End of Life Option Act Signed in to Law by Governor Brown
Because of the great number of people dying from terminal diseases in the United States, the question about making aid in death legal arises nowadays. The paper is based on the End of Life Option Act signed by the Governor of California Jerry Brown on October 5, 2015. The essay focuses on the rights that the law grants to residents of California, also taking into account the restrictions of the document under study. End of life bill, signed this year in California, is analytically compared to the similar ones, adopted in the states of Oregon, Washington, Vermont, New Mexico, and Montana earlier. The possible impact on pharmacists is discussed in the essay as well. All the arguments are supported by the excerpts from the bill itself, and from the relevant and informative article in TIME. Some other statistical data is taken from Compassion & Choices nonprofit organization website for support of the essay. Focusing on the main aspects of the law under study, the article expresses my point of view in favor of death with dignity laws adopted in the United States of America.
Key words: end of life, aid-in-dying, death with dignity, medicine, terminal illness.
End of Life Option Act Signed in to Law by Governor Brown
Someone’s wish to end their own life is normally defined as “suicidal tendency” in psychology and is generally treated as a mental deviation that requires medical (psychiatric) treatment. But sometimes that kind of desire could be logically understood. Every year approximately 1.5 million people die from terminal illnesses; almost all of them spent their last days in pain, without the ability to live their lives in the usual way, and with their body functions fading away. The majority of those people feel guilty because of losing autonomy, and becoming burdensome for their families. They suffer from terrible pain, and often wish their suffering to stop as soon as possible, even with death as the only option. The question about whether a voluntary end of life should be legal in the United States of America (as well as in the other countries of the world) is rather controversial one, with really significant arguments both for and against the issue. Anyway, there are several states in our country which have the laws that make it legal under some special circumstances. This year, on October 5, California was added to the list, after its Governor Jerry Brown has signed the end of life bill. This event received diverse feedback and became a hot topic in different spheres.
The end of life bill, approved by the Governor of California on October 05, 2015 claims that according to existing law of the state any adult is given a right for an individual health care instruction and for appointing an attorney “to make health care decisions for that individual in the event of his or her incapacity pursuant to a power of attorney for health care.” (End of Life …
