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Argumentative Essay On Physician Assisted Suicide

477 Words2 Pages

Although the physician assisted suicide has been controversial, Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act was enacted late October 1997. Because of this physicians can prescribe lethal doses of medication that terminally-ill patients can self-inject. That is how assisted suicide has legally developed in the state of Oregon. And if this law was enacted, it is because it is meant for the public’s best interest. As both sides of the debate have developed, how exactly has this been justifiable by both laws and ethics? The constitution provides individuals with the right to have their freedom unrestricted but also gives them the right to life, liberty and property. If this is true, constitutional rights of property mean that a person has the liberty to do whatever they want with their bodies, because they, themselves are their own property and have the right to end their own lives(Peterson, 23). …show more content…

Most people that are against this law might not realize that not every ill-person is able to perform assisted suicide. The constitution has allowed for these terminally-ill people to end the pain and suffering that they have endured and no longer want to deal with. As a country that promotes liberty, life, and property, we have a moral obligation to help that ending and suffering. That is because once life is almost to an end, liberty and property will no longer matter because a deceased person has no rights. The real issue with this law is not necessarily terminally ill-people ending their own lives, but having another person help them do it. Especially because suicide is not illegal, but assisted suicide has been controversial and has been tried to be outlawed many times. But the state of Oregon has become a model for these specific situations and how it is

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This poll also found that 56 percent of Americans believe that physician assisted suicide is a morally acceptable act regardless of its legality, and only 37 percent believe it is morally wrong. Additionally, 62 percent of adults agree that a person has a moral right to suicide” (Ralph A Capone). Other states including Oregon, that have passed death-with-dignity laws include Vermont, California, Colorado and Washington. There is a death with dignity bill that is slated to go before the Maine Legislature in support of physician assisted suicide.

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The right to assisted suicide is a heavily controversial and debated over topic that concerns people all around the United States. The arguments go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to end their life with the assistance of a doctor or physician. Some people are against it because of moral and religious reasons. Others are for it because of their compassions and respect for unhappy patients waiting to die naturally. Assisted suicide is prohibited by common law or criminal statute in all 50 U.S. states; medical aid in dying is specifically authorized in 5 states: Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, and California.

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Physician-assisted death is the practice in which a physician provides a mentally competent patient with the means to take his/her own life, usually in the form of prescribing death-dealing medications. It first became legal in the United States in Oregon in 1998. It is now legal in four other states: Washington, California, Montana, and Vermont. In order for one to exercise their right to die this way, the law states that the patient must be at least 18 years old, be mentally competent, be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months, and must wait at least fifteen days before filling the death-dealing prescriptions. This controversial practice has raised the question of whether or not it is ethical for a physician

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The right to privacy is one of these enumerated rights given by the Ninth Amendment and this protects assisted suicide because a terminally ill individual should have the privacy to make a decision on if they do think it is time for them to die and this decision should be made by no one other than the terminally ill patient themselves. • Counter Arguments - If euthanasia was legalized, then society will eventually begin to authorize other actions that are seen to be morally unacceptable. • This argument assumes that the instance of euthanasia around the world is morally unacceptable.

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(“Point: Assisted”) Between 1997 and 2002, the state of Oregon was on board for the Right to Die movement and legalized assisted suicide. Upon Oregon’s legalization many other states, such as Arizona, Hawaii and Vermont, attempted to pass similar laws, but were denied. (“Point: Assisted”) Oregon, Washington, and Vermont are the only three states that allow the “mentally incompetent and terminally ill” to die upon request.

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While assisted suicide is not as controversial a topic as abortion or gun control, it is quite controversial nonetheless. The idea that a medically licensed doctor can help someone end their life, the exact opposite of their job description, is mind boggling. Many people feel as though this is wrong and religiously a sin, but others feel as though it is every person’s decision how they live and, in this case, how they end their lives. Those who are for physician-assisted suicide have probably had some sort of contact with it, whereas those who are so against it, probably have no reason to try to understand why someone may want to take their own life this way.

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Physician-assisted suicide first became legal on November 8, 1994 in Oregon. This began the first movement, until Washington took part in this life-altering procedure on November 4, 2008. About a year later Montana agreed with legalizing this procedure. It did not stop growing there, Vermont then reformed on May 20, 2013 (Anderson).”

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However, the sad truth is that nobody gets to choose how he or she dies. Or do they? In some states such as Oregon, Montana, and Washington physician-assisted suicide has been made legal, allowing people to choose death. This sounds very dark and wrong but the truth is that physician assisted suicide should be legal throughout the United States because people deserve the right to make choices for themselves in life, because some people would die an extremely painful death, and because some people have major disabilities that prevent them from really living.

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I was, and am a proponent of "death with dignity", since many years ago I had heard for the first time about Dr. Kevorkian. Then, I was concerned about the possibility of "assisted suicide" being used for other then voluntary, and consensual decision to end one's life. The passed in Oregon in 1994 "Death with Dignity" law, allows patients with chronic, debilitating diseases, and /or the end stages of their diseases, when there is no hope for cure, and the suffering becomes unbearable, to die with dignity. It allows them control, and a choice of whether they want to continue or whether they want to end their life. The fact that candidates for death with dignity have to fully understand what their decision means, and be able themselves to take the medication, eliminates the possibility of criminal wrong doing, such as was the case with Dr. Kevorkian assisted suicide, where the patient was injected with a lethal medication by other person then the patient himself.

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The Death with Dignity Act (DWDA), which allows terminally-ill patients to request physician-assisted suicide, was first introduced in Oregon in 1997. The basic premise of the law is that terminally ill patients, with no outside help, should be able to choose the right to end their life. Since then a few more states have the DWDA or an similar law in their state; an ongoing debate is going on to make the act legal across the nation. The Death with Dignity act allows the individual’s request to die to be acknowledged by the state. Though various of groups and people have spoken against this act, Oregon, with close to two decades of experience with the law, has shown that it can work well even when faced with backlash from the public because

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Religious people say that it goes against the fifth commandment which is “Thou shalt not kill.” (Bible) The commandment prohibits the murder of oneself or the murder of others. This is considered a divine law which shouldn’t be changed for the good of a few people, much like how a state law can’t contradict a federal law. For physicians and the general public that disagree with assisted suicide feel that assisted suicide can give society the approval to kill.

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The 10th amendment explicitly states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” (Annebergclassroom). Therefore, the states utilized this statement by justifying the argument that since there is no enumerated law in the constitution about specifically physician assisted suicide, then it should be up to the states to control the issue. Originally, the federal government used the 14th amendment - “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States” (Law Cornell) - as a justification claiming that they should have power because they viewed assisted suicide as a right and a privilege; however, the states rebuttled by claiming that this was not applicable in the western culture, resulting the Supreme Court to allow states to override the federal government’s argument. A lot of their reasons for arguing over this cause is for the protection of public health. Since physician assisted suicide is has to do with public health, it resulted in both national and states to be concerned, resulting concurrent

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Physician assisted suicide or better known as the Death with Dignity Act. It is a legislative act that allows terminally ill patients to make a decision to end their own life through the ingestion of lethal medication. It is a very controversial legislation that not all states have accepted. In the states that it have passed, there are requirements. Major debate topics include religious beliefs, societal standards and human rights, and the possibilities of future cures or treatments which could be classified as unknown possibilities or hope.

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One of the cases I remember from the news is a woman by the name of Brittany Maynard. She decided to move from California to Oregon to end her pain and suffering. Oregon is one of the very few states that make it legal for physician assisted suicide. More states should legalize PAS because then people can choose to die at home with their loved ones rather than having to move to a different state just to end their pain and suffering.

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In our own community and state, along with our neighboring state, people have made the controversial decision to end their life by means of assisted suicide. In the recent documentary “How to die in Oregon," the video shares intimate moments of terminally ill patients who have contemplated or have unhesitantly made the difficult decision to participate in the legally accepted physician assisted suicide option, in order to end their life in a manner to maintain dignity. My knowledge of assisted suicide was very limited prior to watching the video. I hadn’t previously considered if assisted suicide was an option I would support or not. Not having any education on it, I lacked perspective and opinion.

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