to influence the public into a certain
manner of thinking, when the matter of the fact is many logical fallacies lie in the opposing
argument. Many of the ethical dilemmas have to do with instilling an irrational fear of abuse and
making wrongful decisions in the proximity of death. As mentioned before, the top reasons for
patients to want to commit assisted-suicide is because of fear of losing control over themselves,
and over having an undignified dying process, this has been shown through research of states
and/or countries where assisted-suicide is legal. Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisted over 100 people to

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commit suicide, these people were not all terminally-ill. He went to court for his first known case
of assisted-suicide, in which the patient was not terminally ill, but suffered Alzheimers disease,
a disease that cause memory loss to a great extent. In court he was not found guilty, when people
saw the video of her admittance to wanting to commit assisted-suicide. It is argued that there is a
difference in whether the patient is terminally ill or not, and if they should be allowed to commit
assisted suicide. Law is supposed to be indiscriminant, yet when the law approves The Right to
Die Act, is it not implied that it is approving of people owning their right to die by their own
decision, how is it right to allow a person who is terminally ill to commit assisted-suicide, but a
person with Louis Gehrigs has to suffer, because they are not terminally. If a person cant have
the right to die by their own free will, to end suffering or deteriorating, why is it the
governments right to decide whether a person should endure such suffering and deterioration?

Conclusion
The issue of the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada and elsewhere
is complex and controversial. As various actors in the legal system contemplate reform, it
is essential that they and the public they represent (in direct and indirect ways) be wellinformed. Carelessly researched and inadequately referenced or deliberately misleading
professional journal articles with the apparent legitimacy of peer-reviewed literature must
not be allowed to contaminate the debate. There is far too much at stake.
(Downie, J. Chambaere, K. Bernheim, J.L, 2012)
There is too much at stake here, lying on this issue lies thousands of lives, just hanging
on the tip of a pen, waiting to sign to either keep illegal or legalize assisted-suicide. A
community should be informed about an issue like this, because nobody can predict the future,
whether someday legalization might help a certain a person, or someday you have to see
somebody go through with it. The future of the issue though lies on the hands of the community,

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to oppose or to support, to protest or to fight for it. All of it hinges at the fingertips of each
individual in the community.

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10
Reference Page

Biography.com editors.(20 Oct, 2015). Jack Kevorkian biography. Retrieved from

http://www.biography.com/people/jack-kevorkian-9364141
Blevins, D.(2015). People consider assisted suicide for poth physical and psychological reasons.
DesChenes E. (Eds.). Assisted Suicide.154-162.
Chin E.A., Hedberg K., Higginson K.G., Fleming W.D.(18 February, 1999). Legalized physicanassisted suicide in Oregon-the first year's experience. The New England Journal of
Medicine, 340, 577-583. doi: 10.10156/NEJM199902183400724
Downie, J. Chambaere, K. Bernheim, J.L (June 2012) Pereiras attack on legalizing euthanasia or
assisted suicide: smoke and mirrors. Current Oncology, 19(3) Retrieved from
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,
Foley, K., & Hendin, H. (Eds.). (2002). The case against assisted suicide. Baltimore, MD. The
John Hopkins University Press.
Gupta S. (14 June, 2010). Kevorkian: "I have no regrets". Retrieved from
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Haberman, C. (2015, March 23) Claiming a right to die. The New York Times. Retrieved from
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Saad L. (2013, May 29). U.S. Support for euthanasia hinges on how its described. Retrieved
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Welby, J. (2013, Sptember 5) Why I believe assisting people to dehumanize our society for ever.
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