A Classroom Lecture on Assisted Suicide

(HAVE A TABLE NEXT TO THE LECTERN FROM WHICH YOU'LL BE SPEAKING. OPEN YOUR TOTE BAG. TAKE OUT A LARGE PICTURE OF TERRY SCHIAVO WHEN SHE WAS VIBRANT AND ALIVE. THEN TAKE OUT A CABBAGE, AND PUT IT NEXT TO THE PICTURE)

This is a human being. Terry Schiavo. (POINT TO TERRY).

This is a vegetable (POINT TO CABBAGE...THEN REPLACE CABBAGE WITH AN ENARGED PIC OF TERY SCHIAVO IN HER COMA).

So is this. A human, vegetable, kept alive through modern technology to help her breathe, eat, eliminate waste. I want to talk about whether anyone has a right to end what is left of this life, or whether we are morally and scientifically obligated to keep this body- this human vegetable breathing for years. This is not a religious matter. God, if we believe in God, has not done a single thing over the past few years to change Terry Schiavo's condition. Do we dare to pull the plug?

Do we have the right to play God? I say Yes, we do. The American public also agrees: "A recent Gallup Poll shows that 58 percent of Americans agree that physicians should be allowed to help patients with incurable illnesses and suffering acute pain to commit suicide" (Halloran 31).

Assisted suicide is in the headlines these days because the Supreme Court is deciding whether Oregon, the only state with a law permitting assisted suicide, is constitutionally able to have such a law. Here is what Oregon's law is all about: "Oregon permits only assisted suicide--the prescribing doctor cannot even be there when the patient takes the lethal potion, usually barbiturates. The patient must be adult, mentally competent, and "terminally ill"--having a life expectancy of six months of less. There is no requirement of "unbearable suffering". Two written requests for assistance must be made, separated by a 15-day interval" (Anon 59).

Here is how the case is proceeding in the Supreme Court: "The justices said in 1997 that there's no constitutional right to end one's own life, but they left the door open for states to experiment with different approaches to end-of-life questions" (Henderson 3). And there are medical experts who agree. "Results of a new national survey of 677 physicians... revealed that the majority... believe that physicians should be permitted to dispense life-ending prescriptions to terminally ill patients who have made a rational decision to die due to unbearable suffering...Although the high percentage of physicians who support the ability to prescribe such medications may be somewhat surprising, I believe it is the result of physicians' personal relationships with their patients and the desire to act in the best interest of each patient"

(Anon 1).

Perhaps one of the reasons for Oregon's law was the opinion of many Oregon physicians: "In Oregon, 60 percent of physician believed that the physician-assisted suicide should be legal in some cases. 46 percent said they would prescribe a lethal dose. Moreover, 7 percent have admitted to complying with a request of a patient for a lethal dose, although this act was illegal at the time" (Boyd 10). Physicians in other states often have the same feelings about assisted suicides: "40 percent of Michigan oncologists surveyed reported that patients had initiated requests for death, 18 percent said they had participated in assisted suicide, and 4 percent in "active euthanasia"-injecting lethal drugs themselves. In San Francisco, 53 percent of the 1,995 responding physicians said they had granted an AIDS patient's request for suicide assistance at least once...in a recent study in the state of Washington, which guaranteed respondents anonymity, 26 percent of doctors surveyed said they had received explicit requests for help in dying, and had provided, overall, lethal prescriptions to 24 percent of patients requesting them" (Rawls et al 12).

Of course, we can't discuss assisted suicide without mentioning the most famous-= or is it infamous doctor who has performed dozens of assisted suicides. I am talking about Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who is now in prison sentenced for second degree murder. "Dr. Kevorkian's assisted suicides occurred from 1990 to 1998. In each case, he hooked the individual up to a machine he created to facilitate death. After being hooked up, the client would push a button that would release the drugs or chemicals that would end his or her life" (Wikepedia 2).

Here is the real argument we need to understand: We ought to be able to have the right over our own lives. No, we can't yell FIRE in a crowded theatre. We can't steal, or rob, or commit murder. But, why should any government make us NOT be responsible for our own lives- to eliminate pain and suffering that no modern medicine seems to be able to prevent. If we cannot breathe, or swallow, eat, drink, communicate or THINK by ourselves are we truly a living human being?

We can talk about morality and sanctity of life. We can cite laws forbidding it. We can, as I have, point out that many doctors would favor assisted suicide for terminally ill patients who would remain in agony, or vegetative states for the balance of their lives. Until it hits closed to home- your parent, brother or sister, relative, close friend, husband, wife, boyu- or girl friend, we cannot possibly make a rational, honest "right" decision.

(POINTS TO CABBAGE AND TERRY SCHIAVO IN COMA)

If you are in such a vegetative state- if you ARE a vegetable....even if you wouldn't know, wouldn't you want someone to pull the plug, or give you something to let you sleep and never wake up to pain or nothingness? Think about it. Yes, you or your doctor will be playing God. But, there is no other God to ease that pain with dignity.

REFERENCES:

Bopyd, Andrew: "Physician Suicide: For and Against" American Medical Student Association (2005) www.amsa.org/bio/pas.cfm

Halloran, Liz: "Of Life and Death" U.S. News & World Report, Oct 10, 2005 v139 i13

Henderson, Stephen: "Supreme Court hears arguments over Oregon's assisted-suicide law" Knight Ridder Washington Bureau (Washington) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News), Oct 6, 2005

Rawls, John, Thomson, Judith Jarvis, Nazick, Robert,Dworkin, Ronald, Scanlpon, T.M., andNagel, Thomas: "Assisted Suicide: The Philosopher's Brief" The New York Review of Books dmoz.org/Society/Issues/End-of-Life/ Right_to_Die/People/Kevorkian,_Jack

No author listed: "Physicians and General Public Support Physician-Assisted Suicide" Business Wire. Oct 11, 2005

No author listed: "The Art of Dying: Euthanasia" The Economist (US), Oct 15, 2005 v377 i8448

No author listed: "Dr. Jack Kevorkian" Wikepedia online encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian