Faye Girsh

Faye Girsh is executive director of the Hemlock Society USA, a right-to-die organization headquartered in Denver, Colorado. In the following viewpoint, Girsh argues that the terminally ill should have more medical choices at the end of their lives. While dying patients are allowed to refuse life-prolonging treatments or to choose hospice care, Oregon is thus far the only state in the United States that permits physician-assisted suicide. Girsh contends that fatally ill patients should be able to consider all possible alternatives, including physician aid in dying, as death approaches.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What Supreme Court case established the right to refuse unwanted medical treatment?
2. What criteria must be met before patients are allowed aid in dying under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act?
3. According...