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Death with Dignity Essay

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ASSIGNMENT FOR eTHICS IN HEALTHCARE | Death with Dignity | Choosing the End of Life | | Tamara Crosby | 9/4/2012 |

Death with Dignity: Choosing the End of Life
Thesis: Is the fear of living an incomplete and possibly painful life a reason to bring your life to an end? Does this fear give us the authority to be masters of our own fate and end our own life before we and the ones we love suffer? 1. The beginnings of physician assisted suicide. a. Dr Kevorkian b. The first to use the method. c. The Death with Dignity National Center 2. Oregon state and Washington state legalizing the method. d. The legal way the process is suppose to be administered. e. The drugs that are prescribed. …show more content…

The infant would die of auto-intoxication if surgery was not performed immediately. He stated in a news conference that he was going to “merely stand by passively and let nature complete its bungled job.” (Dowbiggin) He also informed the press that “the Bollinger baby dies after six days or the nation is saddled with the cost of taking care of it and its offspring, none of whom would enjoy life anyway.” (Dowbiggin) This was not his first or last infant he made that decision for. It was never determined how many died before this baby but he let at least 5 more die after this incident. This started, what in my mind, is a twisted characterization of the act of euthanasia. Madison Grant, an American lawyer, eugenicist and conservationist, made the comment “the elimination of defective infants was the welcome first step in the obliteration of the unfit.” (Dowbiggin)
Haiselden also exploited the media attention with a movie he actually starred in. “The Black Stork” was a “eugenic dramatization” of the Bollinger case. (Dowbiggin) The movie opened in 1916 and continued showing across America until 1928.
The most surprising supporter, in my eyes, was Helen Keller who stated that “the definition of life, and that a right to life ought to be honored only when a potential for happiness, intelligence, and social usefulness existed. Tolerating “anomalies” such as the Bollinger baby tends to lessen the sacredness in which

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