Assisted Suicide Speech

Throughout the twentieth century, major scientific and medical advances have greatly enhanced the life expectancy of the average person. However, there are many instances where doctors can preserve life artificially. When society ponders over the idea of physician-assisted suicide, they most likely feel that the act itself would compare to murdering someone. Who really has the authority to say what is right or wrong when a loved one wants to end their life because of a terminal illness or a severe physical disability? Should Physician-assisted suicide be Legal in California to make it a euthanasia state like Oregon ? In the article titled “Nicest Lawmaker Touts Assisted Suicide,” by Clea Benson published The Bakersfield Californian in 2006, the author presents a Republican lawmaker Patty Berg, who is groom pushing a bill allowing assisted suicide be legal in California. Physician assisted suicide should be allowed to those who are terminally ill with a limited amount of time left to live, and shouldn’t be eligible for people who are young, healthy, or have plenty of time to live.

Imagine you are confined to a hospital bed, unable to achieve basic tasks that include walking, eating, moving, and even breathing. Your death is inevitable, the pain you are experiencing is excruciating and unbearable. You are given approximately two months to live, but do not want to feel as though you have been defeated in the battle against the terminal disease that binds you with your death. With your doctor, you have been discussing the possible method of Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) to end your agonizing pain. Your family fully supports your decision.

The topic of assisted suicide was almost never broached simply because it was always considered a touchy subject, that all changed last year. Medically assisted suicide is the act of a terminally ill patient deciding to withdraw all forms of medical treatment to ingest a lethal dose of prescribed medication. As of October 5,2015 California is only one of six states that offer medically assisted suicide. The additional five states include; Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, and New Mexico. Physician assisted suicide rightfully provides terminally-ill patients with the choice to end their life should they meet all requirements and be in the right state of mind at the time of their request.

Physician- assisted suicide: Is this the right thing to do? This has been a global debate for decades do patients choosing assisted suicide as an alternative in order to deal with pain management and avoid suffering due to a terminally illness. Patients are finding this option is finding more cost -efficient physician – assisted suicide is seen as more cost-efficient and affordable option for those who cannot afford medical bills, medication including. Patients in certain states has the right to choose to die with dignity by taking advantage of legal alternatives. California became the fifth state to legalize physician-assisted suicide through the End of Life Option act that was signed by Governor Jerry Brown in October 2015(Green, "Physician-Assisted

Today, modern medical advances are enabling people to live longer than ever before. Whether it's in the elderly Community or people with terminal illnesses, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment have mastered stalling the inevitable, death. In many cases, patients who are terminally ill must endure excruciating pain and suffering especially in their last six months of their life. These patients who are terminally ill want to choose another path for their medical treatment where much of that pain and suffering can be avoided. Physician assisted death also known as PAD, enables a patient to die with dignity and not turn into a shell of their former selves.

“The right of a competent, terminally ill person to avoid excruciating pain and embrace a timely and dignified death bears the sanction of history and is implicit in the concept of ordered liberty. The exercise of this right is as central to personal autonomy and bodily integrity as rights safeguarded by this Court's decisions relating to marriage, family relationships, procreation, contraception, child rearing and the refusal or termination of life-saving medical treatment.” (ACLU, 1) This right has nothing to do with just someone being able to kill themselves for no reason. This law enables the people/patients in the certain states to have another option in their end-of-life care versus just dealing with the pain and living the rest of their lives on medication that doesn’t help. In the law, it states that this is similar to laws regarding marriage and the refusal or termination of life-saving treatments such as a Do Not Resuscitate order(DNR). Just like the DNR, the assisted suicide is the patient’s choice to start the

Physician-assisted suicide is an extremely controversial issue. Physician-assisted suicide is when a physician assists a terminally ill patient in ending their life by providing the patient with both the information and medicine necessary for them to carry out the task themselves (Ebrahimi 2012). On October 27, 1997 Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Law, permitting terminally ill state residents to end their lives by giving themselves a lethal dose of medicine prescribed by their doctor (Oregon.gov). There are people who believe that the Death with Dignity Law should be implemented across the nation because it gives people who are already dying from a disease a chance to end their life with dignity, while others believe that doctors

Physician assisted suicide consists of a doctor intentionally providing a patient with the means to commit suicide. It continues to be a controversial issue that is facing our state’s legislatures and is presently legal in only four states including Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and just recently, California. Anna Gorman, an author for Kaiser Health News, published an article in USA Today titled “Disabled Right Advocates Fight Assisted Suicide Legislation.” Gorman’s article explains the dangers of a proposed legislation in California that would legalize prescriptions for terminally ill patients to end their lives. The bill was passed and will be effective for ten years. In her article, Gorman interviews four people who believe that physician

Currently, physician-assisted suicide or death is illegal in all states except Oregon, Vermont, Montana and Washington. Present law in other states express that suicide is not a crime, but assisting in suicide is. Supporters of legislation legalizing assisted suicide claim that the moral right to life should encompass the right to voluntary death. Opponents of assisted suicide claim that society has a moral and civic duty to preserve the lives of innocent persons. There is a slippery slope involving the legalizing assisted suicide. Concern that assisted suicide allowed on the basis of mercy or compassion, can and will lead to the urging of the death for morally unjustifiable reasons is

A. The problem here is that people are already burdened with an illness and on top of that, it is a long and painful process that they must endure.

Assisting suicide is only legal “in the u.s, Oregon, washington, and montana have legalized the practice of physician assisted suicide, and in 2013, vermont declared that suicide with prescribed medications was a legal “medical treatment”(Health Research funding 2). Only four states in the united states legalized assisted suicide. The legalization of assisted suicide is still ongoing. There are so many opinions and arguments to legalize, a doctor to give a patient pills that can kill them. “In 1997, Oregon passed the Death and Dignity Act, Which made doctor assisted suicide legal in that state”(Forman 8). Federal authorities tried to change this state law. But failed and it still today is

A woman suffering from cancer became the first person known to die under the law on physician-assisted suicide in the state of Oregon when she took a lethal dose of drugs in March, 1998. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act passed a referendum in November, 1997, and it has been the United States ' only law legalizing assisted suicide since then. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, more than 4,000 doctors have approved of the assisted suicide law (cited in "The Anguish of Doctors,” 1996). The law allows terminally ill patients who have been given six months or less to live and wish to hasten their deaths to obtain medication prescribed by two doctors. The most important thing to notice is that this law does not include those who have been on a life support system nor does it include those who have not voluntarily asked physicians to help them commit suicide. The issue of doctor-assisted suicide has been the subject of the heated dispute in recent years. Many people worry that legalizing doctor assisted suicide is irrational and violates the life-saving tradition of medicine. However, physician-assisted suicide should be legalized because it offers terminally ill people an opportunity for a peaceful death and recognized the inadequacy of current medical practice to deal with death.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines assisted suicide (AS) as follows: suicide with help from another person (such as a doctor) to end suffering from severe physical illness. As of 2014 four states in the USA have already legalized assisted suicide. Those states are as follows: Oregon legalized on November 8, 1994, Washington legalized on November 4, 2008, Montana December 31, 2009, and Vermont May 20, 2013 (“State-by-State Guide to Physician-Assisted Suicide - Euthanasia - ProCon.org,” n.d.). These four states are proof that assisted suicide can be legalized without the fears of the naysayers coming to life. Other states can also learn how to improve legalizing assisted suicide in their state from the states that have already legalized

Assisted suicide is a form of suicide where someone helps dying patients suffering from health problems die by taking medicine prescribed by their doctor to help them die in peace without suffering. In October 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill to make assisted suicide legal in his state after the death of a California woman named Brittany Maynard (McGreevy, 2015). The Catholic Church was fighting Jerry Brown because they did not want the bill to pass since suicide is against religious teachings (McGreevy, 2015). The California Governor made the decision to sign the bill based on a person’s right to decide when and how to die (McGreevy, 2015). California joined Oregon, Washington and Vermont in making this legal. Other states such as New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Connecticut, the District of Columbia and Maryland are trying to pass legislation to make assisted suicide legal (McGreevy, 2015).

Imagine if a close relative of yours was dying of lung cancer. Each breath they took was agonizing. No medicine or drug could lessen their pain. Their life had become a torture. They ask you to end their torment. What would you do? If you helped to hasten their death, you would most likely go to prison for murder. What this relative has asked you to do is to commit Euthanasia. Webster's Encyclopedia describes Euthanasia as the practice of hastening or causing the death of a person suffering from an incurable disease . Simply put, Euthanasia is mercy killing.