"Choice" Is An Illusion: "If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead"

"If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead"

Jeanette & her son Scott in 2000

By Jeanette Hall

I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law passed in 1997 by a ballot measure that I voted for.

In 2000, I was diagnosed with cancer and told that I had 6 months to a year to live. I knew that our law had passed, but I didn’t know exactly how to go about doing it. I tried to ask my doctor, Kenneth Stevens MD, but he didn’t really answer me. In hindsight, he was stalling me.

I did not want to suffer. I wanted to do our law and I wanted Dr. Stevens to help me. Instead, he encouraged me to not give up and ultimately I decided to fight the cancer. I had both chemotherapy and radiation. I am so happy to be alive!

It is now 20 years since my diagnosis. If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead. Assisted suicide should not be legal.

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Allowed to Inherit

In US jurisdictions where assisted suicide and euthanasia are legal, resulting deaths are certified natural as a matter of law.

One significance is that the decedent's heirs, who participated in obtaining the decedent's death, for example, by administering the lethal dose to the decedent, are allowed to inherit from the decedent as a matter of law.

This was not the case under prior law in which persons, who killed other persons, were prohibited from financially benefitting from the deaths they caused, for example, due to a slayer's statute or caselaw.

WELCOME

In the ten US states and the District of Columbia, where assisted suicide and euthanasia are legal, the most obvious problem is a complete lack of required oversight at the deaths.

The laws in these jurisdictions allow just two individuals to be present, with one leaving alive and the other leaving dead.

In the above jurisdictions, deaths via assisted suicide or euthanasia, termed medical aid in dying, are treated as natural as a matter of law.

This treatment allows an individual's heirs to inherit from the individual despite objection by the individual himself or herself, or by other persons.

Why Choice is an Illusion?

"If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead"