Patient Assisted Suicide

Project –Part 3 * * Tim McDougald
Legalized Euthanasia Would Not Lead to Involuntary Killing.
Independent Variables: PAS (patient assistant suicide), euthanasia, patient right to die, Netherlands, Nazis, Hitler
Dependent Variables: death, slippery slope arguments, legalization of euthanasia/PAS, and modern America.
This article addresses the issue that euthanasia would not lead to involuntary killing of patients. Slippery slope arguments against euthanasia say that PAS (patient assisted suicide) will be used in medical cases that are not well-known and will lead to doctors, who utilize euthanasia as an option, running the hospitals of America. Basically, this type of argument is designed to put fear into the lives of sick patients. However, there is really no sufficient evidence that euthanasia or PAS will bring ‘nightmares’ to patients and their families especially if the process for beginning assisted suicide is done the right way.
The Nazis and the Dutch both have had experiences with supporting euthanasia, but in their own ways. The Nazis were believed to have supported assisted suicide when Hitler, in September 1939, issued a secret mandate of involuntary killing of incurably insane, the handicap, and others who Hitler called ‘useless eaters.’ However, the Nazis bypassed the first step in the assisted suicide process that says they should verify a patient’s right to die. Their process was quite different when compared to the Dutch’s or what America is debating today.
In the Netherlands, the Dutch have had euthanasia because they believe not to ignore the suffering that dying patients endure. According to a Dutch professor, Gerrit van der Waal, the debate on this issue is still not solved, but acceptance is slowly improving this medical procedure. However, a government agency reported in the Remmelink Report that said there are problems in the Netherland about euthanasia cases not being performed as it should be done. For instance, some...