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End of Life Issues Guide
by Robert Marshall
Released December 21, 2005
Compiled by Robert Marshall
Member, Virginia House of Delegates
I. Public Opinion -- Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide No Majority on Assisted Suicide
50% Favor Assisted Suicide
Why Oregon Voters Opposed Suicide Repeal
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics: Opinion Polls and Assisted Suicide
Background on Euphemisms in Euthanasia Polls
Doctor Assisted Suicide is Rare
Gallup Poll on Concerns of Dying
Background: Public Opinion on Euthanasia
Background: AMA on Euthanasia
Editorial Opinion on Assisted Suicide
II. Moral and Pastoral Reflections of Nutrition and Hydration
(Prepared by the US Catholic Bishops Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities) Is the withholding or withdrawing of medically assisted nutrition and hydration always a direct killing?
Is medically assisted nutrition and hydration a form of "treatment" or "care"?
What are the benefits of medically assisted nutrition and hydration?
What are the burdens of medically assisted nutrition and hydration? Physical risks and burdens;
Psychological burdens on the Patient;
Economic and other burdens on care givers; What role should ‘quality of life’ play in our decisions?
Do persistent unconscious patients represent a special case?
Who should make decisions about medically assisted nutrition and hydration?
Appendix: Technical Aspects of Medically Assisted Nutrition and Hydration.
III. Decision Making by Patients Advance Directives: Imperfect Guides
Advance Directives: No Cure-All
Will to Live: Advance Directives to Request Treatment
Patient Autonomy and Futile Treatment
Study Shows Flaws in Care of Seriously Ill
Study on the Care of the Dying
IV. Who is the Patient? Permanent Vegetative State: Misnamed?
Background: How Persistent is the ‘Vegetative State’?
Background: “Assisted Suicide” ? A Disability Perspective
Assisted Suicide: Cure for Disabilities?
V. Assisted Suicide in Practice Oregon’s Troubles Just Beginning?
Oregon’s New Guidebook on Assisted Suicide
Oregon: Further Out on a Limb?
Assessing the Impact of Oregon’s Law
VI. Legislators' Medical Policy Manual: Life and Death Decisions
(by nine physicians and an attorney) Introduction;
Inherent Value of Human Life;
Ordinary/Extraordinary Means
Proxy Decision Making;
Resuscitation-Life Support;
Ventilation-Respiration;
Food and Water;
Ineffective Treatments;
Persistent Vegetative State;
Quality of Life;
Pain;
Dying;
Praying;
Unimpaired Vital Organ Excision;
The Human Brain and Death;
Caution and Courage;
Determination of Death;
Paired Organ and Non-Vital Organ and Tissue Transplantation;
Policies and Procedures.
VII. US Supreme Court and State Supreme Court Decisions (Syllabus/Excerpts) Cruzan vs. Missouri Department of Health
Washington vs. Glucksberg
Barry Krischer, Appellant, Vs. Cecil McIver, M.D., Florida
Life at Risk is a publication of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the United States Catholic Conference, 2111 4th Street, N. E. Washington, DC, 20017-1194; phone 202 541-3000.
Legislators' Medical Policy Manual published by American Life League, Inc.; P.O. Box 1350; Stafford, VA 22555
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