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Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide Essay

974 Words4 Pages

Taylor Davey

November 1, 2015

Davis P.4

US Government

Euthanasia/ Assisted Suicide
Euthanasia -Is it letting someone die, or is it a killing classified as a legal murder? For the past thirty years this has been one of the most heated controversial topics discussed among the general population, and the United States Government.

“Easy Death” is the meaning of the Greek word Euthanasia, and is often linked to the famous Dr. Kevorkian. There are three classified types of Euthanasia: the first is what doctors consider “as letting the patient die. “ (History- All.Org) For example, taking both conscious and unconscious patients off of life support, or not reviving the patient in an incident of heart failure. There is also the Assisted Suicide …show more content…

The patient in this situation has no self-awareness or any awareness of their surroundings due to the Cerebral Cortex the part of the brain in which your entire thinking takes place is dead, and inactive. The brain stem still works in these cases and is functional which is the part of the brain that controls the major organs of the body. Once Classified as a PVS the patient will never become conscious again remaining in this state of life until the patient dies off. They are not brain dead according to the United States because the term brain dead is used when the brain tissues break down, making vital organs, and the lungs stop working requiring the use of machines to keep the patient alive. The patients family may choose to have the doctor remove the use of life support, and if doctors agree that it is best for the patient, it will be done. There was an issue noted before when a doctor told a patients family he had a “ moral issue” letting the patient die off. It was then moved to court the judge ruled that removing life support "would be homicide and an act of euthanasia" and said that "judicial conscience and morality" told him that the doctors were dealing with the patient …show more content…

Dr. Kevorkian, and his suicide machine have become quite famous for contributing this method into the medical world. Dr. Kevorkian’s first case in 1990 involved his patient Janet Adkins who had Alzheimer’s disease. He designed his van with the suicide device installed; the machine had three plastic bottles of liquid hanging upside down inside a frame as an IV set up, one bag had a harmless saline solution in it. The second bag had a chemical solution that causes the patient to become unconscious. And the third bag of fluid had potassium chloride, a chemical that stops the heart in it. Dr. Kevorkian then hooked the bottles up into Janet’s Arm and started pumping the poison into her blood stream, which killed her with in a total of six minutes. The machine is still in common use today for patients who no longer want to pursue their lives do to personal choice, and terminal

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