Aid-In-Dying Personal Statement

Understand the requirements of legislation and agreed ways of working to protect the rights of individuals at end of life;

Physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill is one of the most debated policies in America. Physician assisted suicide (PAS) is only considered a when a patient has a terminal illness and expresses their right to end their life with a physician. This scenario typically takes place when a patient is suffering severely from a terminal illness and it is only a matter of time before they will die. Advocates for PAS have typically had a loved one who is or was suffering through their final stages of life. Each individual state has specific laws and policies regarding the process of PAS; however, the requirements for a patient to be considered for PAS are similar (Death with Dignity, n.d.).

Francis Bacon once said, “I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.” In other words, people are not afraid to die. Rather, they are afraid of the way in which they are going to die. Today, four centuries of medical progress later, Bacon’s words are truer than ever. Medical advances have allowed physicians to prolong the lives of their patients, or maybe it would be better to say, to prolong their deaths. People are made to live too long in ways they would not choose: dependent upon machines, lying in comas, and suffering unbearable pain. Bacon’s “stroke of death” has become the “stretch of death,” giving people all that much more to fear.

they can offer a wealth of information and can help to make them feel useful.

Long-term care is a result of people having terminal conditions, disabilities, illnesses, injuries, or being elderly. The purpose of long-term care is to provide services to people and to aid people at a time in their lives when they cannot depend on themselves to maintain daily activities. There are many variations of long-term care available – such as home care, adult day care, and independent and assisted living, personal care facilities, nursing homes, and hospice.

their patients, or to assist them in ending their lives? Many people may believe that physicians would never perform the latter, but in actuality one practice does so. Physician assisted suicide is the intentional ending of one’s life brought on by lethal substances prescribed by a doctor. In the majority of cases, the patient is terminally ill and simply does not desire to live any longer. Their physician provides the medication necessary to end their life. Many supporters aver that this practice is merely an act of compassion as terminally ill persons may suffer extreme pain that eradicates any will to live. They also assert that the decision to die is of the patient’s

Tony Nicklson, a father of two, starves himself to death after the Supreme Court rejects his request to “die with dignity” with the help of medical professionals. A graduate student faces ten years in jail for shooting his dying brother after the court refused his plea to die. A retired magistrate, suffering from multiple sclerosis, refuses to take any medication or palliatives to help the fight to change the law on physician assisted dying. These are some of the recent headlines telling stories of people fighting to legalize physician aid in dying (PAD). Currently, PAD is illegal in most states except for Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont. I believe that PAD is an essential constitutional right, and should be legalized in all

Q1: Complete the following table, describing the needs you would have to consider when planning the different aspects of end of life care for an individual

The aim of a hospice is to improve the quality of life of the dying

Death is inevitable. It is one of the only certainties in life. Regardless, people are often uncomfortable discussing death. Nyatanga (2016) posits that the idea of no longer existing increases anxiety and emotional distress in relation to one’s mortality. Because of the difficulty in level of care for end-of-life patients, the patient and the family often need professional assistance for physical and emotional care. Many family caregivers are not professionally trained in medicine, and this is where hospice comes into play. Hospice aims to meet the holistic needs of both the patient and the patient’s family through treatment plans, education, and advocacy. There is a duality of care to the treatment provided by hospice staff in that they do not attempt to separate the patient’s care from the family’s care. Leming and Dickinson (2011) support that hospice, unlike other clinical fields, focuses on the patient and the family together instead of seeing the patient independent of the family. Many times in hospitals, the medical team focuses solely on the goal of returning the patient back to health in order for them to return to their normal lives. They do not take into account the psychological and spiritual components of the patient’s journey and the journey that the family must take as well. For treatment of the patient, Leming and Dickinson agree that hospice does not attempt to cure patients, and instead concentrates solely

For many people, the process of dying is a prolonged, painful, and emotionally devastating experience. Dying often leaves an individual filled with fear, confusion, and feelings of loneliness and isolation. Fortunately, there are palliative care options that seek to mitigate not only the physical pains and symptoms of death, but also actively work to address the emotional turmoil countless people experience as they begin to descend towards death. On the other hand, far too many Americans still die in intensive-care-units and emergency rooms, where doctors aggressively work to save the lives of all patients, without regarding the actual status or well-being of the person’s life before them. Dying in a hospital room is not peaceful; it is often

The current law on assisted dying is provided in s.14 1 (1c) that “an offence is liable for imprisonment for up to 14 year”. In addition to this, the DPP must give their consent in order for a prosecution to arise. However, as a result of the induction of the Human right act in 1998, in recent cases the courts are unwilling to prosecute. Thus, in R v DPP it was held that a women who helped her husband go to Switzerland to commit suicide would not be convicted, as article 8 of the convention related to the way in which she lived, which included the way she chose to pass the closing moment of her life. Therefore, this case illustrates how the impact of the Human rights act , especially the right to a private life in article 8, has impacted the

     Assisted suicide is one of the most controversial topics discussed among people every day. Everyone has his or her own opinion on this topic. This is a socially debated topic that above all else involves someone making a choice, whether it be to continue with life or give up hope and die. This should be a choice that they make themselves. However, In the United States, The land of the free, only one state has legalized assisted suicide. I am for assisted suicide and euthanasia. This paper will support my many feelings on this subject.

Is the role of a medical professional to ensure the health and comfort of their patients, or to help them end their lives? Since Dr. Kevorkian assisted in the suicide of Janet Adkins in 1990, physician-assisted suicide (PAS) has been one of the most controversial issues in the medical field today. While some view it as an individual right, others view it as an unethical issue that goes against medical ethics and religious values. Mr. H. M. is an elderly man who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and no chance of improvement. After excruciating pain and suffering, he has decided to request physician-assisted death in his home state of Oregon. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act (DDA) states that terminally ill patients are allowed to use

Care team members need to be aware of this tendency to overestimate survival, to reduce residents’ and families’ potential distress.