To be or Not to Be: Assisted Suicide Revisited

Abstract

Publicity accorded American physician-pathologist Jack Kevorkian and “physician-assisted suicide” bring a new, technological, twist to euthanasia. How and when we die and its meaning and how we live reflect cultural values within a historical context. High costs of medical care for the terminally ill when the cost of health care is the most rapidly rising portion of the consumer price index, Medicare expenses are the highest in the last year of life, and an estimated thirty-seven million people remain uninsured make euthanasia increasingly salient. Faced with great pain and the emotional and financial burden that often accompanies prolongation of life during terminal illness, the decision to die is not necessarily irrational, psychotic, or delusional but pragmatic. Yet inherent risks have often been overlooked in discussions of “the right to die.” This article reviews cultural values associated with beliefs about assisted suicide, the experience of other nations including the Nether; lands with assisted suicide, and the “slippery slopes” inherent in legitimization of physician-assisted suicide.