San Antonio College Library

Overview: Emotional public responses to widely publicized right-to-die and euthanasia cases, such as those revolving around Dr. Jack Kevorkian and Terri Schiavo, highlight their volatile mix of medical, ethical, religious, legal, and public policy issues. The Euthanasia/Assisted-Suicide Debate explores how this debate has evolved over the past 100 years as judicial approaches, legislative responses, and prosecutorial practices have shifted as a result...

"Over the past hundred years, average life expectancy in America has nearly doubled, due largely to scientific and medical advances, but also as a consequence of safer working conditions, a heightened awareness of the importance of diet and health, and other factors. Yet while longevity is celebrated as an achievement in modern civilization, the longer people live, the more likely they are to succumb to chronic, terminal illnesses. In 1900, the average...

The ability of physicians to prolong life--through enhanced medical technology--has rapidly increased in recent years. Arguments for and against the use of medical procedures that merely extend the lives of those who are terminally ill or in hopeless medical condition touch on legal, social, political, moral, and professional ethics issues. To deal with this crisis, legislatures have recently passed living will laws and have developed other related...