Death With Dignity

 Before I get to this week's serious topic, I'd like you all to click on this link for a quick reminder of why Socrates is considered the greatest philosopher of all time.  Once you have a chance to read this comic, please come back for a real discussion.

Death with Dignity

Washington state has a Death With Dignity law, signed into law in 2008.  The state provides a website that deals with the law's provisions and parameters, and links to reports that detail how people have used the law to receive legal prescriptions that end life.  The reports show demographic data including ages of those who have used the drugs, types of diseases they may have had, and many more bits of data that provide insights into the motivations that informed the decisions to use the drugs.  Take a few minutes to explore the linked site above, and get familiar with the data provided there.

The decision to chose a time of death that an individual may make is not really a philosophical question in a Socratic sense, at least at first glance.  If, as a common example, a person has a cancer that causes chronic pain, and the best medical advice is that the disease will take the life of the person within a certain time period (the law requires such a diagnosis, with less than 6 months to live), a patient might want to end his/her suffering as soon as possible.  This was the intent of the law in the first place.  Gather friends and family, say goodbye, and take a pill.  The suffereing stops in the patient, and the greiving can start with everyone left behind.  The uncertainty is ended.  Importantly, the dignity of the patient is preserved, as they stay in control of their lives until the end.

Here is a link to a discussion of Physician-Assisted Death, comparing the philosophies used to pass laws into action for the State of Oregon, and Holland.  Oregon used a perspective that emphasised the autonomy of the individual at the core of their legislation, whereas Holland used easing pain and sufferning as the basis of their law.  Washington's law follows the example used by Oregon.  I prepared a summary chart that compares and contrasts the various issued raised in the paper.  It came out very small, so I hope you can read it.

We can discuss the various aspects raised int he paper during our meeting Friday night.  If you get a chance to look at the original paper, there is a Life Quality Questionairre on Pages 75-79.  16 simple questions that can help you assess your life.  For you writers out there, there is an essay section on the last page.

This looks like a good topic.  See you Friday!