"With the stroke of a pen, California Governor Jerry Brown made it legal for doctors in the state to prescribe lethal doses of drugs if their terminally ill patients wish to end their lives Brown signed into law on Monday, the "End of Life Act" will become law, and in doing so California joins four other states - Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana - where patients' right to choose medically assisted death is protected. by law or court order. the concept, is an inevitable part of life that all people will one day become acquainted with. However one essentially prefers to exist and prolonging this event is completely one's choice. Or is it? should an individual choose death themselves? Should that person, regardless of the reason that precipitated death, be denied assistance if sought? The concept of physician-assisted suicide has been a topic of debate since the birth of medicine. Even its name is a matter of controversy, as the term “suicide” is associated with a form of mental illness and irrational behavior, both of which must be avoided, if possible, under medical obligation (Quill and Greenlaw). Physician-assisted death/suicide occurs when a physician provides a medical means of death and instructions to a patient but does not explain the actual cause of death (Lonnquist and Weiss 389-91). This is very different from the concept of active euthanasia where a doctor directly administers the cause of death. Recognized as early as the 5th century BC in the ancient Hippocratic Oath, the origin of this practice may be...... middle of paper ......hy E., and Greenlaw, Jane. “Physician-assisted death.” From birth to death, from bench to clinic: The Hastings Center bioethics briefing for journalists, politicians and campaigns. Garrison: Hastings Center, 2008. 137-42. Death assisted by a doctor. Network. November 5, 2013. http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Publications/BriefingBook/Detail.aspx?id=220 2.5. Reich, Warren T. "The Hippocratic Oath." Encyclopedia of bioethics. Revised ed. Np: np, 1995. University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. Network. November 5, 2013. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/hippocratic.html6. Roberts, John and Kjellstra, D. Carl. "Jack Kevorkian: A Medical Hero." BMJ. JSTOR, June 8, 1996. Web. October 29, 2013.7. "Frontline: The Kevorkian Verdict: The Thanatron." PBS. PBS and Web. October 29, 2013. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kevorkian/aboutk/thanatronblurb.html