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Essay On Death With Dignity

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Becoming terminally ill is a tragedy for anyone, no matter what age. Imagine hearing that you have six months or less to live, with the last of your dying days potentially filled with pain and suffering. Imaging making the decision to endure medical treatment that will leave you bedridden, weak, helpless and without any quality of life. The thought itself is frightening and convinces me more than ever that Death with Dignity, a law that allows an attending physician to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to a terminally ill patient, be passed and legalized in each state for those who meet the set requirements and are mentally competent to make such decisions. Washington, Vermont and Oregon are the only three states in the U.S to have enacted …show more content…

Is one more hour, maybe one more day? Were talking about the right of an individual who is facing death due to their terminal illness and their choice to end their life on their own terms. With or without medical help or government permission, many people are going to make this choice with faced with death, but in a much more horrific way and many with failed attempts. Spending your last hours or days medicated beyond conscious activity while loved ones weep at your bedside, is a heartbreaking thought. The question ultimately comes down to choice. We should be reluctant to pass judgment on anyone who is walking down this path, no matter what they decide. Is it really any kind of surprise that someone would want to avoid this kind of fate when presented with the reality of their disease? I want to die on my own terms, if faced with a terminal reality. Death with Dignity laws are humane and compassionate and unquestionably a better option than the misery and distress for weeks or months battling some unstoppable relentless disease. Who says when and how I should die? Who has more rights to me than me? Oregon, Vermont, Montana and Washington have the right idea. Lets legalize it include the other 46 states. Let it be by choice. Let’s be able to end the inevitable in a peaceful compassionate way. If I am ever faced with a reality of a terminal illness, I want to choose on my own terms, who should be able to tell me any

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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 Death with Dignity Act, also known as the Right-to-Die Bill, allows terminally-ill adults grant their wishes to hasten their death in some states where it is legalized. These patients that are mentally capable of making their own decisions have the right to voluntarily request and receive a prescription medication to end their suffering sooner. Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and California are the only states that practice the Death with Dignity Act. Oregon voters approved Death with Dignity Act in 1994 and went into effect in 1997. Washington implemented the same act in 2008 followed by Vermont in 2013 which is the first state to pass through legislative process.

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I only began to understand the concept of an individual being terminally ill when my grandmother went into the hospital. I placed my hand inside of hers and stared at her emotionless face. I could only imagine the pain running through her body and the agony of not being able to vocalize a response to my ‘I love you’. Day after day she waited only anticipating her death and the pain she would feel if indeed she woke up the next day. I would have done anything to not have to see her go through the pain, and to allow her to get to her fate quicker and more comfortably.

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Only those who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness or otherwise diagnosed with a condition that will inflict intense, debilitating, and chronic pain with very little to no chance of a cure should be able to volunteer for physician-assisted suicide. According to Lois Snyder-Sulmasy and Paul S. Mueller (2017), “Ethical arguments in support of physician-assisted suicide highlight the principle of respect for patient autonomy and a broad interpretation of physician’s duty to relieve suffering. Proponents view physician-assisted suicide as an act of compassion that respects patient choice and fulfills an obligation of nonabandonment” (p. 577). The premise here is that the death process has already been initiated in those that have a terminal illness or in those that are experiencing the worst pain imaginable. Because the process is irreversible, at least in the present day, physician-assisted suicide should not only be legalized, the terminology should be changed as well.

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“Be smart, be strong, live honorably and with dignity, and just hold on” (Fray). Physician assisted suicide or better known as Death with Dignity isn’t your everyday topic or thought, but for the terminally ill it’s a constant want. The Death with Dignity isn’t something that all people or religions are in favor of and nor is the act passed in all states in the United States. Only three states in the U.S. today, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington offer their residents the option to have aid in dying as long as all the requirements are met. Death with Dignity doesn’t effect just the terminally ill person, but as well as family and friends around them creating many conflicting thoughts when opinion if Death with Dignity is truly moral and a choice

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Even with all the advances that America has had in their health care and their research with cancer treatments there are still patients that get diagnosed with terminal cancer and they have no hope. Dying is a natural thing that everyone will have to do at some point in their life. In the book Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the debate the Author talks about how people all have the right to live and with that should come the right to die (Battin, M. P.). This is also a moral decision and will vary with every person. Some people are at peace with dying while some fear it.

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The Death with Dignity Act is a law that allows people, with terminally ill medical conditions, to be able to end their own life when they know it is time. The only three states where this is legal are Oregon, Washington, and

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In this case, and many others worldwide, physician assisted suicide is morally permissible at all ages for anyone with a terminal illness with a prognosis of 6 months. This is supported by act based utilitarianism and the idea of maximizing pleasure and reducing pain and suffering on an individual circumstance. By allowing a terminal patient to die a less painful death, in control of the situation, and with dignity, the patient will have amplified

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Death With Dignity in California Facing the diagnosis of a terminal illness is an incredibly personal experience for many individuals. Those who suffer from the same illness may experience it in different ways or process their emotions differently as an individual contemplating their own mortality. How a person decides to deal with their diagnosis, even wanting to end their own lives before allowing illness to take it, is a choice that inherently belongs to the individual. While there are many ethical and professional dilemmas to contemplate when considering physician-assisted suicide, the choice to live or die should ultimately come down to the patient.

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According to Karaim in 2013 “Decisions about sustaining life, allowing it to end or even hastening death are among the most difficult choices terminally ill patients and their families can face”

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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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Death is a natural process that will be experienced by everyone at some point, desirably at the end of a long, well lived life. The reality is that no one knows when that time will come or how it will happen. Unfortunately, for the terminally ill, death is in the near future and it is a sobering reality. Therefore, when that time comes, people need to know that they will have options, and the assurance that death does not have to be an agonizing end. They can choose to endure the annihilating pain that comes with the disease and allow it to take its natural course or choose to put an end to it, surrounded by those who love them.

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The Death with Dignity Act has two arguments: those who believe we have the right to choose how and when we die, and those who believe we do not possess that right; that we should not interfere with the natural order of life. Every year, people across America are diagnosed with a terminal illness. For some people there is time: time to hope for a cure, time to fight the disease, time to pray for a miracle. For others however, there is very little or no time. For these patients, their death is rapidly approaching and for the vast majority of them, it will be a slow and agonizing experience.

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The Right to Die has been taking effect in many states and is rapidly spreading around the world. Patients who have life threatening conditions usually choose to die quickly with the help of their physicians. Many people question this right because of its inhumane authority. Euthanasia or assisted suicide are done by physicians to end the lives of their patients only in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, New Mexico and soon California that have the Right to Die so that patients don’t have to live with depression, cancer and immobility would rather die quick in peace.

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