Assisted suicide is among the most controversial topics today, not only in the United States, but in many countries across the globe. Holland, for instance, is one of the countries where assisted suicide is legal under, of course, the strictest conditions imaginable. In the United States, the controversy on assisted suicide has become increasingly present since the failing health care system has left many patients without any hope. The current state of health care system is one factor that contributes to thousands of uninsured patients being unable to get tests. As some diseases must be caught early for the treatment to work, it is obvious that many patients find out about some diseases, such as cancer, in the terminal stages of the disease, when nothing else can be done to grant the patients a good quality of life.

In the United States, only Oregon and Washington allow assisted suicide. Recently, Montana has also joined their ranks, after a highly media-covered case came to an end. Robert Baxter, a 75-year-old patient in the final stages of cancer, sued the state in order to get the right to die a dignified death. Judge Dorothy McCarter ruled in favor of the plaintiff, specifying that he Montana state constitution’s protections for human dignity and individual privacy permit competent, terminally-ill Montana residents to get medications causing a peaceful death. Also, Baxter stated that he is “glad to know that the court respects my choice to die with dignity if my situation becomes intolerable. It comforts me to know that my doctor can prescribe medications that I can take to bring about a peaceful death, that I can gather my loved ones and die with dignity in my own home. This is my personal choice, based on my values and beliefs.”

It is expected that the state will file an appeal in this case.