Death With Dignity

Death with Dignity Bioethics has been an area of interest for many college students and physicians over the course of the last decade. One subject in particular has interested many. That subject is physician-assisted suicide. Physician-assisted suicide, also known as euthanasia, is an unconventional way to end one’s life with the help of a physician. In other words, a physician prescribes a cocktail of lethal medications. It is up to the patient to take the lethal concoction of medication. In the 1990s, Dr. Jack Kevorkian helped dozens of terminally ill Americans commit suicide. This caused him to be dubbed “Dr. Death” among the press. Currently, physician-assisted suicide is not on the rise. However, it is still a heavily debated topic

In recent years, physician-assisted suicide was mostly used by “wealthy, white, and elderly people” (Issues in Law and Medicine). However, one case has changed the audience of physician-assisted suicide. The case that has sparked a change in audience is the case of Brittany Maynard. Maynard was a 29 year-old college graduate that was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She had two choices: to live with pain and suffering or die with dignity. In order to “die with dignity” Maynard moved from California to Oregon to be able to exercise the right to die. At the time, Maynard’s home state of California, had yet to legalize the right to die. Oregon was one of the first states to legalize death with dignity in 1997. Her controversial devision sparked a conversation regarding: death with dignity, ethics of physicians, and patient rights. In an article published by the Washington Post, Brittany Maynard defied the stereotypical, “wealthy, white, and elderly”. Instead her choice caused people to change their outlook of the type of people that use the right to die. In Maynard’s case, she was considered “young and white”. The purpose of this research is to question the ethics of physician-assisted suicide. In addition to the ethics, this essay will also be covering morals, the effects of physician-assisted suicide on the families’ of patients and the physicians that carry it

Based on the source of publication, the target audience for this article are lawyers who are arguing against physician-assisted suicide. The purpose of this article is to examine the psychological effects of physician-assisted suicide/euthanasia on physicians that practice this principle. The article is geared towards people that are examining the emotional and psychological effects of physician-assisted suicide in participating physicians. This article specifically views the areas in which physician-assisted suicide is legal. The author is a board-certified radiation oncologist, cancer specialist in the state of