The ethical debate over euthanasia dates back to ancient Greece and Rome. It was the Hippocratic school (around 400 BC) that eliminated the practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide from medical practice. Euthanasia itself raises many ethical dilemmas: for example, is it ethical for a doctor to assist a terminally ill patient to end his life? Under what circumstances, if any, is euthanasia considered ethically appropriate for a physician? Furthermore, euthanasia raises the question of the different ideas people have about the value of the human experience. Philosopher Ezekial Emanuel claims that 19th- and 20th-century ethical beliefs in the United States resemble those of today, both in terms of content and ferocity. Emanuel adds that interest in euthanasia arose historically and predictably from (1) economic recession or social Darwinism movements; (2) doctors who have engaged in a struggle with society for their medical authority and profession; and (3) cessation of life-sustaining practices becomes part of standard medical practice, and there is a desire to extend this to active euthanasia. Arguably, all three situations occurred by the end of the 20th century. The rise of managed care, rising healthcare costs, and the growing number of uninsured patients place economic and political pressure on individuals (and governments) to find a cost-containment solution. Furthermore, since the late 1970s, the medical profession has faced the dominant principle of patient independence as a challenge, first to medical paternalism and then also extending to the principle of beneficence. Additionally, the use of the Internet and other global media has expanded patients' ability to access a... paper medium...... (Prometheus Books 1991). MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, CATO MAIOR DE SENECTUTE (1873).Michigan v. Kevorkian, 447 Mich. 436 (1994).PLATO, DE RE PUBLICA, GR., AUSZ (Rick Barbaric 1976).Roe v. WRITINGS OF SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS (Hackett Publ'g 1997).SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, SUMMA THEOLOGICA (Hayes Barton Press 1999).SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, TREATY ON LAW (St Augustine PressInc 2009).Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 US 702 (1997). ).Secondary sourcesCRAIG PATERSON, THE CONTRIBUTION OF NATURAL LAW THEORY TO THE MORAL AND LEGAL DEBATE CONCERNING SUICIDE, ASSISTED SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA (Universal-Publishers 2010).DAVID HUME, ON SUICIDE (Penguin UK 2005).PAUL CRICK, MEDICAL ETHICS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD (Georgetown Univ. Press 2001).SUSAN M. BEHUNIAK & ARTHUR G. SVENSON, DOCTOR-ASSISTED SUICIDE (Rowman & Littlefield 2003).