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Right to Die and Dignitas: Stand for the Choice
The right-to-die movement remains a controversial issue in society as it has been
for the entirety of the reign of humans. The right to die defined denotes the ability to
choose to commit suicide legally. This movement is also known as the dignitas
movement. Originally in the United States, many supporters backed up their right to
commit suicide through the 14th Amendment, which states: “No State shall… deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”. Through this
amendment, many believe the government granted them the legal right to end their lives
as they choose to. This energized the movement in the United States during the many
reforming periods. The right-to-die movement continues to gain strength and followers
as the world develops and life molds into modern times. All humans who suffer from a
terminally ill disease, boasts a spouse who suffers from such an illness, or experience a
traumatic event that changes their lifestyle, should possess the right to die.
The first “major success of the movement [in America] was the living will” (Head).
Attorney Luis Kutner proposed the “living will” in 1969. This proposal explained that
every person should possess a choice to die if he or she is going through pain or host a
terminal illness. It attempted to enact a way for patients who were undergoing severe
treatments to end his or her life if their circumstances became intolerable. After this
breakthrough, many acts were passed and societies were started in the United States,
including the Hemlock Society (Compassion and Choices), the Patient Self-
Determination Act, the Futile Care Law in Texas, and the Death with Dignity Act in
Oregon. Each year more states join the movement and undertake laws to legalize
physician-assisted suicide. The states that currently allow physician-assisted suicide
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include Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Montana, Hawaii, and New Mexico. New Mexico
is the most recent of these to pass the law allowing physician-assisted suicide. The law
in New Mexico was passed in late January of 2014.
The dignitas and right-to-die movement continues to spread all over the world
and gain power. The most progressive country in respect to this movement is Belgium.
This physician-assisted suicide is now legal in many countries such as the Netherlands
and in several states in the United States. The “nation’s first to set out [to help]
terminally ill patients obtain a prescription for medication to end their life” was Oregon’s
Death with Dignity Act (Lee). This was the biggest breakthrough in favor of the practice
of assisted suicide in the United States. The second state to approve assisted suicide
for terminally ill patients was “Washington in 2008”, which “was 14 years” after Oregon
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