Erica Routt Professor Shay English 101500 2/15/2017 Palliative Care: To Die Or Not To Die (With Dignity) "Kill me! Kill me! Please!" are the words my friend would hear his father scream several times a day. He was in his mid eighties and had advanced stage leukemia and was suffering from unbelievable pain. Palliative care, hospice, or end-of-life care, whichever name you call it is supposed to be there for patients in the end stages of their lives to help ease their discomfort and take care of their general needs. But what about "death with dignity"? Should it be a human beings right to take the life of another human being upon request of that same person? End-of-life care, known as hospice or palliative care, is called upon when a patient …show more content…
Historically, as in ancient Greek and Roman times, euthanasia and physician assisted death (EAS), in all forms, were not only regularly practiced, they were quite common among all classes (Ian Dowbiggin N. pag.). Hippocrates developed The Hippocratic Oath at around 300 B.C. and included the passage that physicians should not perform EAS even when asked. It took until the Christian movement for this to become the preferred method for practicing medicine. Euthanasia and physician assisted death are becoming more accepted in modern times, once again. The difference between these two methods is that with euthanasia the physician actively administers a lethal dose of medicine to the patient, usually a sedative or pain killers. Physician assisted death is where the patient is given the dose to take with them and self-administer at a time they feel to be appropriate, usually when family is able to be present. Being taken off of life saving treatment or denied food or liquids, is considered to be passive euthanasia. No one is administering anything lethal to the patient, they are simply allowed to die through denial of