According to Faber-Langendoen & Karlawish (2000), the implementation of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act shows that, in at least one state, public and professional preferences are strong enough to enact a legislated right to assisted suicide for the terminally ill. In Oregon, doctors are allowed to give life-ending medication to anyone who is mentally competent and diagnosed with less than six months to live. Patients can take a lethal dose only after a fifteen-day waiting period. Physician-assisted suicide also is legally recognized in the Netherlands (Caplan, Snyder, & Faber-Langendoen, 2000). There are national guidelines set by the medical association that allow these practices. In the United States, those who are for the legalization of these practices often rely on the data taken from the Netherlands (Caplan, Snyder, & Faber-Langendoen, 2000). The practice of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide occurs in the United States even though there are no legal guidelines to regulate these practices. .
There have been a number of cases of physicians helping the terminal ill commit suicide the most well known of whom is Dr. Kevorkian. Kevorkian was criminally charged with aiding in the death of his patients; his license to practice was revoked; and he was imprisoned. According to Hoyer and Roodin (2003), Kevorkian argued that physician-assisted suicide allows a terminally ill patient to die a more peaceful, humane, and dignified death. It is my belief that euthanasia is justified in some terminally ill cases; that is, I agree with Kevorkian's opinion on physician- assisted suicide and euthanasia in some instances. I believe that there are some patients in excruciating pain who are terminally ill and should have the right to choose when they want to die. However, the patient would have to be cognitively well functioning and stable. .
Terminally ill people who ask for euthanasia are sometimes depressed.