The History of Euthanasia
The history of Euthanasia dates back to before it was even a word. The Ancient Greeks and Romans accepted it as a doctoral practice. In the 13th century, Christianity changed these ideals. Throughout civilization, starting from the Ancient Greeks, the practice of Euthanasia has been on both the positive and the negative sides of the people. New ages come with new ideals and new philosophies. Time changes minds.
5Th Century B.C - 16th Century A.D
5th Century B.C - 1st Century B.C
During the time of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, before Christianity, the practice of giving patients the poisons that they requested was acceptable. Though the doctors were bound by the Hippocratic Oath, which prohibits doctors from giving "a deadly drug to anybody, not even if asked for", many did not abide by it. Christianity did not influence any of the Greeks or Romans at the time. They had no cogently defined belief in the value of a human life. They believed that death was a better option than continuing agony, so they often complied with their patient's death wishes.
1st Century A.D - 16th century
During the Middle Ages, Christians tend to oppose Euthanasia, due to their beliefs. The Christian faith states that God decides who lives and who dies, as he is the one who created them. Those who take their own lives or the lives of others, are not "godly" people, and were punished severely for this. A suicide's corpse was dragged through streets. The medieval ethics were uncongenial to any type of self-murder.
12th Century - 15th Century
With the rise of Christianity came the assertion of the Hippocratic Oath, which prohibits Euthanasia. It held near unanimity in the medical field at the time.
13th Century
In the ancient times, Jewish and Christian thinkers have opposed suicide of any kind. To them it was contradictory to Christian belief or to human good in general. In the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas made arguments against suicide and Euthanasia that would shape Christian views on suicide for centuries to come. Aquinas condemns suicide and Euthanasia as wrong because "it contravenes one's duty to oneself and the natural inclination of self perpetuation; because it injures other people and the community of which the individual is a part; and because it violates God's authority over life, which is God's gift." This argument exemplifies the opinions about suicide and Euthanasia that was a dominant belief in the Middle Ages.
17th Century - 19th Century
17th Century
In the American Colonies, common law prohibits suicide and assisted suicide. Over 700 years ago, the Anglo American common law punished and disproved of suicide and Euthanasia. This carried down and the early American colonies adopted the common law tradition. For example, in 1647 , the Providence Plantations, soon to be Rhode Island, declared that "self murder is by all agreed to unnatural , and it is by this present Assembly to be declared, to be that, wherein that he doth it, kills himself out of a premeditated hatred of his own life or other humor... his goods and chattels are the king's custom."
1828
The earliest American statue to specifically outlaw Euthanasia is enacted in New York. The Act of December 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."
1869
The word "Euthanasia" is created and begins to be a part of medical vocabulary.
1870
Samuel Williams, a non physician, begins to publicly advocate using morphine and other drugs for Euthanasia. Morphine was used as a pain reliever. It kept sick people out pain. In the 1800's, Samuel Williams advocates it for Euthanasia. Still, most physicians believed that morphine should be used to alleviate pain, not hasten death.
1900 - 1949
1915
On November 12th, 1915, Chicago's German-American Hospital, Ana Bollinger gives birth to her fourth child, a seven pound baby boy. The baby was blue and badly deformed. Dr. Harry J. Heiselden predicted that without surgery, the baby would die. Heiselden advised against surgery. Reluctantly, the Bollingers agreed. Heiselden stated that, rather than operate, he would "merely stand by passively" and "let nature complete it's bungled job"
1930
Public support for Euthanasia increases. Due to the Great Depressions, many Americans are thinking about suicide and controlled dying. Public opinion polls show that 45% of Americans agree with Heiselden's belief that mercy killing of "infants born permanently deformed or mentally handicapped."
1935
"Mercy killing" is a term that comes into use by the public to describe euthanasia.
1940
In the 1940's, many in the U.S believed that it was a matter of time before Euthanasia became legal in the United States. What happened came as a real shock for Euthanasia advocates. World War II broke out and and Nazis marched eastward across Europe. News of horrendous Nazi atrocities against mental patients and handicapped children reached the ears of the American public. This heavily hampered Euthanasia advocates' momentum in progressing towards making Euthanasia legal.
1946
The Committee of 1776 Physicians for Legalizing Voluntary Euthanasia in New York State is established.
1950 - 1979
1950
The World Medical Association asks all national medical associations to condemn Euthanasia "under all circumstances". In the same year, the American Medical Association issues a statement that the majority of doctors do not believe in Euthanasia.
1967
The first living will is written by attorney Luis Kutner and his arguments for it appear in the Indiana Law Journal.
1974
The Society for the Right to Die is created, making a renewed dedication to pursuing the legalization of Euthanasia.
October 1, 1976
California governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signs the California Natural Death Act into law, making California the first state to grant terminally ill persons the right to authorize withdrawal of life-sustaining medical when death is believed to be imminent.
1980 - 1999
1980
In 1980, a grassroots Euthanasia organization is formed in Los Angeles. Founder Derek Humphrey "ranks as one of the preeminent pioneers of the American Euthanasia movement.
June 4, 1990
Jack Kevorkian, MD, nicknamed Doctor Death by Time Magazine, assists Janet Atkins in suicide in Michigan. Atkins' death is the first of many suicides in which "Doctor Death" assists.
November 3, 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.
November 1998
Jack Kevorkian assists a suicide on national television. Jack Kevorkian is a guest on 60 Minutes, during which he shows a videotape of him administering a lethal injection to Thomas Youk, a man suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease.
April 13, 1999
Jack Kevorkian is arrested for the murder of Thomas Youk. He is sentenced to 10-25 years in prison.
2000 - present
2000
Maine Death with Dignity Act is defeated. 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%.
2005
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 Mar. 31, 2005, 13 days after her feeding tube is removed.
June 1, 2007
Jack Kevorkian is released on parole after serving 8 years in prison.
January 13, 2014
A ruling by Second Judicial Judge Nan G. Nash prohibits the prosecution of physicians who help competent terminally ill patients end their lives. The decision stated, "This court cannot envision a right more fundamental, more private or more integral to the liberty, safety and happiness of a New Mexican than the right of a competent, terminally ill patient to choose aid in dying." The ruling further stated " NMSA 1978 § 30-2-4 ["Assisted Suicide Statute"] therefore violates our State constitution when applied to aid in dying."