Suicide and Death with Dignity

Suicide is a response to two, often-overlapping stimuli, pain and despair.(1) Pain may be physical or psychological. In either aspect, it consumes the person until he seeks only release. A person experiences despair when he concludes that he can no longer hope for an acceptable experience of life. Cluster headaches, so called 'suicide headaches',(2) typify the kind of pain that might drive a person to suicide. A person might despair in response to her prognosis of her glioblastoma multiforme, 'the most aggressive and lethal form of brain cancer'.(3) To provide relatively simple and painless relief, many states have permitted physicians to assist their patients in suicide.(4) Oregon was the first American state to pass a PAS bill, which it titled 'Oregon Death with Dignity Act.'(5) The law permits Oregonian citizens with less than six months to live due to a terminal illness to request and receive lethal medication to end their own lives.(6) More than ten years later, Washington became the second state with its 'Washington Death with Dignity Act', modeled off Oregon's act.(7) Vermont,(8) California,(9) Colorado,(10) and the District of Columbia(11) have all adopted similar acts since 2013. In 2009, Montana's Supreme Court declared PAS consistent with Montana's statutes and constitution,(12) but the legislature has not passed any legislation further defining the terms or requirements.