Against Life Support

Though one is not a supporter of euthanasia and/or assisted suicide, circumstances can easily influence the choice to undertake. However, one should not advocate or condone assisted suicide just because a patient feels they should die. The option of assisted suicide (Physician Assisted Suicide) should be left for terminally ill patients, whose death is expected to be slow and painful both to the patient and family around them.

Since the 1970’s, taking an individual off life support is widely accepted in society (Taraska). The ill patient survives through the machine and therefore, has no capability of surviving on her own. He or she has an inevitable death. Similarly, with a terminally ill patient, death is imminent. The Oregon Legislation only allows patients with a six-month prognosis to apply and receive the treatment. While a false prognosis may be a potential concern, the significance of the argument does not exist due to its rarity. So what’s the difference if a patient decides to receive a lethal dosage with only three months to live compared to a patient living the full six months, but spending the last three on a ventilator, where they eventually are unplugged. In both scenarios, the patient will eventually die, with or without the ventilator or lethal

Suffering is a horrible thing. Lying in agony and pain because of a disease or sickness is completely dismaying. Sensing death in the air may be the single-most fearful emotion someone could feel. Many people are against euthanasia or assisted suicide because it seems morally and religiously wrong. Those against the issue feel God alone decides who lives and dies. However, keeping patients alive on machines is completely unnatural or artificial even. Euthanasia or assisted suicide, is ethical due to the fact everyone is guaranteed civil rights under the 14th Amendment, ill or competent people should have the right to choose to be euthanized and if deliberate killing takes place outside of self-defense, protection

Taking this option off the table for patients like my mother, the medical world is denying patients the ability to pass in peace and when they are truly ready to face the inevitable due to extreme circumstances. I support death with dignity, and hope that we all can one day elect to pass with dignity.

Suicide is obviously something that no one wants to talk about. But what if someone is requesting to kill themselves? What would go through your mind if that question ever came up? We’ve all heard of the death penalty. It’s an extremely large topic that people don’t like to discuss. However, there is a procedure that takes a life with the ‘say so’ of the person, not a jury. Physician-assisted suicide is something that happens on a daily basis, but we are completely oblivious to it. Someone is requesting that a doctor put them in an eternal sleep and with higher approval, the wish will be granted. But what ordinary people don’t understand is to get that dream to come true, so many things need to be in order and discussed before the option is

Physician-assisted suicide, also known as euthanasia, has been a hot topic as of late. If you do not know what this is, physician-assisted suicide is the taking of ones life. This usually occurs when a patient is in a irreversible state, and must live through a tube. With multiple cases occurring in the past, current and the more to occur the in the future, this looks to remain a hot topic. Some of those cases include Terri Schiavo, and Scott Thomas, which have both resulted in court cases and conversation all around the globe. Physician-assisted suicide is one of those topics that can be looked at multiple ways, and have multiple different solutions. Someone could look and justify it through the lens of Natural law and could bring up the doctrine of double effects, or the preservation of human life. Another person could go against it by using utilitarianism and could bring up how it maximizes the good, and produces the greatest overall good. Whether you find it to be murder/suicide or just a smarter decision if you cannot life properly, you must realize this is an issue that does need to be discussed more. Even with the attention it has gotten, it still is not discussed politically, and is not up there with other popular topics in our media today. If someone is in a state where he or she has to live off a tube is he or she really even alive?

There are many different viewpoints when it comes to the assisted suicide laws. You can see that many agree and many disagree with this law. Now seeing all of the controversy you can come up with your opinion to either agree or disagree with the right to assisted

Is it right that a person has to suffer through three months of life support before they die just because the law says that even though a person is going to die soon that it is wrong to help them end their suffering because that would be considered murder. Many people believe that euthanasia should be legalized. This has caused a lot of controversy in today’s society especially with religious organizations. Almost all churches claim that nobody has the right to take another persons life away except

This question has major impact on many people’s lives, their deaths, and their quality of life. Many other questions can be asked in conjunction with this question. How would you like to be kept on life support? Would you want a doctor to make the decision of ‘life or death’? The questions just keep on coming, and every time we seem to find ourselves divided. This issue is relevant because of the recent media coverage over Terri Schiavo’s right to live or die and the fact that any of us could be in her situation. In the case of Quinlan1., the court asked, "If the patient could wake up for 15 minutes and understand his or her condition fully, and

As you look at the cases surrounding assisted suicide the people who are terminally ill are the ones fighting for this issue and are taking their case to court. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable disease that causes incredible pain, loss of movement, speaking, swallowing, and eventually breathing. When diagnosed with this disease you are aware of the precious time you have left. Sue Rodriguez had this disease, and didn’t want to continue living her life in this kind of pain as the illness took over her body. “She did not wish to die as long as she still had the capacity to enjoy life in some way.” (Davidson, 2) Sue was one of the numerous people that wanted help in ending her life. If you have a terminal illness and there is no possible way that you are going to survive, it should be your choice whether or not you want to end your life. In reality, judges and officials that protect your rights are the ones that decide this choice for you. “No one would want to live in that condition.” (Latimer) Not only does the person with the terminal illness affects them, but it also puts stress on the entire family which makes it hard on everyone. This is why I believe that if you are terminally ill, assisted suicide should be an option for

Pursuing this further, nobody likes seeing the person they love suffering every single day. With P.A.S, they could help their loved ones end their misery. Usually the patients that request P.A.S have an underlying illness, so when a patient uses physician assisted suicide they are taken away from their suffering in the most peaceful way. In states where P.A.S is illegal, patients with terminally ill sicknesses spending their days in the hospital on life support. Being hooked up to machines is not the way anybody wants to spend their last moments. When that is the only way to keep them from dying, what is the point off keeping them alive? When in the inside they are hurting and they wish to die. With P.A.S patients know when their day is going to come and they plan how they want to

First of all, I want to let you know that you picked a great topic that most people try to avoid talking about. As healthcare professional we have brought great benefits to the community we serve; However, we cannot entirely solve the pain and distress of the dying process. What makes this a debatable topic is that every person deals with death in their individual way. According to Murphy (2017) assisted suicide is only for those individuals that have a terminal illness as well as a prognosis of six months or less to live. Personally, I'm not for it, nor am I against it. I can understand from the individuals who are suffering from a terminal illness and sees this option as their only way out. On the other hand, working

In conclusion, assisted suicide is supported by the right of people to make decision about their life provided the patient is in the right mental state to do it.

The reason I brought up this example is because I do not believe in life support. Virtually when you are on life support your pretty much dead or a vegitable. Life support is the reason why someone is still alive when they really shouldnt be. Thats why I brought up this example because if this patient were to die naturally they would not be on life support and since she is virtually dead with minimal brain function, I believe the right thing to do would be to take one of her organs if she was an organ donor to help the other patient survive who just came in from being in a head on collision who has a possibility to live.

Of course, there are some arguments for the elimination of euthanasia alltogether. Euthanasia is killing; there is no question about it. Even the New England Journal of Medicine admits this; Dr. Ronald Cranford, one of the authors of a report saying that it is moral to give patients information on suicide, publicly acknowledges that this is "the same as killing the patient,” (http://www.ieatf.org). In addition, keeping a deathly ill relative or friend on life support can make the transition between life and death much easier for loved ones. That is, instead of having all at once to get used to having a relative or friend not be around physically or mentally, acknowledging such a reality is a gradual transition. Also, it is much easier on the minds of family members and friends for them to know they did all they could to save their dying loved one. It is easy to see how somebody could feel responsible for their loved one’s death having allowed doctors to euthanise him or her. Furthermore, if assisted suicide becomes widely accepted, there will undoubtedly be a lot more people dying this way. In Holland, for example, where laws against assisted suicide are largely ignored and rarely enforced, “25,300 cases of assisted suicide occur each year… This represents 19.4% of all deaths,”