Linda Fleming Research Paper

For my research paper, I plan to write about the Boleyn/Howard family. I will be focusing mainly on Henry VIII wives Anne Boleyn and her cousin Catherine Howard. The time frame I look to examine is from the rise of Anne Boleyn and her family to the fall of Catherine Howard and the aftermath of their executions and how it affected the family left behind. I think that both the Boleyn's and Howard's were very influential towards the middle and end of Henry’s reign. Most prominent is Anne Boleyn who has been polarized throughout history as either an innocently executed wife or a malicious and ambitious she-wolf who brought down Catholicism in England. Whichever way you look at it Anne is one of his most remembered and influential wives. For whatever

Within the past few years physician assisted suicide has been a major topic of debate. Assisted suicide is termed as suicide committed with aid from another individual, including a doctor. With the suicide term raising much concern, many people interchangeably use other terms. A few terms are death with dignity, physician assisted death or compassionate dying. Physician assisted death is implemented for those that are terminally ill and mentally capable adults that would prefer to shorten their dying process. The option of being able to get medical aid in dying only apply to certain states, and must pass through an election for that specific state. The first state to vote on the subject was Oregon and eventually passed in 1994 as the Death with Dignity Act (Jackson, 2008). There are now six states in the United States that has passed this act. The states that are allowing physician assisted death are District of Columbia, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California and recently Colorado.

Physician assisted suicide was brought to mainstream attention in the 1990’s due to Dr. Kevorkian’s “suicide machine," who claims to have assisted over 100 suicide deaths of terminally ill patients with Alzheimer’s disease (Dickinson, p. 8). In the early 1990’s, for the first time in United States history the issue was brought to the voting polls in California, Washington, and Oregon (Dickinson, p. 9). The bill was passed in Oregon; legally allowing physicians to facilitate death of the terminally ill, but voters fails to pass the bill in Washington and California (Dickinson, p. 9). In 2008 voters in Washington State passed the Washington Death with Dignity Act (Dickinson, p. 277). Today

Oregon is one of only five states along with Vermont, Washington, Montana and New Mexico that allow medically assisted suicide. In the rest of the country, assisting people with suicide even if they are terminally ill will be accused as a crime. According to the KQED news, ”Advocates of assisted-suicide laws believe that mentally competent people who are suffering and have no chance of long-term

Physician-assisted suicide was first made legal in the state of Oregon. (Hendin) In cases of euthanasia, physicians often give lethal doses of a medication to terminate a patient’s life because they’re experiencing intolerable pain. Patients who wish to use the Death with Dignity law in Oregon must be eighteen or older, must be a resident of Oregon, and they must be able to make their own health care decisions. (Sharp 53) However, the law does not require the patient to be in unmanageable pain, they must just have a prognosis of less than six months to live. (Sharp 54) This law seems to be in place to kill patients more quickly to open up hospital space, instead of compassionately ending someone’s suffering.

One of the most controversial end-of-life decisions is “physician-assisted suicide” (PAS). This method of suicide involves a physician providing a patient, at his or her own request, with a lethal dose of medication, which the patient self-administers. The ethical acceptability and the desirability of legalization of this practice both continue to cause controversy (Raus, Sterckx, Mortier 1). Vaco v. Quill and Washington v. Glucksberg were landmark decisions on the issue of physician-assisted suicide and a supposed Constitutional right to commit suicide with another's assistance. In Washingotn v. Glucksberg, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the state of Washington's ban on physician-assisted suicide was not unconstitutional.

Support for the participation of physicians in the suicides of terminally ill patients is increasing. Much of the controversy surrounding physician-assisted suicide however focuses on the debate over whether the practice should be legalized. A woman suffering from cancer became the first person known to die under the law of physician-assisted suicide in March of 1998. In 1994, voters in Oregon approved a referendum called the Death with Dignity Act, which was enacted in 1997. This law allows patients who have been given six months or less to live that wish to hasten their deaths to obtain lethal doses of medication prescribed by two doctors. Between 1998 and 2000, ninety-six lethal prescriptions were written, and seventy patients took the

Dr. Jack Kevorkian may have been onto something though. Today, physician-assisted suicide is legal in one state: Oregon. Medical Doctor Suzan Okie stated that Oregon has a set of laws for assisted suicide. The patient must be 17 or older, be able to communicate and make decisions, be terminally ill with less than six months to live, and the request must be written and spoken orally. If the doctor is suspicious of the decision, a psychiatrist can evaluate the patient’s mental condition (1627).

The Oregon Death with Dignity Act was put into effect on October 27, 1997. This act allowed physicians to prescribe to terminally ill patients a lethal dose of medication in order to hasten their death, even though euthanasia is prohibited in the United States. According to Katrina Hedberg, this act has been revised by Oregon legislature, but has still been brought to attention of the United States Supreme Court on raised questions of legality. In order to receive a prescription for the Death with Dignity Act, the patient must reside in Oregon, be a terminally ill adult, and should be expected to die within a six-month time frame. Along with these requirements, patients must be able to make their own healthcare decisions. Katrina Hedberg found that over the course of ten years, physicians had written 546 prescriptions and a total of 341 Oregon residents passed away after the lethal dose under this act. The medications that were prescribed during this time were secobarbital and pentobarbital, and most patients would pass away within an hour of taking pentobarbital. Many physicians have reported that patients who requested these prescriptions often had a loss of autonomy and a decrease in their ability to engage in activities that they enjoyed. The results showed that these factors had increased over the course of ten years. According to physicians, patient’s concerns of pain had also increased during this time. This is still very controversial, but findings have shown that

Physical pain felt by patients is most often not caused by their injuries, but by neglect. Montana’s Death with Dignity Act, as stated by bioethicist Jacob Appel, is a hollow victory, as no physicians are willing to give consented assistance. A physician neglecting to assist a patient with committing suicide is more damaging than healing; it causes the patient to suffer through their injuries while searching out another doctor to assist them. This is what happened with Janet Murdock: suffering from ovarian-cancer, she traveled throughout Montana, only to be denied assisted-suicide from every physician she met (Appel 1). Her pain was exacerbated by a law that was enacted to help relieve the

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld court decisions in Washington and New York states that criminalized physician-assisted suicide on July 26, 1997.12 They found that the Constitution did not provide any “right to die,” however, they allowed individual states to govern whether or not they would prohibit or permit physician-assisted suicide. Without much intervention from the states individuals have used their right to refuse medical treatment resulting in controversial passive forms of euthanasia being used by patients to die with dignity such as choosing not to be resuscitated, stopping medication, drinking, or eating, or turning off respirators.9

Founder of the Environmental Law Centre, lawyer and member of parliament, Linda Duncan is a passionate politician who cares about Canadian citizens and making a difference.

Is the role of a medical professional to ensure the health and comfort of their patients, or to help them end their lives? Since Dr. Kevorkian assisted in the suicide of Janet Adkins in 1990, physician-assisted suicide (PAS) has been one of the most controversial issues in the medical field today. While some view it as an individual right, others view it as an unethical issue that goes against medical ethics and religious values. Mr. H. M. is an elderly man who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and no chance of improvement. After excruciating pain and suffering, he has decided to request physician-assisted death in his home state of Oregon. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act (DDA) states that terminally ill patients are allowed to use

Linda Farrow was originally a fashion designer. Breaking the glass ceiling in the 1970’s, Farrow was one of the first to launch an exclusive eyewear collection. In farrows designs, she used unique and original shapes and colors. The unique designs that Farrow’s collection included in the 1970’s, are now some of the classic shapes of sunglasses today. The brand took a 20 year break and was brought back to life by Farrow’s son Simon Jablon. Simon was cleaning out a warehouse that belonged to his mother and found a box full of sunglasses. The company was originally named Linda Farrow Vintage because of the vintage frames that farrow used in her designs. It was later changed to Linda Farrow so it could expand beyond vintage inspired sunglasses.

Clinton stated while she was in Oregon that she thinks it is up to the state to decide whether they want euthanasia to be legal or not. She also said that she commends Oregon on being innovative and providing new information on whether physician assisted suicide should be right or not (Drake). Oregon was the first state to make physician assisted suicide legal in 1997. Currently, five states have legalized physician assisted suicide; Oregon, Washington, Vermont, New Mexico, and Montana. In 2013, 300 terminally ill patients were prescribed lethal medication and 230 of those people died from the medication. Doctors say that some terminally ill patients decide not to take the medication though (“Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Laws around the World”). Clinton also mentioned that she has a great deal of sympathy for people who are in difficult end-of-life situations. She makes her decision on the subject based on experiences that some of her friends have