Did You Know? Facts pertaining to the history and cultural significance of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide www.procon.org

Did you know? An autopsy of Terri Schiavo performed on Apr. 1, 2005 revealed that her brain weighed 615 grams -- less than half of the expected weight for an adult her age.

Did you know? In classical Athens, city magistrates kept a supply of poison for anyone who wished to die.

Did you know? Visits to the Internet site for the US Living Will Registry increased from 500 a day to 50,000 a day when the Schiavo case was in the headlines.

Did you know? Jack Kevorkian, MD, the pathologist sentenced on Apr. 13, 1999 to 10-25 years in prison for his role in the euthanasia of Thomas Youk was paroled on June 1, 2007 after serving 8 years. He died in 2011.

Did you know? All 50 states and the District of Columbia prohibit euthanasia under general homicide laws.

Did you know? Physician-assisted suicide is legal in three US states: Oregon, Washington, and Montana.

Did you know? Between Oct. 27, 1997 (when the Oregon Death with Dignity Act was passed) and 2007, 341 people in the state of Oregon have died from lethal drugs prescribed under the terms of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.

Did you know? On Nov. 5, 2008, Washington became to second state in the US to legalize physician-assisted suicide after voters approved a ballot initiative (59% to 41%) to implement the Washington Death with Dignity Act.

Did you know? Euthanasia is legal in three countries worldwide: Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

Did you know? On Dec. 5, 2008, Montana district judge Dorothy McCarter made Montana the third state with legal physician-assisted suicide with her ruling in the case of Baxter v. Montana.

Did you know? The original text of the ancient Greek Hippocratic Oath, written sometime between 460 and 380 BC, contained prohibitions against surgery, abortion, and euthanasia. It is still taken (in some form) by many medical school graduates.

Did you know? The earliest American statute to explicitly outlaw assisted suicide was enacted in New York on Dec. 10, 1828.

Did you know? A 2003 study appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 11 percent of physicians surveyed (1,902 total) would, under certain circumstances, be willing to hasten a patient's death by prescribing medication, and that 7 percent would administer a lethal injection, despite both acts being illegal at the time of the survey.

Did you know? A May 2006 Gallup Poll found that 69% of Americans answered yes to the question "When a person has a disease that cannot be cured, do you think doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient's life by some painless means if the patient and his family request it?"

You Don’t Know Jack Dr. Jack Kevorkian believed that each person should have the choice to end his/her life “with dignity”? Why, then, did he have exceptions? Do you think that Dr. Kevorkian crossed the line when he euthanized a patient instead of assisting in the patient’s suicide? Why or why not?

You Don’t Know Jack What do you think about the moral slippery slope of using “quality of life” as a consideration for addressing a consistent ethic of life?

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