I am arguing for the legalization of PAS because I believe everyone should have the right to decide how to end their lives if their fate has already been decided by a terminal illness. I believe people should have a “fundamental liberty interest” to decide how they want to end their life. This should be a fundamental liberty right protected by the 14th amendment Due Process Clause. If a terminally ill person is suffering so much that they do not think life is worth living, then they should be able to have the right to end that suffering. ”Six of America’s most recent philosophers …. Filed an Amici Curiae (friends of the court) brief in favor of a right to assisted suicide. They contended that the right to liberty entails the freedom to make fundamental decisions, such as the decision to die, without governmental interference.” (Bonevac, TMI, p. 351) The brief was written in effort to change the mind of the Supreme Court with regards to the two court cases, Vacco v. Quill and Washington v. Glucksberg of 1997. “The Supreme Court ultimately rejected that argument in both cases based on tradition and a concern for human life.” (Bonevac, TMI, p. 351) But, this decision was made in 1997 and since then, there has been more acceptance and public support for PAS as noted by the Washington and Oregon along with Montana legalizing PAS for the terminally ill. The Supreme Court and Philosophers who wrote the brief also disagree on if the strict or ordinary scrutiny test should be used. I agree with the Philosophers that PAS for the terminally ill should be a fundamental liberty interest and should be tested through the strict scrutiny test.
“In 1994, voters enacted…that State’s [Oregon] ‘Death with Dignity Act’, which legalized physician assisted suicide for competent, terminally ill adults.” (Bonevac, TMI, p.367) There have been at least two states (Oregon and Washington) that have paved the way to legalization. In Washington v. Glucksberg although the majority ruled that Washington’s ban on all PAS did not violate the Constitution, eleven years later that ban was repealed with Oregon’s Death with dignity Act. New Mexico could model their statue and enact the Death with Dignity Act.
While some people in Oregon and Washington, along with myself, are accepting of PAS for the terminally ill, J Gay-Williams is not. Not only is he not accepting of PAS and euthanasia, he agrees with Aquinas’s natural law theory of right and wrong that suicide, (which includes PAS and euthanasia), is this unnatural. I disagree with his view because I believe a terminally ill competent adult that is suffering and wanting to make the decision to end their life should over rule the unnaturalness of suicide. Gay-Williams also believes that doctors can never be sure of their diagnoses and if one is diagnosed with a terminal illness, they should not kill themselves because a cure may be found in days coming. I disagree because that argument is not realistic and it is not probable that a cure would be found in such a short amount of time.
I believe the strongest argument against PAS is the slippery slope argument. J. Gay-Williams basically argues that initially a person terminally ill is permitted to take their own life, followed by others acting on their behalf of others to eventually involuntary euthanasia. In considering this, I reviewed the Dutch experience (Bonevac, TMI, p. 370) where the risk of abuse was found to be neither speculative nor distant. In researching this, I found that “the Dutch had an inability to regulate euthanasia within established rules” (http://euthanasia.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000150). Therefore, if New Mexico established rules, this could help in reducing any abuse. Although the slippery slope argument should be given some consideration, I believe the right of the terminally ill person to decide their fate trumps that argument. Just because abuse is possible doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be legalized. For competent adults in New Mexico suffering from terminal illnesses, the opportunity to ask a physician for assistance in ending their lives if they so choose should be legal.
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