Edith McDonald

September 25, 2008 Edith McDonald, age 21, was admitted after she came to Saint Severin's Hospital complaining of flu-like symptoms. Her doctor of record was Robert Jeremy Mathis. Ms. McDonald was pale, complaining of chills, unable to maintain focus, and had badly slurred speech. Because of this a series of test were performed and it was discovered that Edith McDonald had advanced leukemia. She was immediately scheduled for chemotherapy and bone marrow donors were sought. When the surgery was scheduled though, Ms. McDonald backed out.

Even with being told the risks of not going through with the surgery, Ms. McDonald maintained she was a member of a religious group, which did not accept modern medicine as part of God's will. With this she asked to be released into hospice care.

After three weeks she returned to the hospital and began asking doctors to assist her suicide. In Oregon this is legal under certain circumstances. Being that she had the proper paperwork, the hospital agreed to allow Dr. Mathis to assist. Ms. McDonald was pronounced dead by doctors on December 25, 2008. Afterwards her body was released to her family.

Ms. McDonald's parents brought suit against the hospital for the wrongful death of their daughter in June, 2009. They used the argument that Ms. McDonald didn't qualify for the assisted suicide under the "Death with Dignity" law because there was a probable cure had she gone ahead with the operation. Also saying that Doctors did not determine the state of mind she was in prior agreeing to participate in the assisted suicide. In October, 2009, the McDonalds' brought suit against the state of Oregon for the wrongful death of their daughter. This time they argued in federal court that although the Oregon laws allowed for doctor assisted suicide the law was contradictory with federal laws against murder. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed and said that in all cases where state law contradicts federal law, federal law will apply as per the Supremacy Clause (ref. McCullough v. Maryland, 1819).

Statement of Issues Presented for Review

I started this project with high hopes of assisted suicide being right and just. Instead of me telling you I found that this wasn't the case I actually found that I was right. The only problem is people don't like change and want to argue over little stupid thing.

I first wanted to understand was what assisted suicide was and how it would be done. Thankfully you told us the necessary requirements and even showed us a film on how it was done. A lot of the students in the room felt sad for not only the wife and kids, but also for the husband who killed himself. I think that after watching that film a lot of students might not look on it as favorably as they