In Oregon, under the assisted suicide law, a physician may prescribe a lethal dose of pills but he may not put them in the patients' system. The patient must do that for themselves.
One way to distinguish the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide is to look at the last act - the act without which death would not occur.
Using this distinction, if a third party performs the last act that intentionally causes a patient's death, euthanasia has occurred. For example, giving a patient a lethal injection or putting a plastic bag over her head to suffocate her would be considered euthanasia.
On the other hand, if the person who dies performs the last act, assisted suicide has taken place. Thus it would be assisted suicide if a person swallows an overdose of drugs that has been provided by a doctor for the purpose of causing death. It would also be assisted suicide if a patient pushes a switch to trigger a fatal injection after the doctor has inserted an intravenous needle into the patient's vein.
In Oregon, if a doctor were to do what Eastwood did in his film he would be breaking the law and could be brought up on murder charges, least of which he would lose his license to practice medicine. And no one else is allowed to do that either.
> Anyhow, the fact that the/one law defines ( Oregon's Death with
>Dignity Law, among the others worldwide) assisted suicide only the
>prescription of a lethal drug and the mere guidance of the procedure
>by a physician does not make Maggie's death "euthanasia", which is
>an act of pity, at its best.
This is a total misunderstanding. And the use of "pity" is insulting. Conversation over. I've made my 3 posts for the day. Marta
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