Argumentative Essay: Jack Kevorkian Assisted Suicide

Jack Kevorkian was a medical pathologist who willfully assisted in patient suicides, which increased the talk on hospice care and the "right to die" legislative action. Dr. Kevorkian argued for the right of the terminally ill to choose how they die, and he also challenged social taboos about disease and dying. Whether you agree or disagree with what Dr. Kevorkian did, he helped the growth of hospice care in the United States and caused a number of doctors to be more sympathetic to those who were terminally ill and had severe pain, causing them to be more willing to prescribe medication to relieve it. Dr. Kevorkian ignited the discussion about assisted suicide, but there are still many questions that have to be asked about assisted suicide,

It is legal in five of the fifty states of the United States, which includes California, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. In Montana a decision is given to individuals through a court decision, individuals are required to have a terminal illness as well and a prognosis of six months or less to live. In California, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington assisted suicide are mandated by state law. The exact method differs between states, but mainly involves a prescription from a licensed physician approved by the state (or court) in which the patient is a resident (Physician-Assisted Suicide Fast

“The Hippocratic Oath is a moral code of ethical conduct and practice in medicine, and was established by Hippocrates. It states “First do no harm.” And “I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel.” which both clearly conflicts with a physician offering or administering a lethal injection.”(Tyson). Although the Hippocratic Oath is held sacred by doctors today, we must keep in mind that it is one of the oldest binding documents in history and has been adapted many times. Does the Hippocratic Oath address the realities of a modern medical world? Is the oath's still relevant today? The Hippocratic Oath lays out that doctors must have ethics, what’s more ethical than putting a person out of their misery. A fully component terminally ill person can’t consent to assisted suicide because of an oath that was written thousands of years ago. How that makes any sense baffles me. A document that was written in the 6th century is not still relevant in the 21th century. The Hippocratic Oath lays out ethics for doctors to follow, but the ethics it lays out does not match the changing of society and the technology that has been brought with that