Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T20:48:16.135Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Morality of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Robert F. Weir
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In March, 1989, 12 physicians published an article on the provision of care to hopelessly ill patients. Unfortunately, many of the substantive points in that article received insufficient attention from readers because the authors call for appropriate, continually adjusted care for terminally ill patients was overshadowed by a portion of the document in which ten of the authors agreed that “it is not immoral for a physician to assist in the rational suicide of a terminally ill person.”

In June, 1970, Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist in Michigan, gained international media attention by enabling Janet Adkins, a woman in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease, to terminate her life with the help of his “suicide machine.” The features of the case were so unusual that physicians, ethicists, and attorneys in health law who were interviewed by journalists were unanimous in judging this particular act of physician-assisted suicide deplorable.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 20 , Issue 1-2 , Spring Summer 1992 , pp. 116 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Wanzer, S.H., Federman, D.D., Edelstein, S.J., et al., “The Physician's Responsibility Toward Hopelessly Ill Patients: A Second Look,” N Engl J Med 1989;320:844–49.Google Scholar
“Physician Aids in Suicide,” Chicago Tribune. June 6, 1990:Al.Google Scholar
“As Memory and Music Faded, Oregon Woman Chose Death,” New York Times, June 7, 1990:Al.Google Scholar
Quill, T.E., “A Case of Individualized Decision Making,” N Engl J Med 1991;324:691–694.Google Scholar
“Doctor Says He Agonized, but Gave Drug for Suicide,” New York Times, March 6, 1991:A1.Google Scholar
Cassel, C.K., Meier, D.E., “Morals and Moralism in the Debate over Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide,” N Engl J Med 1990;323:750–52.Google Scholar
“Giving Death a Hand: Rending Issue,” New York Times, June 19, 1990:A22.Google Scholar
Demac, A.R., “Thoughts on Physician-Assisted Suicide,” West J Med 1988;148:228–30; Orentlicher, D., “Physician Participation in Assisted Suicide,” JAMA 1989;262:1844–45.; Weir, R.F., “Physicians and Assisted Suicide,” Iowa Medicine 1990;80:534.; Weir, R.F., “Is Assisted Suicide Justifiable?” Iowa Medicine 1991;81:27.; Weissman, D.E., “Physician Assisted Suicide,” Bioethics Bulletin 1991;4:3-4.Google Scholar
Gianelli, D.M., “A Right to Die,” American Medical News, January 7, 1991:9.Google Scholar
Weir, R.F., Abating Treatment with Critically Ill Patients. New York: Oxford University Press; 1989.Google Scholar
Weir, R.F., Gostin, L., “Decisions to Abate Life-Sustaining Treatment for Nonautonomous Patients,” JAMA 1990;264:1846–53.Google Scholar
Glantz, L.H., “Withholding and Withdrawing Treatment: The Role of the Criminal Law.” Law, Med & Health Care 1988;15:131–41.Google Scholar
Comissioner of Corrections v. Myers, 399 NE2d 452 (Mass 1979).; Satz v. Perlmutter, 362 Sold 160, 163 (Fla Dist Ct App 1978), Aff'd, 379 So2d 359 (Fla 1980).; Bartling v. Superior Court, 163 CalApp3d 186, 209 CalRptr 220 (1984).; Bouvia v. Superior Court, 179 CalApp3d 1127, 225 CalRptr 297 (CalApp2d Dist 1986), Review Denied (Cal June 5, 1986).; In Re Requena, 213 NJ Super 475, 517 A2d 886 (NJ Super Ct Ch Div), Aff'd, 213 NJ Super 443, 517 A2d 869 (Super Ct App Div 1986).; Delio v. Westchester County Medical Center, 129 AD2d 1, 516 NYS2d 677 (App Div 2d Dep't 1987).; In Re Gardner, 534 A2d 947 (Maine 1987).Google Scholar
Ibid.Google Scholar
In Re Conroy, 98 NJ 311, 486 A2d 1209 (1985).Google Scholar
Chicago Tribune, New York Times, supra notes 2 and 3.Google Scholar
Williams, M., “Ethics, Patient's Right to Die Weighed in Kevorkian Case,” American Medical News, January 28, 1991:18.Google Scholar
“Michigan Judge Bars Doctor from Using Suicide Machine,” New York Times, February 6, 1991:A15.; “MEA Exclusive: Officials Knew Kevorkian's Plans Beforehand,” Med Ethics Advisor 1991;7:25–27.Google Scholar
Quill, supra note 4.Google Scholar
New York Times, supra note 5.Google Scholar
Gianelli, D.M., “NY Case Reopens Debate on Doctor-Assisted Suicide,” American Medical News, March 25, 1991:1.Google Scholar
“Doctor who Aided Patient Suicide May Be Tried,” New York Times, July 21, 1991:B12.Google Scholar
“Jury Declines to Indict a Doctor Who Said He Aided in a Suicide,” New York Times, July 27, 1991:A1.Google Scholar
“State Won't Press Case on Doctor in Suicide,” New York Times, July 17, 1991.Google Scholar
Smith, C.K., “Assistance in Compassionate Suicide: Still No Legal Right,” Hemlock Quarterly 1990;41:6–7.Google Scholar
Quill, supra note 4.Google Scholar
Chicago Tribune, JAMA, supra notes 2 and 8.Google Scholar
Gaylin, W., Kass, L.R., Pellegrino, E.D., Siegler, M., “Doctors Must Not Kill,” JAMA 1988;259:2139–40.; Kass, L.R., “Neither for Love nor Money: Why Doctors Must Not Kill,” Public Interest 1989;94:25–46.; Brescia, F.J., “Killing the Known Dying: Notes of a Death Watcher,” J Pain Sym Man 1991;6:337–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orentlicher, , supra note 8.Google Scholar
Rothman, D.J., “M.D. Doesn't Mean ‘More Deaths’,” New York Times, April 10, 1991:A15.Google Scholar
Chicago Tribune, supra note 2.Google Scholar
Abating Treatment with Critically Ill Patients, supra note 10.Google Scholar
Orentlicher, supra note 8.Google Scholar
New York Times, supra note 30.Google Scholar
Weissman, supra note 8.Google Scholar
Foley, K.M., “The Relationship of Pain and Symptom Management to Patient Requests for Physician-Assisted Suicide,” J Pain Sym Man 1991;6:289–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battin, M.P., “Euthanasia: The Way We Do It, the Way They Do It,” J Pain Sym Man 1991;6:298–305.Google Scholar
Institute of Medical Ethics Working Party on the Ethics of Prolonging Life and Assisting Death, “Assisted death,” Lancet 1990;336:610–13.; Klagsbrun, S.C., “Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Double Dilemma,” J Pain Sym Man 1991;6:325–28.Google Scholar
Quill, supra note 4.Google Scholar
Weir, supra note 10.Google Scholar