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Enacted in New York, this statute lead the way for almost all other states to have laws in place by the ratification of the 14th Amendement.
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The Journal of the American Medical Association attacks the pro-euthanasia movement saying,"...make the physician don the robes of an exacutioner."
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As life started to suck in the 1930s during the Great Depression, Euthanasia support increased in the United States.
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Society is founded in England
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This defeat combined with the outbreak of WWII and the discovery of Nazi extermination camps quelled the debate for a number of years.
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Nebraska Senator John Comstock introduced legislation called the Voluntary Euthanasia Act, which called for the legalization of active euthanasia. It was never voted on but demonstrates an emerging interest in legislating euthanasia.
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Founded by Charles Francis Potter, the foundation believed in the right for terminally ill patients to voluntarily end their lives.
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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.
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American and British Euthanasia Societies petition the United Nations to amend the Declaration of Human Rights to include euthanasia
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The idea of patient rights to defy the authority of doctors and even choose to refuse life-saving care.
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The "Death with Dignity" debates raged in the Senate. Mainly between the euthanasia societies and the church
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Yup, pretty self explanatory.
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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. -
California legislature legalizes euthansia for terminally ill patients.
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New Mexico, Arkansas, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, North Carolina, and Texas -- signed right-to-die bills into law.
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In his statement, Pope John Paul II declares that while the practice of euthanasia is wrong, the patient reserves the right to refuse "extra-ordinary" means to sustain life.
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California State Bar Conference becomes first major public body to support right to die.
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Supreme Court rules that a patient has the right to refuse life saving/sustaining medicine.
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Political issue polls show that over 50% of Americans support physician assisted death.
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Again, self explanatory.
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A Michigan court convicts Jack Kevorkian, MD, for the murder of Thomas Youk and sentences him to 10-25 years in prison.
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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 1994 does not contravene federal powers.
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Washington becomes the second US state to legalize physician assisted suicide
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Named "Dr. Death." Jack Kavorkian assists in first of many mercy killings.
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Brittany Maynard chooses to end her life on the predetermined date of Octorber 31.