Word: doctor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Mention the term "euthanasia," and the first thing most people think of is the epic assisted suicide battle of the 1990s starring Jack "Doctor Death" Kevorkian. But the issue of whether human beings - and more pointedly, doctors - have the right to help others die has been in the public discourse since before the birth of Christ. The Hippocratic Oath, which scholars estimate was written in the fourth century B.C., includes the unambiguous statement: I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan. (The oath, which most modern doctors...
...four arrestees instructed a 58-year-old man how to kill himself using a plastic hood filled with helium. The defendants face at least up to five years in prison if convicted. It appears the man who died was not terminally ill; according to the Associated Press, his doctor told authorities that although he suffered from cancer that left his face disfigured, he was cancer-free at the time of his suicide...
...After ruling in 1997 that Americans do not have a Constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide, the U.S. Supreme Court said in 2006 that such cases should be up to the states. Oregon has had a "Death With Dignity" law on the books since 1997 that allows terminally ill patients to commit suicide with lethal doses of prescribed medication. In 2007, some 46 people committed suicide in Oregon under the law. Last November Washington voters passed a similar provision that allows patients with six or fewer months to live to self-administer lethal doses of medication. Washington's former governor...
...infamous doctor was soon overshadowed by a national back-and-forth over whether terminally ill people should be allowed to die with dignity or whether they would benefit from having more resources, like home-care aides, at their disposal. The debate is an emotional one, says Paul Wolpe, director of the Atlanta-based Emory Center for Ethics, mainly because Americans are still uneasy with the idea of assisted suicide. Yet Jerry Dincin, Final Exit's vice president, believes the sentiment could be changing and that the right to die could become "the human right of the 21st century...
...Abortion is a personal decision made by a woman in consultation with her doctor, her family and her clergy. While my beliefs teach me that abortion is morally unacceptable, as a public official, I have worked hard to ensure that abortions are rare, safe and within the bounds of the law." Responding to the claim, made by a conservative religious group, that she is "the most rabidly pro-abortion governor in the country." Washington Post...