LEGALIZATION OF ASSISTED SUICIDE IN THE U.S. Currently, physician-assisted suicide or death is

Choosing to die with the assistance of a physician is a much debated controversial issue in the states. Assisted suicide is where a patient with a terminal disease choose to take their life to relieve their suffering, sometimes with the aid of a physician, and is legal in only five states. Assisted suicide is “legal in Washington, Oregon, California, Vermont and Bernalillo County,New Mexico(Death with).” This option should be available to patients in all states, because terminally ill patients should have the choice to end their suffering if their pain becomes unbearable. Terminal patients should be able to die on their own terms.

1. (problem – PAS): In today’s society, Physician Assisted Suicide is one of the most questionable and debatable issues. Many people feel that it is wrong for people to ask their doctor to help them end their life; while others feel it is their right to choose between the right to life and the right to death. “Suffering has always been a part of human existence.” (PAS) “Physicians have no similar duty to provide actions, such as assistance in suicide, simply because they have been requested by patients. In deciding how to respond to patients ' requests, physicians should use their judgment about the medical appropriateness of the request.” (Bernat, JL) Physician Assisted Suicide differs from withholding or discontinuing medical treatment, it consists of doctors providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication to aid in the use to end their life.

Taking a pro approach for physician assisted suicide, Jones’s article delivers the facts to why physician assisted suicide becomes legal. Physician assisted suicide is indeed legal in five U.S states such as, California, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Colorado. Rather than the article being good or bad, this text is highly biased. Jones provides facts to why physician assisted suicide should be legalized. Applying this article helps provide factual evidence about the Death with Dignity laws.

Oregon is one of only five states along with Vermont, Washington, Montana and New Mexico that allow medically assisted suicide. In the rest of the country, assisting people with suicide even if they are terminally ill will be accused as a crime. According to the KQED news, ”Advocates of assisted-suicide laws believe that mentally competent people who are suffering and have no chance of long-term

Physician-assisted suicide was first made legal in the state of Oregon. (Hendin) In cases of euthanasia, physicians often give lethal doses of a medication to terminate a patient’s life because they’re experiencing intolerable pain. Patients who wish to use the Death with Dignity law in Oregon must be eighteen or older, must be a resident of Oregon, and they must be able to make their own health care decisions. (Sharp 53) However, the law does not require the patient to be in unmanageable pain, they must just have a prognosis of less than six months to live. (Sharp 54) This law seems to be in place to kill patients more quickly to open up hospital space, instead of compassionately ending someone’s suffering.

Physician-assisted suicide is controversial in healthcare and political realms alike. Currently, this end-of-life option is practiced in five states within the United States. Social concerns regarding assisted suicide revolve around ethical quandaries; providing the means to a patient’s death is contradictory to ethical principles of healthcare providers. Political concerns surrounding the legalization of assisted suicide include disparities in healthcare that may lead to certain populations choosing assisted suicide and the stagnation of current care options. While there is no succinct manner in which to declare assisted suicide right or wrong, each individual must address the social and political concerns surrounding the issue when voting for legislation to legalize assisted suicide or pursuing the option for themselves.

In a case where assisted suicide takes place in a courts decision for a patient who cannot speak for their selves who initially wanted to stay alive compared to a terminally ill patient wishing to die on their own terms are restricted from making that decision due to laws than both seem unjust depending on one’s perspective. Based on the National Right to life Committee (Kenneth. "Right to Die."). there are Forty states that generally allow physicians to refuse to comply with patients request when it comes to life- sustaining measures also making assisted suicide a criminal defense. which is why state laws that are against physician – assisted suicide can be seen as unconstitutional. There are only 5 states were measures for assisted suicide has been approved in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, and California (Kenneth. "Right to

On November 1994 the people who lived in Oregon passed the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. In the Article, “Observations on the first year of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act” written by Lee and Werth, they explain through the use of data how the Act has helped individuals and how the process works. The Act allows a mentally competent, terminally ill Oregon adult resident to request, and an Oregon licensed physician to prescribe, medication that may be used to assist in dying (Lee). Of course an Act like this was going to cause issues. Immediately after the law passed, a federal District Court agreed to hear a constitutional claim against this new law and issued an injunction preventing it from going into effect; the lawsuit proceeded with hearings,

It is alarming that in 2013, there were eight patients from Oregon who died from lethal medication they were prescribed one to two years prior (Annual Reports). In order to receive a prescription, a patient must have a terminal illness along with a prognosis of less than six months. Physician-assisted suicide should not be legalized because not only is it unethical overall, but it leads to a slippery slope regarding normalized euthanasia, and power wrongfully resting in the hands of someone else to decide another person’s time of death.

Physician-assisted suicide is “often defined by its supporters as helping an individual who is suffering to die with dignity. It is often considered the merciful thing to do” (all.org). It is currently legal in six states, including California as of October 2015. I, as well as seven out of every ten Americans, believe that legalization of assisted suicide should be nationwide (Ross, “Dying Dutch: Euthanasia Spreads across Europe”). Patients all over the country experience life-threatening illness that is often coupled with excruciating pain, physical and emotional. Legalizing assisted suicide provides patients with the option to end their lives with dignity and peace. This also allows patients to no longer feel like a burden on family, friends,

There are “right-to-die” movements that advocated laws backing physician assisted-suicide. However, assisted-suicide should not be legalized in all states. Not only does it violate government laws and medical ethics, it also endangers socially marginalized groups, and

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld court decisions in Washington and New York states that criminalized physician-assisted suicide on July 26, 1997.12 They found that the Constitution did not provide any “right to die,” however, they allowed individual states to govern whether or not they would prohibit or permit physician-assisted suicide. Without much intervention from the states individuals have used their right to refuse medical treatment resulting in controversial passive forms of euthanasia being used by patients to die with dignity such as choosing not to be resuscitated, stopping medication, drinking, or eating, or turning off respirators.9

It is thought that the presumed vulnerable would be left helpless if physician-assisted suicide were legalized, though evidence shows this claim is false. People presumed vulnerable to physician assisted suicide are the uninsured, the poor, people with little education, people older than 80, women, people with mental illnesses, people with physical disabilities, minors and racial and ethnic minorities. There is no evidence supporting the claim that any of these groups have been adversely affected since physician-assisted suicide was legalized in Oregon in 1997. Since the law was passed in 1997, 460 patients have died from ingesting physician prescribed medication under the Death with Dignity Act (Department of Human Services, 2010). In 2009 a total of 59 deaths were from physician-assisted suicide; 98.3 percent were white, 48.3 percent had at least a bachelors degree, 98.7 percent had health insurance, and 78 percent were between 55 and 84 years-old (Department of Human Services, 2010). These statistics clearly show the vulnerable have not been poorly affected by the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.

The United States is a nation founded on freedoms and liberties, giving each citizen the ability to make their own life decisions. This freedom includes all aspects of one’s life, including medical care. With freedom comes responsibility, and this is true in terms of physician-assisted suicide. The ongoing struggle between those in favor and those opposed to this subject has ravaged the medical field, bringing into question what is morally and ethically right. The fact of the matter is that physician-assisted suicide is neither morally nor ethically acceptable under any circumstance. Not only is it a direct violation of a doctor’s Hippocratic Oath, but it is not constitutionally binding. Physician-assisted suicide would also lead to

Legalization of physician-assisted suicide in all 50 states would not be without precedent. Five U.S. states, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, and most recently California have all passed a Death with Dignity Act. This law gives the right to die through lethal medication to a legal adult deemed mentally capable. The requirements of the law are very extensive; the decision for receiving this care is not taken lightly. The patient is deemed mentally competent to “make and communicate health care decisions” and the prognosis must be six months or less to live (Death with Dignity Act Requirements”). The patient does not immediately receive the medication upon request.