offers euthanasia to hopeless sick person as an act of love." He also wrote a book called Dying with Dignity where he wrote that he opposed suicide for the mental health or unhappy reasons. Humphry did not support those who use euthanasia to escape depression or other disorders, but he does support who suffer from terminal illness or severe handicap (Humphry 17).
In 1999, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was sentenced for 10-25 years for the assisted death of fifty-two year old Thomas Youk on a second degree murder charge. Previous to this case, no one has ever been sentenced for the act of helping an individual kill themselves. In the case of Dr. Kevorkian, it was Youk who contacted Kevorkian. The doctor should not be punished for proceeding with the wishes of a patient. Youk was living with the Lou Gehrig disease and was suffering a great deal. Kevorkian insisted that Youk did not want to die, but he had to because the pain that he suffered was too great. Kevorkian did nothing wrong though, but he was punished for his actions. All he did was carry out the wishes of his patient and acting upon his decisions as a physician.
In 1990, there was a case called Cruzan v. Missouri. The topic of the case started in 1983 when Nancy Beth Cruzan went into a coma from a car accident. Before the accident had occurred, she said that if she ever became non-responsive to life, she wouldn't want to continue living. Her parents wanted to fulfill her request in 1987 when they went to court to force the hospital to discontinue her life support. Obviously, the court disallowed this action to occur, saying that there was no clear and convincing evidence Nancy Cruzan wanted to die. Despite the decision made in State court, they brought it up to the U.S. Supreme Court where they agreed. After presenting more proof and testimonies from people who had heard her talk about such actions to be performed to her, the court judge ruled that Cruzan's parents had the right to remove their daughter's feeding tube.
