If someone wants to end their life peacefully instead of dying painfully at the hands of a deadly disease they should be allowed to do that. Every year thousands of people suffer and die at the crippling hands of extremely painful, deadly diseases. Terminally ill patients should have the right to die with the assistance of a doctor.
"I watched my 66 year old sister die in pain from stage four liver cancer." Those were the words of Anita Freedman after her sister was unable to receive a prescription for an assisted suicide medication. This is not a unusual case, many men and women are forced against their will to suffer for days, months or even years because of a law that strips freedom from millions of Americans.
Physician assisted suicide is an act of compassion that respects patient’s choice and fulfills an obligation of non-abandonment (Sulmasy & Mueller, 2017). Death is the inevitable end of life of a person or organism. As humans, we live the best way we can and with medicine and technology, humans can live a quality and healthy life-style. However, there is no human who is supernaturally immune from diseases and accidents.
Who dictates how you live your life? How does one define life and when that life should end? If you become terminally ill, would you like the choice to choose how your life ends? In the United States, assisted suicide, is a highly-debated issue. On one side, there are many in support of allowing a person the right to end their life with dignity at the time of their choosing. While others believe, it is a moral right to sustain life and leave a person’s exit from this world to a higher power. The two opposing viewpoints have both compassionate reasons and disadvantages; nevertheless, a person’s human rights as an individual are the most important aspect to uphold.
Physician-assisted suicide is a very controversial topic in the medical field. It is a topic that has been debated over for years. Webster’s dictionary defines this terms as, “suicide by a patient facilitated by means (as a drug prescription) or by information (as an indication of a lethal dosage) provided by a physician aware of the patient’s intent” (Merriam-Webster). In other words, it is a way that when a patient is ill, they can commit suicide with the help of a physician. This practice is legal in some states in the United States and in many countries around the world. This topic is so controversial because people disagree on whether it is ethical to help someone end another person’s life. There are many people that advocate this and there are also many people that disagree with helping someone commit suicide.
That abuse comes from insurance companies. Insurance and other health care companies may provide coverage for assisted suicide, but not for treatment, or palliative care. The availability of assisted suicide my ultimately lead to decreases in pain management and palliative care. This is dangerous for individuals who are ill and vulnerable, as well as those whose well-being is compromised by poverty, lack of access to adequate medical care, and advancement in age. For the described, other forms of care are completely overlooked, which is why The American Medical Association does not support physician assisted suicide and claims that “allowing physicians to participate in assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physicians role as healer…” The association believes that interventions, such as special consultations, pastoral support, family counseling, among other interventions should be sought
Places all around the world have legalized assisted suicide and it has proven successful in every place. Canada, Japan, Germany, Switzerland the USA, including California, Washington, Oregon, Vermont, and Montana, all these places have experienced and legalized assisted suicide, and every place has had an overwhelming increase in the happiness and welfare of its overall population. Canadian justices, while explaining their change in heart over assisted suicide said, “What has changed...is that other countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Colombia and Switzerland, plus four American states, have shown that assisted dying can be well regulated” (Last Rights, 2016, para. 4). This in itself expresses that because of the success other countries have already received, the implementation
In the ever changing role and dynamic atmosphere that healthcare provides, unique challenges and opportunities constantly arise which are a multi-faceted labyrinth of ethical and moral dilemma. One of the most contested and widely debated topics to be found in the healthcare workplace today is the subject of Assisted Suicide. Altering a person’s course of death into a process driven role, rather than the client’s final life event, creates a myriad of ethical and moral dilemmas.
A painful death is not a good one, wouldn’t you want to die a peaceful death? If you know you are going to die anyways wouldn’t you want it a lot more quickly and painless. The only person who can help these people are the doctors so you need the doctors to help these people who are suffering in their daily lives. Helping people this way is called doctor-assisted suicide. I believe that doctor-assisted suicide is okay and should be allowed because of.
Imagine receiving the news that you have cancer. There is no known cure, so death is inevitable – it is just a matter of when. Dying a strong, healthy person is better than dying weak and helpless. A doctor prescribing drugs to speed the time in which someone will die is a simple solution for many problems that can come with being hospitalized. An assisted suicide involves a person with a terminal illness ending his or her own life with the use of prescribed pills. Seeing the controversy of assisted suicide has been a common occurrence in the news since the 1990s. One man in particular, Jack Kevorkian – a supporter of the practice, was sentenced to eight years in prison for murder. He had assisted more than one hundred people in committing
Imagine being diagnosed with an incurable disease and told that you have less than six months to live. For the past few decades the united states has been debating whether physician assisted death should be legalized or remain illegal. Assisted deaths are legal in the states of Oregon, washington, vermont, california, and montana but remains illegal in 37 states. Would you want to be given the option or take on a natural death? Ultimately, assisted suicide is gaining importance in our society today.
The word suicide gives many people negative feelings and is a socially taboo subject. However, suicide might be beneficial to terminally ill patients. Physician- assisted suicide has been one of the most controversial modern topics. Many wonder if it is morally correct to put a terminally ill patient out of their misery. Physicians should be able to meet the requests of their terminally ill patients. Unfortunately, a physician can be doing more harm by keeping someone alive instead of letting them die peacefully. For example, an assisted suicide can bring comfort to patients. These patients are in excruciating pain and will eventually perish. The government should not be involved in such a personal decision. A physician- assisted suicide comes with many benefits for the patient. If a person is terminally ill and wants a physician assisted suicide, then they should receive one.
Do you believe that a person who is dying from an incurable disease have the right to decide if they want to die or not? Assisted suicide is a controversial medical and ethical issue based on the question of whether or not in certain circumstances a patient can determine their death. Assisted suicide is a fairly new term in today's culture but euthanasia has been around much longer in history. Euthanasia is when a doctor administers a lethal dose of drugs to a patient to cause death. Assisted suicide allows a person to end their life because of an incurable disease and to stop suffering.(Issit, Newton 1)
Recently, several states have modeled Oregon’s Right to Die Laws and have added laws that allow assisted suicide, and many more are considering some form of legislation to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia. With modern technology, advances have been made in medicine that allow people to live longer. As a consequence, there are far more terminally ill patients than ever before. Assisted suicide has become a viable alternative for some of these end of life patients. Doctors and other care-givers should not be allowed to assist terminally ill patients end their lives prematurely. Laws that legalize assisted suicide for terminally ill patients should be overturned because they allow a doctor to choose who lives and who dies and have other, unintended consequences that outweigh any benefits.
It’s the twelfth time in two weeks you’re walking through sets of automatic doors to visit a loved one in Hospice care. The sounds of beeping machines that are keeping patients alive overtakes the silent, dim hallways. You feel nothing but your heart ache waiting for a magical remedy to keep your close one alive. You’re visiting your uncle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, whose lifeless and can barely get out of bed because he’s tangled in cords attached to the machines. Its starting to hit you when all you see is a colorless figure that screams “kill me” every day. So why is this acceptable to modern day society? Assisted Suicide should be considered when dealing with the patient’s morals, cultural aspects, and the economy.
Carly CallanMrs. WallaceEnglish III Honors21 December 2017Suffer or SuicideThe decision of life or death for many individuals is imposed following the seemingly never ending spiral of pain and agony rather than the implied discussion set off with age. For a 16 year-old girl with stage 4 brain cancer, fighting for her sight and motor functions, and who is living with unbearable pain, this decision must be made; medically-assisted suicide is her only option to leave this earth with dignity and to limit her time suffering. Medically-assisted suicide, also known as physician-assisted suicide, is the process in which an individual requests assistance from the attending physician to end one’s life. The patient can be prescribed a lethal injection or a lethal dose of medication only if his/her case meets specific criteria. Patients with untreatable, terminal illness or psychological disorders should be allowed to choose medically-assisted suicide through a strictly regulated decision-making process, rather than knowingly suffer a life of unbearable pain, if the patient is informed and of sound mind. Medically-assisted suicide is controversial in many eyes and for a multitude of reasons. The debate of psychological disorders and children being legitimate cases for inclusion in evaluation are two of the common questions. The controversy arises from if this medical treatment is a form of suicide, whether it is truly a treatment, or if it is this ethically wrong and the physician is
In March 1998, a woman in her 80s suffering from breast cancer for 20 years took a lethal dose of barbiturates washed down with a glass of brandy. She became the first person known to die under the law of physician-assisted suicide in the state of Oregon. As defined by medicinenet.com, “Physician-assisted suicide is the practice of providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication for the patient to use with the primary intention of ending his or her own life.” The main arguments against it come from religious and moral reasons. While arguments for it come from compassion and respect for the dying. After researching both sides of the topic, one must come to the conclusion that terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the financial burden on their families, and preserve the right to be able to dictate their own demise.