Essay On Death With Dignity

In 1972 the United States Senate held the first National Hearing on Death with Dignity. The outcome of the hearing “Death with Dignity: An Inquiry into Related Public Issues” was an overwhelming annoyance caused by the use of the term, “medical miracle”. They felt as though it was ironic, the process of dying was only delayed and extended by a medical miracle and takes away from the quality of their life (Dowbiggin, 2003). Because of the present annoyance about using “medical miracles” as an excuse to ignore the idea of Death with Dignity, not much was accomplished at this hearing, besides arguing about a simple phrase. There was no improvement or movement on the actual topic of Death with Dignity.

In the midst of the already present controversy

Even when the act passed in Oregon, it was by a close vote of only 51.31% to 48.69% (“Death with Dignity”, 2015). 20 years later, it is still widely discussed and debated throughout the United States. There are many different groups and individuals that either strongly support or are strongly opposed to the Death with Dignity Act. Two of these groups are the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization, which supports the DWDA, and the International Task Force on Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide which does not support the act. The Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization (ERGO) was founded in 1993 by Derek Humphry; the purpose was to research and publish literature on the topic of assisted suicide (Humphry, 2003). ERGO believes that all efforts to die with dignity are acceptable and even respectable. This group is especially supportive of the Death with Dignity Act because they don’t associate Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) as an actual form of suicide. For someone who is already expecting to die, it is honorable to participate in PAS (Humphry, 2003). The Founder, Derek Humphry, and ERGO as a whole have taken large steps to inform and lobby for the DWDA; including “Liberty and Death” and “Quest for the Peaceful Pill” (Humphry,