he Protestants and 69% of Jewish faith endorsed it. Among Roman Catholics a surprising 61% support physician assistance-in-dying even though their church’s doctrine prohibits it. Only the Unitarian church has officially endorsed the right to die. Some elderly people can’t deal with the pain and suffering anymore so they deal with it their own ways. There is no better evidence for the fact that people need the compassionate help of a doctor to escape suffering. There was research done on adults 75 and older that committed suicide. This was the result of the research. 93 used drugs 17 swallowed agricultural chemicals 2 took corrosive or caustic substances 78 used carbon monoxide (includes car exhaust) 171 hanged themselves 46 suffocated by using plastic 40 drowned themselves 130 used firearms 14 used cutting or piercing instruments 34 jumped from high places 15 jumped or lay in front of a moving object 10 burnt themselves to death 10 electrocuted themselves About 50% of patients admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on respirators are terminally ill. It costs about $10,000 a week to keep a person on a respirator in an ICU. Often this money is spent on obviously terminally ill patients with virtually no chance of recovery. Doctors Knaus and Wagner wrote in Science, “In many cases, intrusive and complicated machinery is wheeled in to keep vital signs going, to give treatment of no benefit and tremendous cost, depriving others of treatment while dignity disappears.” (14) Note, too, that when the machines are wheeled in, loved ones are often escorted out. There is concern throughout the world over denial of human rights. The violations include imprisonment without trial, torture, killings, and discrimination against women, racial, religious and political groups. A less recognized but also important violation is increasingly occurring in our freedom-loving country. We deny incurable patients the right to die with dig...
