States vary in laws related to passive or assisted suicide. What are the laws on this issue in your state? essay
Assisted suicide is known as euthanasia. Euthanasia can be classified as active and passive. Active type of assisted suicide is based on taking the affirmative steps aimed at the end of life, while passive type is based on failing to take the proper steps which leads to the end of life. Today states vary in laws related to passive or assisted suicide because there are different views on this issue. In some states, the established laws and regulations prohibit healthcare providers to provide assistance in the act of committing a suicide, while in other states, there is a belief that assisted suicide should be “available at least for certain categories of patients” (Margolis 8-25). Today assisted suicide is legal in the states Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, and New Mexico. In other states, assisted suicide in considered to be illegal (Assisted Suicide Laws in the United States). The state of Georgia has developed fair laws regarding assisted suicide based on the end of life decisions.
In 1994, the Georgia legislature passed the law that discouraged practicing passive or assisted suicide. That law was associated with the case of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a well-known Michigan pathologist, who began to speak openly about the so-called assistance he provided to more than 100 patients. As a result, many states decided to make assisted suicide illegal or involve the permission of those who want to commit a suicide. In 2012, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that a “law aimed at controlling assisted suicide was unconstitutional, a decision that is likely to help shape the national debate over the practice” (Severson). The Georgia law explains the act of promoting assisted suicide as a real criminal action. In other words, in Georgia, the legislation does not prohibit all types of assisted suicides, but only those cases in which “assistance had been promoted and in which steps were taken to help carry out the suicide” (Severson). According to the new law, any person who assists another person in committing a suicide shall be considered guilty of a crime and shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year and not more than ten years. If a healthcare provider is convicted of taking steps in assisting a suicide, his/her license or registration shall be revoked. According to researchers, “Georgia is now in the position of being the wild, wild West for those who are promoting doctor-assisted suicide” (qtd. in Severson 1). Besides, in Georgia, the laws permit the natural process of dying, which stands for removing artificial life support, including such practices as “artificial respiration, intravenous nutrients when a person cannot eat, or keeping the heart beating through small electrical shocks” (Georgia Euthanasia Laws). This fact means that the patient must give his consent to remove artificial life support.
Thus, it is necessary to conclude that in the state of Georgia, assisted suicide laws are aimed at forbidding this type of practice. Georgia’s law regarding assisted suicide states that mercy killing is not legal because it cannot be approved in any way. However, the state permits the natural process of dying through removing of the artificial life support, if this act is pursuant to the living will of a patient.
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