Argumentative Essay: Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide

¨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,¨ written in the Hippocratic Oath. Doctors´ long-standing profession is to maintain solidarity with those who are sick and debilitated. However, new movements that promote assisted dying are threatening doctors´profession. Is assisting patients to die really what the doctors´ experience and knowledge should be put to use for? Doctors face many difficulties when they have to deal with patient who’s feeling complete despair; no matter the choice the doctors make it will always have a great impact on patients’ life. Due to heavy responsibilities that the doctors have carry, it is hard to decide whether doctors

One of the major tragic relating to euthanasia happened in the 90’s; Jack Kevorkian, American pathologist and euthanasia proponent, assisted at least 130 patients to end their lives. He was simply listening to patients’ request, however according to The New York Times, “When The Detroit Free Press investigated his “practice” in 1997, it found that 60 percent of those he assisted weren’t actually terminally ill. In several cases, autopsies revealed “no anatomical evidence of disease.” Patients without help of doctors does not know when they are terminally ill or not. All the pains the patients are experiencing seem severe, and the desire to release the pain by euthanizing would arise. That is why is it critical for the doctors to make the decision for the patients: to avoid those curable patients from dying. In addition, Dr. Maurie Markman statement supports the idea that patients do not always understand when something is curable or not, “The reason for asking is despair. Despair may be potentially temporary or it may be permanent, but death is

First of all, forcing people to survive could be much more devastating for the person, family, and even the doctor than to letting them make the choice. Dr. Jessica Nutik, an anti-euthanasia doctor, had a terminally ill patient. The patient wanted to take the medications that would allow her to die quickly, but Dr. Nutik didn’t let her. The patient survived another 5 months, however the conditions that she went through by not taking the medications made Dr. Nutik questioned her decision, “We watched her decline, from someone who would have qualified to take the End of Life Option to someone who was bedridden, deaf, blind and unable to recognize her children or speak. Keeping my mother alive for those last months seemed not so much prolonging her life as prolonging her death.” Spending time with the loved ones should not be taken for granted: it is a cherishable moment that people should treasure it. However, this is only with the loved ones. Spending time with the children for a mother that lost memory about them is like talking to a stranger. Also, for the children talking to their mother who can’t respond back is not a “cherishable moment”, rather it is a painful experience for them. Doctors should be preventing those painful experience, but by prolonging the mother’s life, it created even more painful experience. Additionally, story about Kevin Davis, who suffered terminal renal cancer,