EBSCO Publishing 

  Citation Format: MLA (Modern Language Assoc.):

NOTE: Review the instructions at http://support.ebsco.com/help/?

int=pov&lang=&feature_id=MLA and make any necessary corrections before using.
Pay special attention to personal names, capitalization, and dates. Always consult
your library resources for the exact formatting and punctuation guidelines.

Works Cited

Walter, Andrew. "Point: Euthanasia Should Be Legal." Points of View: Euthanasia

(2009): 2. Points of View Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 27 Oct. 2010.

<!--Additional Information:
Persistent link to this record (Permalink): http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=pwh&AN=43283505&site=pov-live
End of citation-->

Point: Euthanasia Should Be Legal

Thesis: Euthanasia, and a common form of euthanasia, assisted suicide, should be

legal processes through which a terminally ill individual may voluntarily end his or
her own life.
 1. MLA (7th ed.):
ProCon.org. "Should euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide only be allowed for the
terminally ill?" Euthanasia.ProCon.org. ProCon.org, 10 June 2008. Web. 27 Oct. 2010.
Should euthanasia and physician-
assisted suicide only be allowed for
the terminally ill?
PRO (yes)
Compassion and Choices, the largest choice-
in-dying organization in the United States,
wrote in the "Frequently Asked Questions"
portion of their website (accessed on Sep.
19, 2006):
"Suicide is never a good solution to a
problem. We believe that only people with
terminal conditions that severely impair the
quality of life should be able to end their
suffering by hastening death."
Sep. 19, 2006 - Compassion & Choices  This would mean that the so-called 'peaceful
The Oregon Department of Human Services
gave a brief history of the Death with Dignity
Act in their Mar. 2006 Eighth Annual Report
on Oregon's Death with Dignity Act:
"The Death with Dignity Act allows terminally
ill Oregon residents to obtain and use
prescriptions from their physicians for self-
administered, lethal medications...
CON (no)
Philip Nitschke, MD, Director and Founder of
Exit International, an Australian voluntary
euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide
organization, stated in a June 5, 2001
interview with the National Review:
"If we are to remain consistent and we
believe that the individual has the right to
dispose of their life, we should not erect
artificial barriers in the way of sub-groups
who don't meet our criteria.
pill' should be available in the supermarket
so that those old enough to understand
death could obtain death peacefully at the
time of their choosing...
Any position other than this leads to
considerable debate about where exactly the
cut-off point should be. All the legislative
models in existence (Oregon, the
Netherlands, and the past law in the
Northern Territory of Australia) have
attempted to do just that--define this eligible
sub-group — i.e., terminally ill, not
depressed, over 18, articulate, and lucid,
etc., etc., and laws that attempt to do this
produce a great deal of confusion in the gray
To request a prescription for lethal
medications, the Death with Dignity Act
requires that a patient must be...diagnosed
with a terminal illness that will lead to death
within six months."
Mar. 2006 - Oregon Department of Human Services
(DHS) 
Erich Loewy, MD, Professor at the University
of California at Davis, wrote in the 1998
essay "Harming, Healing and Euthanasia,"
that appeared in his book Regulating How
We Die:
"I will argue that the time has come for us as
a society to consider legitimizing active
voluntary euthanasia when it meets the
following conditions...it must be under
circumstances in which the death of the
individual is reasonably felt to be inevitable,
shortly at hand, and, above all, in which the
time until death is filled with relentless
suffering."
1998 - Erich Loewy, MD  and says they do not want to prolong their
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy in
its entry, "Voluntary Euthanasia," last
updated April 25, 2006, stated that:
"Five Individually Necessary Conditions for
Candidacy for Voluntary Euthanasia:
Advocates of voluntary euthanasia contend
that if a person
(a) is suffering from a terminal illness;
(b) is unlikely to benefit from the discovery of
a cure for that illness during what remains of
her life expectancy;
areas of the cut-off. What about psychic
suffering from mental illness? What about
teenagers with terminal cancer; why should
they have to wait till they're 18? What about
the 95-year-old who is 'tired of life' but not
clinically depressed?"
June 5, 2001 - Philip Nitschke, MD 
Ludwig Minelli, founder of Dignitas, a Swiss
suicide clinic, stated in an Apr. 16, 2006
interview with the Times of London:
"The idea of a terminal illness as a condition
for assisted suicide is a British obsession...
We never say no. Even those suffering from
Alzheimer's will have lucid moments in which
they may choose to die...
We would never assist the death of someone
with acute depression... But if somebody
comes after 10 or 12 years of depression
life under such conditions, then we might
help them to die...
We should not start from the premise that
suicide should not happen. "
Apr. 16, 2006 - Ludwig A. Minelli, LLM 
Gerald Dworkin, PhD, Professor of
Philosophy at the University of California at
Davis, wrote in the chapter "Public Policy and
Physician-Assisted Suicide," that appeared in
the 1998 book Euthanasia and Physician-
Assisted Suicide:
"Since one does not want to condone all

(c) is, as a direct result of the illness, either
suffering intolerable pain, or only has
available a life that is unacceptably
burdensome (because the illness has to be
treated in ways that lead to her being
unacceptably dependent on others or on
technological means of life support);
(d) has an enduring, voluntary and
competent wish to die (or has, prior to losing
the competence to do so, expressed a wish
to die in the event that conditions (a)-(c) are
satisfied); and
(e) is unable without assistance to commit
suicide,
then there should be legal and medical
provision to enable her to be allowed to die
or assisted to die.
It should be acknowledged that these
conditions are quite restrictive, indeed more
restrictive than some would think
appropriate. In particular, the conditions
concern access to voluntary euthanasia only
for those who are terminally ill. While that
expression is not free of all ambiguity, for
present purposes it can be agreed that it
does not include the bringing about of the
death of, say, victims of accidents who are
rendered quadriplegic or victims of early
Alzheimer's Disease."
Apr. 25, 2006 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy  use suicide assistance in the form of
physician-assisted suicides, one needs
further criteria... The restriction to cases of
terminal illness, while an effective way to
draw the line, does not allow relief to many
individuals who are suffering but not
terminal. Someone with 'locked-in'
syndrome--totally paralyzed but fully
conscious--is an example of this situation."
1998 - Gerald Dworkin, PhD 
Felicia Ackerman, PhD, Professor of
Philosophy at Brown University, wrote in her
chapter "Assisted Suicide, Terminal Illness,
Severe Disability, and the Double Standard,"
that appeared in the 1998 book Physician
Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate:
"Appeals to privacy and autonomy are
characteristic of assisted-suicide
advocates... But why not apply them to all
competent adults? If the issues are really
autonomy and privacy, then why legalize
suicide assistance only for the terminally ill?
Why not grant this right of privacy equally to
the young and healthy--the very people our
society values most--if they come to decide,
for whatever reason, that they do not want to
go on living? Such people could doubtless
prescriptions for lethal drugs, advice about
administration, etc. What factors could justify
granting this right of privacy only to the
terminally ill?"
1998 - Felicia Nimue Ackerman, PhD