(USNewsMag.com) – In the US, activists are working hard to increase people’s ability to get medical assistance when dying. Death with Dignity’s CEO, Dr. Peg Sandeen, has claimed that they are striving to provide every patient with the right to assisted suicide.
New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, believes that their new law for assisted suicide gives dignity in death, which she says is a compassionate policy. People must be able to make an informed decision if they are suffering from a fatal disease.
Under their respective general homicide statutes, all fifty states and the federal government ban euthanasia. Federal lawmakers have not passed new rules that would allow doctors to assist in suicide. Such legislation is typically dealt with by the state governments.
Critics of the assisted suicide idea argue that although they help some terminally ill individuals end their suffering, the destructive impact that state-sanctioned killings have on society as a whole. They claim that it diminishes respect for human life by making death an option for the sick, crippled, poor, and burdened.
When her doctor told her in 2009 that her incurable lung condition would take her within the next six months and suggested that she take advantage of Washington’s new assisted death legislation, Alice Bozeman chose to disregard him. She claimed that she was “too ornery to die,” and continued to live for over a decade.
According to her daughter, Anita Cameron, they wouldn’t have gotten nearly twelve more years from her mother to watch her grandchildren marry and have babies.
Cameron is concerned that the US is rapidly heading in the direction of Canada, where citizens with just hearing loss can request euthanasia. She campaigns with Not Dead Yet, an organization fighting assisted suicide. She believes that if it becomes legally acceptable, more poor or disabled individuals will use it out of desperation.
According to Gallup, despite the concerns of the critics, the policy has widespread support. It has been on the increase but now stable at approximately 70% approval since the 1990s.
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