Physician Assisted Suicide Case Study

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The United States Government has taken a rather laissez-faire approach to an aspect of life that could ease a person’s suffering – Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) – Euthanasia. In the United States, five states have legalized physician-assisted suicide via legislation of which one requires court ruling for the suicide to be legal. The physician-assisted suicide is illegal in the remaining 46 states. Out of the 46 states, four, including Nevada, have no specific laws regarding assisted suicide or are unclear on the legality of the issue. Nevada has not enacted any law against assisted suicide and does not recognize common law crimes regarding this matter. Nevada Revised Statutes (N.R.S.) “449.535 to 449.690, inclusive, do not condone, authorize …show more content…

The act also states that “a patient with a terminal condition who self-administers a lethal dose of medication shall not be considered to be a person exposed to grave physical harm…and no person shall be subject to civil or criminal liability solely for being present when a patient with a terminal condition self-administers a lethal dose of medication or for not acting to prevent the patient from self-administering a lethal dose of …show more content…

This section explains the duties of the physician that help the patient go through their choice to die with dignity. The duties involve diagnosing the patient, prescribing the medicine etc. The fourth section describes the immunities and liabilities to the involved party. This section serves as a buffer for the physician, institution or the healthcare providers from the law in case anyone claims homicide. In addition, section four also outlines the liabilities due to forgery, destruction of paperwork, claims by the government entity for costs and how one can get prosecuted. Section five deals with Severability. This section simply states that “ any section of ORS 127.800 to 127.897 being held invalid … shall not affect the application of any other section … which can be given full effect without the invalid

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