Persuasive Essay On Death With Dignity

When dealing with Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) ethical dilemmas can come into place. Known as Euthanasia allows physicians to cause death to a terminally ill patient. There are many states that passed the law to allow PAS Oregon and Washington are just two of them. There are five total that allow PAS and they are Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Montana, and California. With Montana PAS is a court ruling meaning that you well must go to court and present your case. While, CA, OR, VT, and WA are legislation. You must be least eighteen. a resident of the state, and diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within mouths. On October 27,1997 Oregon created the “Death with Dignity Act”. It allowed people who were terminally ill

The opposed believe that administering these medications and assisting someone’s impending death is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath. Also saying arbitrary things like that doctors make mistakes all the time. That these patients may not even be dying or suffering that much (Torrey, 2014). Many followers of religious assemblies are against this act because they think that its Gods plan for them to get sick and pass away, and that they should die the way He planned. Many of the group who is against the Death with Dignity Act claim that this is a slippery slope, in the fact that people may start to abuse the system and even eventually lead to legalized murder. The biggest argument is that is slims down the chances or a miracle and a full recovery (Torrey,

A tough issue on the rise in the United States is whether or not Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) should be legal. Physician Assisted Suicide allows a physician to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to a patient to end their life. However, the patient has to take the drugs on their own. PAS would be only offered to those suffering from a terminal illness with less than six months to live. The way these patients go about treating and or living with a terminal illness is a very hard decision to make. This is the first time they have been given the choice of how they wish to die. PAS is an option that allows the sick to avoid the immense pain in their final months. The issue however, is whether this allows them to die with dignity or if it allows them to be taken advantage of.

The Death with Dignity Act, which was accepted by Oregon in 1977 has allowed 1,173 people to receive prescriptions and 752 people have used them to die from physician assistance (Egan 2015). These numbers are very important to consider. Allowing people to simply have the option to use the medicine to end their life, having it at their dispense, gives the patients the feeling that they have some control, and aren’t so helpless. These patients often feel like they have no control over their life anymore. The sickness is slowly killing them, and the option of physician-assisted suicide allows them to have control of one significant part of their life.

“Having this choice at the end of my life has become incredibly important. It has given me a sense of peace during a [time] that otherwise would be dominated by fear, uncertainty, and pain” ("11 Emotional Quotes ). This quote was stated by Brittany Maynard, a twenty-nine year old who chose to end her own life. She had terminal brain cancer and chose to move to Oregon which, at the time, was one of the only states that offered the Death With Dignity Act. In a 2014 TIME article, it was stated that, “Maynard is one of more than 750 people in Oregon who have ingested a lethal dose of prescription medication since the Death with Dignity Act went into effect in 1997” (Barone). Every citizen should have the right to physician assisted death under circumstances of terminal illness and unbearable pain. (ADD THREE MAIN IDEAS AT THE END OF THIS PARAGRAPH)

I support Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act because it will allow the patient’s family to observe a peaceful, loving, and calm death with their last moments with their loved one. My mother had to watch my uncle suffer from his illness. It wasn’t comfortable for her because she had to watch him suffer and not being able to move by himself. He had lung cancer and he had the hardest time breathing. He never got the choice to request a lethal dose of medication unlike the patients in Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. Their family members don’t have to go through what my mother went through watching my uncle suffer. If he had a choice, I believe he would have taken the route to end his life with a pill. His death was not peaceful, loving, and calm at all from what my mom explained and that is how a death should be.

Imagine being a terminal patient in agonizing pain only to be told there is no cure for the pain, and being terminal you will eventually die but it won’t right away, but the pain is so great you wish for death every day. Many advocates on the opposing side of the law believe that the Death with Dignity law should be considered suicide. The Death with Dignity law allows terminally ill patients to hasten their inevitable death. Death with Dignity is not suicide but a possible option if the patients’ pain becomes too great and their quality of life is severely diminished. Protesters on both sides of this debate believe that they are doing what’s

Brittany Maynard brought up a good argument when she said, “I would not tell anyone else that he or she should choose death with dignity. My question is: Who has the right to tell me that I don’t deserve this choice?” (Slotnik). Brittany Maynard was a young woman who found out she had a terminal brain cancer and ended up becoming the public face for the right to die act. Many people believe that this act should not be in place, but in taking this act away people lose their right to choose when they want to die. People may argue the fact that doctors have access the drug with assisted suicide is very unsettling; however, the doctors are professionals who are trusted with this drug. This act is important because it gives the terminally ill one last independent decision before they lose themselves. Taking away the act means taking their free will away from them.

The availability of the drug has not gone unnoticed as people appreciate the availability of the treatment. A recent article stated that, “As of last year, 1,173 Oregonians have qualified for lethal prescriptions, and 752 patients have used them to end their lives (Harbarger).” Several Oregonians have gone through the process of retrieving the prescription for the sake of their well-being, but never actually take the drug. The abuse of the drug is not present as not everyone who qualifies for the prescription is taking advantage. Based off the numbers, the typical user suffers from some form of terminal cancer and is over 65 (Harbarger). Comparing age of Death with Dignity users vs. Oregon residents, about 29% of the 65-74 year olds in Oregon use Measure 16 (Harbarger). It is interesting how the elderly take advantage of the available law and have the highest usage rate. Measure 16 proves to be a positive experiment in Oregon based off the proper use and lack of

Thesis: Is the fear of living an incomplete and possibly painful life a reason to bring your life to an end? Does this fear give us the authority to be masters of our own fate and end our own life before we and the ones we love suffer?

You've sat in your hospital bed for at least three months now, and the pain and boredom is starting to become even more torturous than you could have imagined. The pain that you are experiencing on a day-to-day basis is excruciating; a normal, everyday procedure like using the restroom or getting something to eat is a long, drawn out, and painful ordeal. All of the doctors that you've talked to agree that you are going to die soon from the disease that has infested your body, but even six months sounds like an excruciatingly long amount of time, especially when all you have to occupy your time is lie in a bed painfully, waiting it out. Your family and friends are already distraught by the news; they already know that you are on the brink

We are culturally ingrained from an early age that life is precious and each day is a gift. Life should not be squandered but preserved.  We are encouraged to live with a purpose, cherish our loved ones and live life to its fullest. But what if life becomes too physically painful to endure, often experienced by many terminally ill patients suffering an incurable disease, or a chronically ill elderly person who lacks the ability to thrive?  For forty-five day’s I watched my chronically ill mother languish away in a hospice care facility. The experience was emotionally and financially draining, and I began questioning whether a person should have the right to choose when and how to end their life. In the United States, assisted dying is a widely debated and passionate issue. Opponents argue preserving life, regardless of how much a person is suffering, is an ethical and moral responsibility, determined only by a higher power.  At the other end of the spectrum are those who support a person’s right to end their life with dignity at a time of their choosing.   Wouldn’t my mother’s suffering been greatly reduced if her doctor was legally and ethically permitted to administer a lethal cocktail of drugs to end her life quickly and painlessly? Wouldn’t the prevailing memory of my mother see her in a better light instead of helplessly watching her undignified death? To deny terminal and chronically ill people the freedom to end their

In 1994, Oregon voters passed the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which exempted, “from civil or criminal liability physicians who, in compliance with specific safeguards, dispense or prescribe (but not administer) a lethal dose of drugs upon the request of the terminally ill patient.” Oregon, to this day, remains the only state within the Union to allow physician-assisted suicide. In 1997, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a landmark case that, although there was no constitutionally protected right to physician-assisted suicide, states have permitted to pass laws allowing it. Thus, the issue of euthanasia remains widely open to philosophical, political, legal, and ethical challenges.

Physician assisted suicide accomplishes much more than ending suffering before death. The right is of the individual and should be respected by our government. It is a fundamental freedom that we all should have. It allows a person to die with dignity and prevents the illness from killing them before they die. “The Death with Dignity Act is very similar to other forms of euthanasia

The debate over the use of euthanasia is ever growing. This is due to the fact of constant increases in medical advances. Medical advances are growing the number of medicines one can be given before palliative care is an option. The main concern of the debate is whether trying new treatments and medicines are necessary before palliative care is given. Two articles will be analyzed using the Aristotelian method. Both articles are valid, but the New York Times article written by Haider Javed Warraich offers a complete perspective using all three persuasive appeals compared to the article written by Terry Pratchett for The Guardian, which the majority is written on emotion.