Assisted Suicide by Jordan Froce

A Project Presented to Professor Demosthenes Long in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for CRJ 150: Introduction to Criminal Justice

Pace University Dyson College of Arts and Sciences February 3, 2012 Table of Contents Introduction……….................................................................................... 3 Background…………………………..……………………...................... 3 Literature Review……………………………….……………………….. 5 Conclusion………………………………………….……......................... 7 References........………………………………………….…..................... 9

Introduction Imagine being in such a great deal of pain, and suffering that you make the decision to end your own life. We often have people there in our lives to help us along the way. Parents are there to love us, teachers are there to teach us, and doctors are there to help us when we are sick. But what happens when you are terminally ill, who is there to help you then? Doctors can only do so much. Many people believe that they should have the right to end their lives, while others disagree. If people do decide to end their lives, why shouldn’t they get the best care possible? Dr. Jack Kevorkian is a very well known physician who offered these possibilities to his patients with grim futures. In this paper I will be covering different aspects of the very controversial subject of physician-assisted suicide.
Background
On April 13, 1999, the infamous doctor performing assisted suicide, Dr. Jack Kevorkian also known as “Dr. Death.” As CNN’s journalist Mallory Simon reported (1999), Kevorkian was sentenced to ten to twenty-five years in prison for second degree murder and three to seven years for delivery of a controlled substance. According to Neal Nicol’s book on Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s life “Between the Dying and the Dead” (2006); Jack Kevorkian was the only son of Levon Kevorkian a former auto-factory worker who owned an excavating company, his homemaker mother and his 2 sisters. Kevorkian's parents were Armenian refugees, whose relatives were among the 1.5 million victims of Turkish atrocities in World War I. He taught himself German and Japanese in high school during World War II. After finishing high school and medical school at the University of Michigan. Kevorkian completed an internship in Pathology at Henry Ford hospital in Detroit, during which period he had an epiphany when he saw a woman who was dying of cancer. It was then that he began to think of ways to stop the suffering in his patients. Assisted suicide occurs when a person commits suicide with the help of another. According to Doctor Dwayne Mark’s studies reported on “The Hospice Blog,” (2008) physician assisted suicide is generally pain free and, as some would say, the most peaceful way to die. Many believe it be the right of terminally ill patients to decide if they want to seek physician assisted suicide to end their unendurable pain, while others think it should it be up to the courts. Encyclopedia.com (2012) states that physician-assisted suicide occurs when a physician facilitates a patient's death by providing the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act.
According to Dr. Derek Humphry’s Manifesto “Liberty and Death;” (2009) There are a good number of people out there that oppose the idea of physician assisted suicides. They believe that it is inhumane and morally wrong. Also, that it can have a bad effect on today’s healthcare and treatments. A lot of hospitals would be against it. Due to the fact that they rely on those patients and the income they receive from them. Some people argue that if physician assisted suicides were legalized that a lot of people would be tempted and would most like to take that option. As a sort of easy way out of their situation. This in turn would decrease the hospitals income, their equipment and possibly diminish their staff. Once all that has happened the quality of healthcare will lower as well. Due to outdated equipment and medicine, not enough staff to cover everybody. Also hospital would start to greatly rely on more government funds, fundraisers and would more than likely have to increase the prices for treatments. Which as of today, many people can barely afford without insurance. Physicians could suffer as well through pay cuts. Also after helping a patient with a suicide the physician could start to feel great amounts of guilt. Which would affect his work and family life. The patients family as well might start giving the physician grief and trouble. Just for doing his or her job.
Literature Review
In order to euthanize a patient, Dr. Kevorkian had to brainstorm, and create an easy, painless, and peaceful way to carry out this process. As the book “Between the Dying and the Dead” (2006) states, In 1989, Dr. Kevorkian invented the Thanatron, which translates from Greek to English as the "Death Machine." In 1953, Kevorkian got his medical license for Michigan state. In 1958 he presented a paper on 'Capital Punishment or Capital Gain' at the American Association for the Advancement of Science' at Washington, DC. He suggested the harvesting of organs from death row prisoners. This was considered controversial because death row inmates don't necessarily have any rights. In April 1960 he testified before a Joint Judicial Committee in Columbus, Ohio to revise the death penalty and to legalize medical experimentation on condemned inmates. So he always had these ideas to benefit society. In 1989 after reading about a patient who had asked for euthanasia he began working on a lethal-injection machine that would be able to do the task at the 'flip of a switch'. Thus came the “Thanatron,” this was Kevorkian's tool that he used in many physician-assisted suicides, the machine operated through the use of intravenous drip to administer various doses of fluids to facilitate the death of a patient. Typically, the first dose, which is administered by the patient, was a drug called thiopental. This drug acts as a sleeping agent that sends the patient's body into a comatose state. Once the patient is asleep the lethal dose of potassium chloride is administered to stop the heart within minutes, the patient ultimately dies as a result of a heart attack.
Each and every person knows that there will come a time when his or her life will come to an end. When, where, and how are some of the scariest things any of us have to think about. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, in the year of 2011 there were a reported 40,000 deaths by suicide. Psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison, noted in her book “Understanding Suicide” (2000) that many people chose to end their lives due to the emotional and or financial burdens imposed on their caregivers and those closest to them, while some are too frightened to face the life they have ahead of them (p.12). Those who fail to actually end their lives are not punished, but are actually pitied and given help. Others are those who are too sick, to actually carry out the act of suicide themselves. According to the book, “Between the Dying and the Dead” (2006) by author Neal Nicol; Jack Kevorkian has assisted in the suicide of at least 120 patients (p. 06). Suicide is not an illegal act in this country, no one gets punished for attempting suicide, but what makes an assisted suicide so much worse? This is the side of the argument Dr. Jack Kevorkian stood; he took a stand for what he believed was right. He looked into these dying patients eyes with mercy, and gave them light at the end of their tunnel. According to the data supplied in the book; “Between the Dying and the Dead” (2006) by author Neal Nicol; Jack Kevorkian has assisted in the suicide of 120 patients and in calculating the demographic data of Dr. Kevorkian’s patients provided in this book, I have concluded three different findings with respect to underlying patient; illness, age and gender of the patients. All of these patients have suffered from a terminal or debilitating illness. The three highest incidents of illness among the 120 patients were cancer, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The highest incidents of the 120 physician-assisted suicides occurred in the age range of 40 to 60 years of age. Approximately seventy percent of Kevorkian's patients were female and thirty percent were male (p.40). I feel that this analysis is important, because it truly highlights the kind of people Dr. Kevorkian helped. These are normal, mature adults, but what sets them aside from everyone else, is the fact that they area faced with an unbelievably tough decision. After assessing all of their options, which weren’t many, they decided that this was the right decision for them. Although many issues about physician-assisted suicide remain, studies show strong support of it among medical physicians as well as the general public. Specifically, in two published studies taken place in Oregon by the government in 2010. In Oregon, sixty percent of physician believed that physician-assisted suicide should be legal in some cases. Forty-six percent said in the right case they would prescribe a lethal dose of medication if the patient requests. In a study taken place in Michigan, the public and physicians were questioned. The proportion of fifty-six percent of physicians and sixty-six percent of the public favor the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. This was compared to thirty-seven percent of physicians and twenty-six percent of the public who favor an outright ban. The reasons for each individual choice can vary but there is un-denying support for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. According to Euthanasia.Procon.org, Assisted Suicide is currently only legal in three of the fifty-one states; Washington, Oregon, and Montana ("State laws on," 2010, 1). Conclusion After all the data has been revealed, It does nothing but strengthen the point that those who turn to suicide are the people who are at a cross roads in their lives, and ask themselves if they should continue down the rocky road that lies ahead? Or should they end their journey here? Living with a disease can spin someone’s life into utter turmoil, it takes an extremely strong person both mentally, and financially to endure such an unfortunate event. Some cannot handle, or do not want their families to handle such grief and hardships. Dr. Kevorkian along with many other activists for “Liberty to Die” movement, help shape the way people view assisted suicide and will continue to influence society into forming their own views on physician assisted suicide. By the way the direction this movement is headed, “Pro-Choice” is on the rise and we seem to be taking more steps towards legalization. As time goes by, the word gets spread, and the ignorance towards this subject decreases ultimately this could potentially be a legal option for patients to be considering in such dreadful situations.

References * Nicol, N. (2006). Between the Dying and the Dead. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. * Simon, M. (1999). Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Fight For Assisted Suicide Article. CNN.

* Mark, D., Dr. (2008, January). The Hospice Blog: Right to Death [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.hospiceblog.com

* Assisted Suicide. (2012). In Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.com

* Humphry, D. (March 24, 2009). Liberty and Death: An individual right to choose to die (Manifesto)

* Jamison, K. R., Dr. (2000). Understanding Suicide (p. 12). Brownsville, CA: Vintage Publishing.

* Facts and Figures: National Statistics . (2011, December). American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Retrieved from http://afsp.org

* Death with Dignity Act, H.R. (Or. 1997), http://www.public.health.oregon.gov.

* State laws on assisted suicide. (2010, 1). Retrieved from
http://euthanasia.procon.org