Question

in paragraph form Discuss legislative history of assisted suicide in healthcare. (2-3pages)

Answer 1

There are so many hospitals

follows legal death or suicide in healthcare setting. There are three types of categories. First, all patients may withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment. Second, all patients may voluntarily stop eating and drinking. Third, patients with intractable suffering may receive palliative sedation to unconsciousness. There are many circumstances under which a longer life is not a better life. When quality of life diminishes, some individuals would prefer to hasten death (or at least not prolong dying) rather than endure the perils of what, at least to them, is an exceedingly poor quality of life. What exactly comprises a "poor quality of life" covers a broad spectrum that varies significantly from person to person. Before 1990, there were few serious efforts to legalize (Medical aid in dying)MAID.45 After all, policymakers were focusing their attention on other end-of-life medical decision making issues. Specifically, during the 1970s and 1980s, courts and legislatures across the country were still struggling with defining a right to die. They were articulating a right to refuse 1960s medical technology such as CPR, mechanical ventilation, and dialysis. By 1990, the patient's "right to die" through passive refusal was substantially settled.46 Therefore, policymakers turned their attention to active means of hastening death like MAID.