Assisted Suicide Should Not Be Illegal - 1655 Words

This year there will be hundreds of terminally ill people that die with the help of assisted suicide. And the question is should we control it or let people decide at their own risk how they want their last days to be? In this paper we will look at what the common law ,model penal code ,and state codes and statutes have to say. We will also look at some controversial but substantial cases that make assisted suicide legal in some states. And why Wisconsin and many other states believe assisted suicide should still be illegal. To begin you must first know that assisted suicide is for only terminally ill patients that have lost the will to live. Although this topic may seem like a common thing assisted suicide is actually a rare occurrence.†¦show more content†¦Whereas Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming do not recognize common law. This means that they have no statutes that pertain to the assisted suicide topic. This is where some of these big cases come into play. The three big cases that we will look at are Baxter v. Montana, Lee v. state of Oregon, and Washington v. Glucksberg. These cases are the reason that the five states have legalized assisted suicide and the reason for it. In Baxter v. Montana a 75 year old retired truck driver had a terminal form of leukemia. He was getting chemotherapy for it, but that will only get you so far. He began to get fatigue, nausea, and his glands started to swell. After the infections started the pain became unbearable for him. So he wanted the option of assisted suicide, but at this point in time it was illegal in the state of Montana. So the plaintiff of the case sued the state of Montana and said that the homicide statute was unconstitutional. The Montana supreme court looked into this case and previous assisted suicide cases. And the issue they found was â€Å"whether the consent of the patient to the physician’s aid in dying could constitu te a statutory defense to a homicide charge.† But in Montana there is an exception to the consent defense, where the public can not cause harm to anyone even with their consent. So the supreme court looked even deeper into another Montana case that was just for publicShow MoreRelatedAssisted Suicide Should Be Legal Or Illegal1792 Words   |  8 Pageswith it and died from the medicine (FIND CITATION). Some people decide not to use the prescription after rethinking the idea. People have been debating for a long time on whether or not physician-assisted suicide should be legal or illegal. Some say that it is morally wrong to participate in any kind of suicide, while others say it is wrong to let terminally-ill people suffer when they have absolutely no chance at beating their disease. 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This same right should extend to family members and guardians of people unableRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide Should Be Legal935 Words   |  4 Pagesthe ethics of physician-assisted suicide. In the process of physician-assisted suicide, a doctor purposefully provides a terminally ill patient with the means to take their own life. This is often confused with active euthanasia; however, they are not the same thing. In euthanasia, the doctor administers the lethal drug to the patient, but in physician-assisted suicide, the patient must take the lethal drugs themselves. There is much debate over physician-assisted suicide today. Some people believeRead MoreShould Eu thanasia Be Legalized?1272 Words   |  6 Pages also known as physician-assisted suicide, mercy killing, or dignified death. While a few states have legalized this practice many still have laws against physician-assisted suicide. 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