X-Message-Number: 1057
From:  (Nick Szabo)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Jurisdictions with flexible legal definitions of death?
Message-ID: <>
Date: 23 Jul 92 11:21:22 GMT

References: <> 
<>


>In article <>  (Nick 
Szabo) writes:
>
>   What jurisdictions (wether local, state, nation, etc.) have the
>   most flexible legal definitions of death?  For examplee, do there
>   exist jurisdictions where Dr. Jack Kavorkian's "assisted suicide" is 
>   legal? 

News has partly answered my question.  A Michigan judge ruled it is 
legal for "Jack the Dripper" :-) to assist people in suicide there,
dismissing homicide charges.  The two patients were chronically
ill, the first with multiple sclerosis and the second with "pelvic
pain".  Both specially requested the service and had weeks to think
it over, before the doctor helped them set up the machine.  

So it is legal there for the moment, but a bill has been quickly 
introduced into the state legislature to outlaw the practice.


In article <>  (Andrew Ormsby) 
writes:

>The Netherlands allows doctors to provide drugs to assist in the
>painless death of terminally ill people, under certain circumstances
>and if the patient requests it.


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