RIGHT TO DIE: 2,000 YEARS OF DEBATE

Abstract

Legal and ethical debates over self-killing and euthanasia have raged for more than twenty-five centuries.  Section II presents original theories of natural law and its evolution through classic antiquity.  The Greco-Roman era was characterized by the morality of honor—the maintenance of self-determination and honor was the purpose of life.^[1]  Honor trumped death.^[2]  The Roman Twelve Tables, circa 450 B.C., contain some of the earliest recorded laws in western jurisprudence regarding self-determination and end-of-life choices.^[3]  Table IV concerns the passive euthanasia of unwanted or deformed infants.^[4]  Roman citizens willing or wishing to end their lives applied for permission to the Roman Senate.  If their reasons were considered sound, permission was granted and hemlock provided—free of charge.^[5]  According to Cicero, "It is the appropriate action to live when most of what one has is in accordance with nature.  When the opposite is the case, or is envisaged to be so, then the appropriate action is to depart from life."^[6]  Section III will trace the evolution of natural law and personal autonomy through the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. 

          As the Middle Ages came to a close, self-determination as the benchmark for end-of-life decisions was undermined by the ascent of church legislative rule-making and judicial activism.  As a result, personal autonomy became less important.  Section IV discusses early modern times and the growth of personal "rights" that develop the ethical and legal bases of self-determination concerning end-of-life decisions.^[7] Section V presents an examination of the judicial history of relevant right-to-die decisions in America and presents a basis for support of the right to self-determination. In the United States, common-law judicial decisions concerning suicide were codified in 1902 when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals officially moved to decriminalize suicide.^[8]  The first U.S. Supreme Court ruling concerning the right to die was decided in 1990 in Cruzan v. Director of Missouri Dept. of Health.^[9]  Significant federal legislation occurred in 1991 with the passage of the Patient Self-Determination Act.^[10]  Oregon was the first state to pass a "death with dignity" act in 1994.^[11]  The topic of one's right to choose how to die continues to be contentious, with only six states allowing physician-assisted suicide (PAS).^[12]

          Section VI provides application of the thesis statement and presents legal support for PAS through the analysis of judicial actions, such as Cruzan v. Director of Missouri Dept. of Health, Washington v. Glucksburg, People v. Kevorkian, Roe v. Wade, and others.  Legislative actions, such as the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment, will be evaluated for their effect on personal autonomy.  Paternalistic viewpoints that consider the state as the guardian of the best interest of the individual will be compared with liberty interests.^[13]  Ethical discussion will center on the right of self-determination as a continuation of the historic natural law theory.^[14]

          Formulated in ancient Greco-Roman texts, natural law firmly established individual autonomy as a basic "right" for individuals, regardless of the prevailing governance.  In western civilization, autonomy concerning end-of-life decisions has been systematically replaced by the authority of the state.  This paper shall attempt to evaluate this progression and present legal and ethical positions advocating PAS.

[1] https://www.questia.com/read/IP3-2043375791/assisted-suicide-morality-and-why-prohibiting

[2] Id.

[3] www.crystalinks.com/romanlaw.html

[4] Id.

[5] https://the vintagenews.com/2017/01/23/in-ancient-rome-suicide-was-allowed-as-a-form-of-euthanasia/

[6] https://www.ninrac.org/classical/cicero

[7] https://www.britannica.com/print/article/345753

[8] Grace v State, 44 Tex.Crim. 193,194

[9] Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Dept. of Health, 110 W. Ct. 2841, 1990

[10] Patient Self-Determination Act (1991)

[11] Oregon Code Ann. § 127.800, Ballot Measure 16 (1994)

[12] https://wwwdeathwithdignity.org/learn/death-with-dignity-acts/

[13] Engelhardt, Tristram, Jr., et al., Suicide and Assisting Suicide: A Critique of Legal Sanctions, 36 Sw L.J. 1003 (1982), Page 1005.f1

[14] Id., p. 1005.