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
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