Unlock document.
This document is partially blurred.
Unlock all pages and 1 million more documents.
Get Access
PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE: It is not an easy way out
“Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely
important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a
merciful death.” This quote from Milan Kundera’ s The Unbearable Lightness of Being
evokes the age-long debate of whether the right to life also involves the “right to die”. In June
2016, California passed a law allowing assisted suicide for the terminally ill after 29-year old
school teacher Brittany Maynard’s decision to move to Oregon, where terminally ill patients
are allowed to take drugs to die, gained international attention (Medina, 2016). California
became the fourth state to decriminalize Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) after Vermont,
Washington, and Oregon.
Proponents of the move to lift bans against PAS argue that the right to die is inherent
in a person’s right to life and liberty. The ACLU Amicus Brief in Vacco v. Quill argues that a
