Argumentative Essay: The Right To Assisted Suicide

"You have stage IV lung cancer that has metastasized to your lymph nodes and bones. Your prognosis is poor; you may have another 18 months left [to live]." The oncologist’s words marked the beginning of my ex-husband’s physical and emotional suffering until his untimely death in January 2017. Witnessing his unrelenting pain and watching him suffer from lung cancer and the horrible side effects of chemotherapy, I wondered why the doctors did not offer him any other alternatives other than living in progressive pain. Why would they let him suffer for the next 18 months with ineffective pain management treatment when his prognosis was so poor? This option should have been available to him, but due to state laws and

Brittany Maynard, a woman known for her advocacy in the controversial topic of assisted suicide, officially ended her life this fall after learning of her fatal brain tumor. After complaining of horrible headaches, she decided to see a doctor where they gave her this traumatic news. She had two corrective surgeries to try and stop the growth of her large tumor, but they were unsuccessful. Her doctor then suggested full brain radiation, but after months of researching this option, along with many other, she knew her quality of what short life she had left would quickly deteriorate. With the help of her family, friends, and newly-wed husband, she made the decision to move with her loved ones from her California home to Oregon, where death with

You’re visiting the hospice for the twenty-third day in a row; the soft squeaking of the linoleum and the gentle buzz of the fluorescents in the waiting room greet you as you walk in. You’re visiting your Grandmother, whose lung cancer has entered metastasis, and has been slowly spreading throughout her body; she has already lost movement in her arms. She is a hollow shell of the woman she once was; her once bright eyes have been fading steadily every day, and her bubbly demeanor has become crushed and gravelly, and every day before you leave, she will only say, “Kill me.” What would you do in this situation? Would you break the law in order to respect your elder’s wishes? It is a cruel reality we live in when ability to choose the time

Personally, I believe that assisted suicide is the right choice for some terminally ill patients. However, before making a stand in this, you must first understand the forms of euthanasia. One must first give consent to be euthanised. This is considered Voluntary Assisted Suicide. After consenting, the way of going about this is decided. Passive, when a doctor ups the amount of strong painkillers, or Active, the act of giving one a dose lethal medication, are the two different forms of assisted suicide.

On the morning of April 20th, 2017, nearly a year ago as of the writing of this paper, Charlie and Francie Emerick held hands for one last time. After months of preparation, both physically and mentally, the couple was ready. They were about to commit assisted suicide (Aleccia). While many argue against the ideals of assisted suicide, which is the act of, with the help of a physician, ending your life, I believe that, under the proper legislation, it is an acceptable form of death. While some people may argue that death should be natural, doctors won’t do it, and that it’s a cry for help, it’s obvious that this is a considerable alternative which is a genuine option to the end of life.

On January 2014, Brittany Maynard married to Dan Diaz, was only 29 years old when she was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer and was told she had 6 months to live. Brittany decided to relocate to Oregon from California as she intended to end her own life by physician assisted suicide. Oregon is one of the 3 states in the United States which have specific laws that allow for legal assisted suicide. Oregon allows residents with terminal illnesses to end their own lives with lethal drugs provided by physician and it’s legal since 1994, it is termed as Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law. Brittany Maynard’s decision to end her own life has reignited the right-to-die and assisted suicide debate. After the controversial case of Maynard, California

In the fourth century B.C. doctors followed the Hippocratic Oath, which was an oath that said the rules of the medical industry and the doctor’s policy. Those who took the oath were mostly incoming doctors or people who were in the medical industry. The Hippocratic Oath states “I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.” (End of Life: Ethical Considerations paragraph 32) This directly states that the doctors back then were not allowed to perform assisted suicide at any cost. Although, in modern times the Hippocratic Oath now states “Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be

Assisted suicide is a topic that has ignited a severe debate due to the controversy that surrounds its implementation. Assisted suicide occurs when a patients expresses their intention to die and request a physician to assist them in the process. Some countries like Oregon, Canada, and Belgium have legalized the process terming it as an alternative to prolonged suffering for patients who are bound to die. Unlike euthanasia where a physician administers the process, assisted suicide requires that the patient voluntarily initiates and executes the process. Although there exists concession such a process is important to assist patients die without much suffering, there has emerged criticism on its risk of abuse and as an expression of medical

Support for physician-assisted suicide started to gain popularity growing from 37 percent in 1947 to 53 percent by the early '70s with the rise of the patients' rights movement (Drum). On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act. This act allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose. Though support for assisted suicide was high very few people were actually taking part in it “By 2014, after 16 years in which Oregonians could get used to the idea, 155 people requested prescriptions, and 105 used them. That's 105 out of about 34,000 total deaths statewide, or roughly one-third of 1 percent” (Drum). Though assisted suicide has been made legal in

Rights are a privilege and Legal autonomy has changed over time. From the status of the

To begin with, in my own opinion, yes I do believe suicide is justifiable if the person is dealing with a horrible debilitating illness that there is no hope of recovery and that they suffer horribly on a daily even hourly basis from. I believe assisted suicide for these same types of illness at the right time should be allowed as well. I’ve watched close relatives and am watching one now, die slowly from cancer with excruciating pain, nausea, weigh lose to nothing but skin and bones, lesions, sores, etc… I love & loved these people and never want to lose them but when there is no way back, and it is medically proven, why can they not have a peaceful ending to the agony? I honestly would want it assisted so it is painless yet if the law, here in Tennessee and most states, stops medical physicians and hospice from assisting, then yes if the victim can find a safe, for sure method, why not. We can put our animals down that are in pain and suffering but not our realities, even if they want this themselves, the law stops this and it should not. Keep in mind this is my opinion, from my observations only. With this said, I would want to point out that assisted suicide is legal, with the strictest of guidelines medically, in the states of Oregon and Washington (Humphrey & Schmalleger, 2012).

First of all, many support assisted suicide because they believe that it is a humane, free choice that every patient desire. A person have the right to end their life allows them death with dignity. It’s a free will because no patients should have the righteous to suffer dying without lethal dose from seeking freedom and authority. Let’s assume a person is being placed on life support, he or she feels have a unconscious mind. Which an individual cannot say or do anything and disabled if they’re in a vegetative state. In a way that it allows physician to grant medication whether he or she want to be euthanized. This statement insists that assisted suicide is a way of life, not a threat:

There probably isn’t one person that can say that they haven’t watched somebody they love in some way suffer from and ultimately die from some sort of unfortunate disease. Assisted suicide is a very controversial topic in the United States. Physician assisted suicide is defined as suicide committed by a terminally ill person with help from another person. This subject causes many controversies of ethical and moral issues. Some of these issues are that it violates the doctors Hippocratic Oath, suicide is ruled wrong in many religions, and some even say it degrades the value of human life. However, physician assisted suicide should be legalized because it offers terminally ill people an opportunity for a

Physician assisted suicide is requested by the terminally ill, typically when the pain from the illness is too much to handle and is not manageable through treatments or other medications. Assisted suicide is more of a broad term for helping someone die a good death, physician assisted suicide is where a medical doctor provides information and medication and the patient then administers the medications themselves. Euthanasia is also another term that is commonly heard, this refers to a medical doctor that voluntarily administers the lethal dose of medication to the patient when the patient requests it, due to not physically being able to do it themselves (Humphry, 2006). There pros and cons with this topic throughout the world, but is one of the biggest debated things here in the United States of America and to this day there are only five states that have legalized physician-assisted suicide (ProCon.org, 2015). The government should allow patients that are terminally ill the right to choose physician assisted suicide, why should they have to suffer when there is a way out.

“Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.”