SAFEGUARD
FOR LIFE-ENDING DECISIONS
THE PATIENT MUST BE AN ADULT RESIDENT OF THE STATE
The patient who is considering life-ending decisions
must be at least 18 years of age
and a legal resident of the state in which the life-ending decision is
proposed.
Birth certificate, driver's license,
& other commonly-accepted proofs of age and residence
should be easy for the patient to provide.
When the patient is registered for hospital or hospice care,
the questions of age and address are usually already settled.
These safeguards are so often assumed that they are
not even mentioned.
But there might be a few circumstances in which they would be relevant.
For example, if there is some question raised
about the assumed age of the patient,
then it might have to be proved that the patient is of adult years,
at least 18 years old in most places on the Earth,
so that it is clear that the
patient is the primary decider
and not the parents of the patient or some other guardian.
Likewise, if the patient is not a legal resident of
the state,
then various problems could arise for any providers of services.
And most states do not like the thought of
residents of other states coming to their state in order to die.
This has not happened in Oregon,
which does have a residency requirement.
HOW ADULTHOOD AND RESIDENCY DISCOURAGE
IRRATIONAL SUICIDE AND OTHER PREMATURE
DEATHS
Irrational suicide is known to be a problem for
teen-agers.
So requiring patients to be at least 18 years of age
will discourage some teen-agers from attempting to use their state's
right-to-die laws
as a cover for what most people would call an irrational suicide
—a
self-killing that is harmful, irrational, capricious, & regrettable.
When a child has a condition that makes him or her
a candidate for voluntary death or merciful death,
the parents of that child are the legal deciders for him or her.
When the parents are already adults,
they are assumed to have greater wisdom than possessed by children.
Children need adult guidance in making most
decisions in life,
especially when the children are very young
and when the decisions are irreversible—such
as the decision for death.
Preventing children from even thinking
of applying for voluntary death or merciful death
should encourage them to seek other ways to solve their problems.
In almost all cases, choosing death would be premature.
When out-of-state patients are refused help in dying
because they do not meet the residency requirements,
this can discourage people of unstable mind and unsettled address
from rather foolishly hoping
that going to a state where voluntary death is permitted
will be the answer to all of their problems.
The state has a right to refuse to help such persons.
(If a certain state or country provides the
right-to-die
by outlawing
causing premature death
rather than establishing some process of applying for death,
then being of adult years and living in any particular place are no
longer relevant,
since people of any age or residence can suffer premature death.)
drafted
January 2007; revised 8-28-2008; 9-10-2008; 10-9-2008