Euthanasia Answers

1. Euthanasia means killing someone who is very sick to prevent more suffering. Assisted
suicide is less direct. It is when one person helps another person kill him or herself.
2. She had cancer in her brain and would live only seven more months. But Ms. Maynard did
not die from cancer. She died from drugs her doctor gave her so she could end her life.
3. Ms. Maynard took action on November 1.  She was 29 years old.
4. Montana, Oregon, Vermont, Washington.
5. The center found that the majority -- more than 60 percent -- of Americans believe people
suffering from severe pain with no hope for improvement have a moral right to end their
lives.
6. Jack Kevorkian invented a suicide machine to help deathly sick patients end their lives. Dr.
Kevorkian helped more than 100 patients kill themselves. He was found guilty of murder in
connection with one of them.
7. It says doctors should work with those in other fields like counseling and hospice to make
sure patients receive the physical and emotional treatments that can ease suffering.
8. It educates and advocates for end-of-life issues. It seeks rights for Americans to control
their dying process.
9. Terri Schiavo suffered severe brain damage following cardiac arrest in 1990.  She entered
what doctors call a “permanent vegetative state.” In other words, a person seems to be
awake but is not conscious.
Ms. Schiavo’s husband and her parents fought about whether she should be kept alive by a
feeding tube. The public and press argued over the issue as well. The case was so hotly
debated that even then-President George W. Bush got involved. He signed a law aimed at
keeping Ms. Schiavo alive.
10. In 2005, Michael Schiavo won the right to speak for his wife. Her feeding tube was
removed. Terri Schiavo died 13 days later.