Chapter 3: Euthanasia
Destinations
|
 |
Link up to the following websites to find more resources on euthanasia and assisted-suicide.
Ethics Updates
Lawrence Hinman's site contains links to extensive web resources on euthanasia, including court decisions, legislation (including Oregon's "Death with Dignity" Act), basic documents, statistical information, and web sites dedicated to euthanasia issues. Included here is a link to a documentary about controversial "dying rooms" in Chinese orphanages.
ERGO!: Euthanasia World Directory
This is a right-to-die site sponsored by ERGO! (Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization). ERGO! describes itself as "a nonprofit educational corporation based in Oregon, USA, founded in 1993 to improve the quality of background research of assisted dying for persons who are terminally or hopelessly ill and wish to end their suffering." The organization, whose president is Derek Humphry (author of Final Exit, a best-selling "how to" book on suicide) holds that voluntary euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and self-deliverance, are all appropriate life endings depending on the individual medical and ethical circumstances.
Citizens United Resisting Euthanasia
This is a right to life, right to care site sponsored by CURE. The organization describes itself as "a grassroots advocacy network that defends the rights of patients to receive medical treatment . . . founded in 1981 and [consisting of] a nationwide coalition of concerned citizens of diverse professional, political, and religious backgrounds bound together in a common cause: resolute opposition to euthanasia without compromise or exception."
University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics
Once at this site, click on "Assisted Suicide." One of the nice features of this site is a set of amicus briefs from both organizations and institutions that favor assisted suicide and from those that oppose it. So, for example, you can read position statements offered by the American Geriatrics Society, the American Suicide Foundation, and various philosophers, law professors, etc. Also included are links to federal and state laws governing assisted suicide and its funding.
Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: All Sides of the Issues
This site does a good job of summarizing the major arguments both for and against assisted suicide and euthanasia, with emphasis on arguments from a variety of different religious traditions. Also included are the results of recent opinion polls in the U.S. and several other countries.
Oregon Death with Dignity Act
This site provides information about the Oregon "Death with Dignity Act" and includes a link to the full text of this legislation that made Oregon the first American state to legalize assisted suicide.
Oregon Right to Die
This site tracks the history and current status of the battle to legalize assisted suicide in Oregon. It includes an explanation of the safeguards that attempt to avoid abuse of the intended legal procedures.