| Euthanasia ProCon.org | HOME | BACK |
|
| Ancient Greece and Rome (5th Century B.C.-1st Century B.C.) | "In ancient Greece and Rome, before the coming of Christianity, attitudes toward infanticide, active euthanasia, and suicide had tended to be tolerant. Many ancient Greeks and Romans had no cogently defined belief in the inherent value of individual human life, and pagan physicians likely performed frequent abortions as well as both voluntary and involuntary mercy killings. Although the Hippocratic Oath prohibited doctors from giving 'a deadly drug to anybody, not even if asked for,' or from suggesting such a course of action, few ancient Greek or Roman physicians followed the oath faithfully. Throughout classical antiquity, there was widespread support for voluntary death as opposed to prolonged agony, and physicians complied by often giving their patients the poisons they requested." 2003 Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D.  A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America
1998 Michael Manning, M.D. Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Killing or Caring?
|
||||||||
| 1st Century A.D.-Late Middle Ages | "There was a remarkable continuity in Church medical ethics regarding suicide and euthanasia between the dawn of Christianity and the late Middle Ages. Medieval references to voluntary death were rare, suggesting that the actual practice of euthanasia had tapered off dramatically since the fall of Rome. Laws in some parts of Europe dictated that a suicide's corpse be dragged through the streets or nailed to a barrel and left to drift downriver. The medieval ethos was distinctly uncongenial to any kind of self-murder." 2003 Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D. A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America
1998 Michael Manning, M.D. Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Killing or Caring?
1994 New York State Task Force on Life and the Law When Death is Sought: Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Medical Context  (PDF 88KB) |
||||||||
| American Colonies (17th Century) | "For over 700 years, the Anglo American common law tradition has punished or otherwise disapproved of both suicide and assisting suicide... For the most part, the early American colonies adopted the common law approach. For example, the legislators of the Providence Plantations, which would later become Rhode Island, declared, in 1647, that '[s]elf murder is by all agreed to be the most unnatural, and it is by this present Assembly declared, to be that, wherein he that doth it, kills himself out of a premeditated hatred against his own life or other humor...his goods and chattels are the king's custom.'" 1997 Washington v. Glucksberg (PDF 63KB)
|
||||||||
| Renaissance and Reformation (17th-18th Century) |
"No serious discussion of euthanasia was even possible in Christian Europe until the eighteenth-century Englightment. Suddenly, writers assaulted the church's authoritative teaching on all matters, including euthanasia and suicide... While writers challenged the authority of the church with regard to ethical matters, there was no real widespread interest in the issues of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide during that time." 1998 Michael Manning, M.D. Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Killing or Caring?
|
||||||||
| Late 18th Century | "Enlightenment toleration of suicide proved to be temporary. Under the leadership of evangelicals...a vigorous religious counterattack gained momentum as the late eighteenth century drew to a close. The various waves of religious revivalism, starting with the Great Awakening of the mid-1700s, prevented secularists and agnostics on either side of the Atlantic Ocean from generating popular support for taking one's life. These events dovetailed with the Second Great Awakening of intense evangelical fervor in the first years of the nineteenth century and strengthened the condemnation of suicide and euthanasia that stretched back to the earliest days of colonial America.
The rejection of suicide and euthanasia remained firm, even after many of the new states decriminalized suicide in the wake of the Revolutionary War. The majority of Americans rejected suicide's common-law punishment...but no matter how sympathetic they were toward the suicide's family, most Americans stopped far short of condoning self-murder. As late as the antebellum period there existed in the United States a firm consensus...against suicide and mercy killing." |
||||||||
| 19th Century | "Nineteenth-century Americans viewed both practices [mercy killing and assisted suicide] -- but especially mercy killing -- as rebellion against God's will and outrages against the sanctity of human life.
This moral consensus held firm as nineteenth-century physicians, buoyed by breakthroughs in diagnostic precision and inspired by a new philosophy regarding treatment, increasingly became the dominant figures in the death chamber... If anything, organized medicine's opposition to active euthanasia became stronger near the end of the nineteenth century as physicians grew more therapeutically optimistic."
| ||||||||
| 1828 |
The earliest American statute explicitly to outlaw assisting suicide is enacted in New York. It is the Act of Dec. 10, 1828, ch. 20, §4, 1828 N. Y. Laws 19.
"Many of the new States and Territories followed New York's example… Between 1857 and 1865, a New York commission led by Dudley Field drafted a criminal code that prohibited 'aiding' a suicide and, specifically, 'furnish[ing] another person with any deadly weapon or poisonous drug, knowing that such person intends to use such weapon or drug in taking his own life'… By the time the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, it was a crime in most States to assist a suicide… The Field Penal Code was adopted in the Dakota Territory in 1877, in New York in 1881, and its language served as a model for several other western States' statutes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries… California, for example, codified its assisted suicide prohibition in 1874, using language similar to the Field Code's." |
||||||||
| 1885 |
The Journal of the American Medical Association attacks Samuel Williams' euthanasia proposal as an attempt to make "the physician don the robes of an executioner." Nov. 15, 1994 Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D. "The History of Euthanasia Debates in the United States and Britain," Annals of Internal Medicine |
||||||||
| Turn of the Century (circa 1900) | "By the turn of the century, medical science had made great strides. As physicians who used the modern scientific method and modern principles of pharmacology consolidated their control over university and medical school training, the euthanasia debate entered the lay press and political forums. In 1905-1906, a bill to legalize euthanasia was defeated in the Ohio legislature by a vote of 79 to 23. In 1906, a similar initiative that would legalize euthanasia not only for terminal adults, but also for 'hideously deformed or idiotic children' was introduced and defeated as well. After 1906, the public interest in euthanasia receded."
1998 Michael Manning, M.D. Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Killing or Caring?
| ||||||||
| 1915 | "In the early hours of 12 November 1915, at Chicago's German-American Hospital, Anna Bollinger gave birth to her fourth child, a seven-pound baby boy...the baby was blue and badly deformed. After conferring with the father, the doctor awakened Harry J. Haiselden, the hospital's forty-five-year-old chief of staff. Haiselden diagnosed a litany of physical defects... He predicted that, without surgery...the child would die shortly... In a decision whose shockwaves would ripple from coast to coast, and mark a milestone in the history of euthanasia in America, Haiselden advised against surgery. The Bollingers tearfully agreed and, on 16 November, Haiselden called a news conference to announce that, rather than operate, he would 'merely stand by passively' and 'let nature complete its bungled job.' The child died on 17 November, amid growing controversy.
By declining to operate, Haiselden...almost singlehandedly managed to accomplish what other defenders of euthanasia before him had not. He not only got more Americans than ever before talking about euthanasia, but also won endorsements from numerous prominent figures. The publicity surrounding his professional conduct, briefly eclipsing news from World War I, inspired other Americans to speak out in favor of letting deformed infants die for the good of society... Haiselden demonstrated how support for euthanasia was nurtured by a cultural climate punctuated by science, naturalism, and humanitarian reform."
| ||||||||
| 1920 |
"By the 1920s, euthanasia was no longer a secret in America. The popular and medical press had run stories on mercy killing... A motion picture, titled The Black Stork, about withholding surgery from a deformed newborn, had been released and was being shown commercially throughout the country. Clarence Darrow, Jack London, Eugene Debs, Helen Keller, and the editorial board of the New Republic had spoken out in favor euthanasia.
Popular attitudes toward euthanasia also showed signs of movement. Most Americans in the interwar period agreed that there was something morally wrong about euthanasia as official policy, but that majority was growing slimmer as time went on."
| ||||||||
| 1930s | "The dispute over mercy killing, after subsiding in the 1920s, caught fire again in the 1930s, making these years a pivotal juncture in the history of euthanasia in America. With the coming of the Depression and more troubled economic times, Americans began talking again about suicide and controlled dying... Public opinion polls indicated in 1937 that fully 45 percent of Americans had caught up with Harry Haiselden's belief that the mercy killing of 'infants born permanently deformed or mentally handicapped' was permissible."
2003 Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D. A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America
| ||||||||
| 1935 |
The Voluntary Euthanasia Legislation Society (VELS) is founded in England by C. Killick Millard, a retired public health physician. Nov. 15, 1994 Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D. "The History of Euthanasia Debates in the United States and Britain," Annals of Internal Medicine
| ||||||||
| 1936 |
"The euthanasia debate was not limited to this side of the Atlantic. A bill to legalize euthanasia was debated in the British House of Lords in 1936, but was rejected... The defeat of this bill, along with the outbreak of World War II, the subsequent discovery of the Nazi death camps, and the recognition of the complicity of German physicians in the extermination camps quelled but did not eliminate discussion of the euthanasia question."
1998 Michael Manning, M.D. Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Killing or Caring?
| ||||||||
| 1937 |
Nebraska Senator John Comstock introduces legislation called the Voluntary Euthanasia Act, which calls for the legalization of active euthanasia. It is never voted on but demonstrates an emerging interest in legislating euthanasia.
2000 Bryan Hilliard, Ph.D. "The Moral and Legal Status of Physician-Assisted Death: Quality Of Life and the Patient-Physician Relationship," Issues in Integrative Studies
| ||||||||
| 1938 |
On January 16th, 1938 Charles Francis Potter announces the founding of the National Society for the Legalization of Euthanasia (NSLE), which is soon renamed the Euthanasia Society of America (ESA)... "...In the 1930s, no one was more instrumental than Charles Potter [founder of the First Humanist Society of New York] in making America 'euthanasia-conscious'...
The main thrust of the ESA's message in 1938 was that legalizing elective euthanasia for terminally ill patients, dying in agony from a disesase such as cancer, was one of the most merciful and Christian things someone could do for another human being."
| ||||||||
| 1940s | "When the 1940s dawned, many in the euthanasia movement believed it was only a matter of time before euthanasia became legal in the United States...
But euthanasia advocates were in for a surprise... World War II broke out, and as Hitler's war machine marched eastward across Europe...news of Nazi atrocities against mental patients and handicapped children filtered back to America... As word spread in the late 1940s, the euthanasia movement found itself increasingly on the defensive, scrambling to deny that the form of euthanasia it supported was the same as Nazi murder."
| ||||||||
| 1946 | The Committee of 1776 Physicians for Legalizing Voluntary Euthanasia
in New York State comes into existence.
2000 Bryan Hilliard, Ph.D. "The Moral and Legal Status of Physician-Assisted Death: Quality Of Life and the Patient-Physician Relationship," Issues in Integrative Studies
| ||||||||
| 1950 |
The World Medical Association votes to recommend to all national medical associations that euthanasia be condemned "under any circumstances." In the same year, the American Medical Association issues a statement that the majority of doctors do not believe in euthanasia.
"When an opinion poll in 1950 asked Americans whether they approved of allowing physicians by law to end incurably ill patients' lives by painless means if they and their families requested it, only 36 percent answered 'yes,' approximately 10 percent less than in the late 1930s."
| ||||||||
| 1952 |
The Euthanasia Society of America petitions the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations to declare the right to die a basic human right for people dying of an incurable disease. The United Nations does not adopt the request.
2003 Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D. A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America
| ||||||||
| 1960s | "Few predicted it, but euthanasia suddenly burst onto the national scene in the 1960s and 1970s as an issue of sustained public interest... Thanks to rising public interest in the concepts of patient autonomy and individual rights, euthanasia ceased being interpreted as a predominantly social or biological matter and was largely transformed into a personal issue... Privacy became the keyword of the new, revitalized euthanasia movement, and the term 'euthanasia' was steadily replaced by the phrase 'the right to die'."
2003 Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D. A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America
| ||||||||
| 1962 |
Charles Potter dies and theologian Joseph Fletcher assumes Potter's unoffical title as the chief philosopher of the euthanasia movement. "Fletcher fashions a new rationale for euthanasia based primarily on the notion of patient autonomy." Pauline Taylor becomes president of the Euthanasia Society of America (ESA).
"Taylor...began the ESA's soul-searching process that led to a major shift in the philosophy for the entire American euthanasia movement. She believed the ESA in the past had overemphasized the soundness of an individual's decision to have his or her life ended if terminally ill and in unbearable pain... Taylor concluded that the time was ripe to...begin convincing the public that letting someone die, instead of resorting to extreme measures, was both humane and ethically permissible."
| ||||||||
| 1965 |
Donald McKinney becomes president of the Euthanasia Society of America (ESA).
"Over the next two decades [McKinney] would help to transform the euthanasia movement by leading a sizeable faction opposed to active euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. In the process he eventually concluded...that there was a fundamental distinction between passive and active euthanasia."
| ||||||||
| 1967 |
The first living will is written by attorney Louis Kutner and his arguments for it appear in the Indiana Law Journal.
Feb. 27, 2005 Derek Humphry "Chronology of Euthanasia and Right-to-Die Events During the 20th Century and into the Millenium," www.finalexit.org
| ||||||||
| 1968 |
The Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death publishes its report in the Journal of the American Medical Association in August 1968. The committee defines "irreversible coma" as a new criterion for death. According to the committee, a new definition of death was needed because of the great burden that trying to revive irreversibly comatose patients puts on the patients themselves, their families, hospitals and the community.
1994 Peter Singer Rethinking Life & Death
| ||||||||
| 1969 |
Daniel Callahan founds the Hastings Center, "effectively launching the discipline of bioethics."
2003 Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D. A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America
| ||||||||
| 1970s |
In the early 1970s, the widely accepted authority of the medical profession came under concerted attack in the name of patient autonomy. This challenge has been embodied in the progressive enumeration of patient rights, especially the right to refuse medical care, even life-sustaining care. The goals have been to remove physicians from decision making and to let individual patients weigh the benefits and burdens of continued life.
Nov. 15, 1994 Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D. "The History of Euthanasia Debates in the United States and Britain," Annals of Internal Medicine
|
||||||||
| 1972 |
The U.S. Senate Special Commission on Aging (SCA) holds the first national hearings on death with dignity, entitled “Death with Dignity: An Inquiry into Related Public Issues.”
"The SCA hearings, chaired by Senator Frank Church, proved to be a superb opportunity for professionals and laypeople to discuss a range of issues relating to aging and terminal illness, including the evolving doctor-patient relationship and the difficulties about defining death itself. Overall, the hearings showed that Americans were becoming increasingly unhappy about 'the brutal irony of medical miracles,' which extended the dying process only to diminish patient dignity and quality of life. Church insisted that the hearings were not about euthanasia, but try as he might, he could not keep the subject from surfacing."
| ||||||||
| 1973 |
The American Medical Association adopts a "Patient's Bill of Rights" which recognizes the right of patients to refuse treatment.
1999 Marjorie Zucker, Ph.D. The Right to Die Debate: A Documentary History
| ||||||||
| 1974 |
"The founding of the Society for the Right to Die [formerly the Euthanasia Society of America] marked a renewed dedication to pursuing the legalization of active euthanasia, a reenergized campaign to seek euthanasia laws through the political process."
2003 Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D. A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America
2000 Bryan Hilliard, Ph.D. "The Moral and Legal Status of Physician-Assisted Death: Quality Of Life and the Patient-Physician Relationship," Issues in Integrative Studies
| ||||||||
| 1976 |
21-year-old Karen Ann Quinlan had fallen into an irreversible coma at a party in 1974. After doctors declared that she was in a "persistent vegetative state," her parents went to court to have her respirator removed. The New Jersey Supreme Court rules in 1976 that Karen Quinlan can be detached from her respirator.
The case becomes a legal landmark, drawing national and international attention to end-of-life issues.
| ||||||||
| 1977 |
By
1977, eight states
-- California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, North Carolina, and Texas -- had signed right-to-die bills into law.
2000 Sue Woodman Last Rights: The Struggle over the Right to Die
| ||||||||
| 1980 |
"As the 1980s dawned, a new chapter was opening in the history of the euthanasia movement in twentieth-century America. More Americans than ever believed in a right to die, but agreement about what the right to die actually meant was increasingly difficult to reach."
2003 Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D. A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America
2003 Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D. A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America
"Humphry ranks as one of the preeminent pioneers of the American euthanasia movement... Hemlock enjoyed a remarkable growth in the 1980s that rivaled anything the other U.S. organizations had achieved... What also distinguished Hemlock from CFD [Concern for Dying] and the SRD [Society for the Right to Die] was its official support for active euthanasia and assisted suicide." | ||||||||
| 1981 |
AIDS is first clinically identified, generating interest in euthanasia and assisted suicide. A New York study later finds that the relative risk of suicide in men with AIDS from the ages of 20-59 is 36 times that of the general population.
2003 Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D. A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America
| ||||||||
| 1987 |
The California State Bar Conference passes Resolution #3-4-87 to become the first public body to approve of physician aid in dying.
Feb. 27, 2005 Derek Humphry "Chronology of Euthanasia and Right-to-Die Events During the 20th Century and into the Millenium," www.finalexit.org
| ||||||||
| 1988 |
The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes an anonymous article entitled "It's Over Debbie." The article describes how a gynecology resident in a large private hosptial had injected a patient suffering from painful ovarian cancer with an overdose of morphine. The article stirs controversy and debate, and many condemn the resident for what he had done.
1995 Jonathan Moreno, Ph.D. Arguing Euthanasia: The Controversy Over Mercy Killing, Assisted Suicide, and the "Right to Die"
Feb. 27, 2005 Derek Humphry "Chronology of Euthanasia and Right-to-Die Events During the 20th Century and into the Millenium," www.finalexit.org
| ||||||||
| 1990 |
By the early 1990s, the growing interest in the right-to-die movement became apparent in public opinion surveys. These showed that more than half of the American public was now in favor of physician-assisted death and membership of the Hemlock Society rose dramatically to reach 50,000... With increased public interest, the stage was set for an explosive swell of activity: in the courts, in professional medical journals and institutions, and, most significantly, in the homes of the American people.
2000 Sue Woodman Last Rights: The Struggle over the Right to Die
1997 Wesley Smith, J.D. The Slippery Slope From Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder
1997 Wesley Smith, J.D. The Slippery Slope From Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder
Feb. 27, 2005 Derek Humphry "Chronology of Euthanasia and Right-to-Die Events During the 20th Century and into the Millenium," www.finalexit.org
Feb. 27, 2005 Derek Humphry "Chronology of Euthanasia and Right-to-Die Events During the 20th Century and into the Millenium," www.finalexit.org
| ||||||||
| 1991 |
Washington State introduces ballot Initiative 119 to legalize "physician-aid-in-dying." The initiative is defeated. 2001 John Dombrink, Ph.D. and Daniel Hillyard, Ph.D. Dying Right: The Death with Dignity Movement
Feb. 27, 2005 Derek Humphry "Chronology of Euthanasia and Right-to-Die Events During the 20th Century and into the Millenium," www.finalexit.org
| ||||||||
| 1992 |
California voters defeat Proposition 161, the California Death with Dignity Act, which would have allowed physicians to hasten death by actively administering or prescribing medications for self administration by suffering, terminally ill patients. The vote is 54-46 percent.
Feb. 27, 2005 Derek Humphry "Chronology of Euthanasia and Right-to-Die Events During the 20th Century and into the Millenium," www.finalexit.org
| ||||||||
| 1993 |
Compassion in Dying is founded in Washington state to counsel the terminally ill and provide information about how to die without suffering and 'with personal assistance, if necessary, to intentionally hasten death.' The group sponsors suits challenging state laws against assisted suicide.
Feb. 27, 2005 Derek Humphry "Chronology of Euthanasia and Right-to-Die Events During the 20th Century and into the Millenium," www.finalexit.org
| ||||||||
| 1994 |
The Oregon Death With Dignity Act is passed, becoming the first law in American history permitting physician-assisted suicide.
1994 (PDF) 79.4K Oregon Death With Dignity Act
1994 New York State Task Force on Life and the Law When Death is Sought: Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Medical Context (PDF 88KB) | ||||||||
| 1997 |
The Supreme Court rules in Washington v. Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill that there is not a constitutional right to die.
(PDF 63KB) Vacco v. Quill (PDF 36KB) 2001 John Dombrink, Ph.D. and Daniel Hillyard, Ph.D. Dying Right: The Death with Dignity Movement
1997 Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act of 1997
| ||||||||
| 1998 |
Michigan introduces Proposal B to legalize physician-assisted suicide. The proposal fails by a vote of 29% to 71%.
2001 John Dombrink, Ph.D. and Daniel Hillyard, Ph.D. Dying Right: The Death with Dignity Movement
2001 People v. Kevorkian (PDF 148KB)
| ||||||||
| 1999 |
A
Michigan court convicts Jack Kevorkian, M.D., for the murder of Thomas Youk and sentences him to 10-25 years in prison. 2001 People v. Kevorkian (PDF) 148K
| ||||||||
| 2000 |
Maine introduces a ballot initiative, the Maine Death with Dignity Act, that reads "Should a terminally ill adult, who is of sound mind, be allowed to ask for and receive a doctor's help to die?" The initiative is defeated by a margin of 51% to 49%.
2001 John Dombrink, Ph.D. and Daniel Hillyard, Ph.D. Dying Right: The Death with Dignity Movement
2001 |
The Netherlands officially legalizes euthanasia. | 2006 International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide "Frequently Asked Questions," www.internationaltaskforce.org
2003 |
US Attorney-General John Ashcroft asks the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the finding of a lower court judge that the Oregon Death With Dignity Act of l994 does not contravene federal powers. | Feb. 27, 2005 Derek Humphry "Chronology of Euthanasia and Right-to-Die Events During the 20th Century and into the Millenium," www.finalexit.org
2005 |
The Terri Schiavo case garners national media attention. Terri Schiavo had been brain damaged since 1990 when, aged 26, her heart stopped beating temporarily and oxygen was cut off to her brain. In 1998, her husband Michael Schiavo filed a petition to have her feeding tube removed. Seven years of legal battles ensued between Michael Schiavo and Terri's parents, the Schindlers. After a Florida Circuit Judge ruled that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube be removed and the Florida Supreme Court overturned "Terri's Law," a law intended to reinsert the feeding tube, the United States Supreme Court refuses for the sixth time to intervene in the case. Terri Schiavo dies on March 31, 2005, 13 days after her feeding tube is removed.
| March 31, 2005 BBC "Timeline: Terri Schiavo Case"
2006 |
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 opinion in Gonzales v. Oregon, holds that the Controlled Substances Act does not authorize the Attorney General to ban the use of controlled substances for physician-assisted suicide. Oregon's Death With Dignity Law is upheld.
| 2006 Gonzales v. Oregon (PDF 406KB)
|