ipl-logo

Legalizing Assisted Suicide Analysis

946 Words4 Pages

Legalization of Assisted Suicide

Authors Len Doyal and Lesley Doyal have written the article ¨Why Active Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide Should be Legalized¨ in the British Medical Journal, and they discuss legalizing assisted suicide. The author mentions Diane Pretty as an example of a terminally ill patient that wants to decide now to end her life. She was was not given the consent to do so. Many people are going down the same road as Mrs. Pretty. Ones who know that the value of their life will soon be nonexistent and filled with pain and suffering. When it is acceptable to have a doctor pull a treatment keeping up a life, a person should be able to pull their own. In this case, a person can still be looking at passive euthanasia, …show more content…

In the words of Kristy Martin, it can turn into “mental suffering” (Stockenstrom 12). When disease takes away all a person has to enjoy because they may not be able to see, walk, or even talk, they become a slave to their body and they cannot break free (12). Many wonder that if legalized, it will be abused and suicides will occur, but this happens every day. A doctor will cut off your support line when your life seems irredeemable, and the correct people may not have been asked. Doctors make mistakes and can even choose how to treat the patient when they walk in. Accidental involuntary euthanasia, where the patient can give consent but does not, could always happen also. The fact that involuntary euthanasia can happen or an instance where they deny food or medication but assisted suicide can not. Why can they not choose the die when they see fit the assisted suicide way and not having a distressing death (Doyal and Doyal …show more content…

We set up palliative care laws and try to make sure a patient is taken care of the way they wished to be for this reason. For some, it may be that they do not want to be on a ventilator or they do not want to live in a state of confusion, and to some, the thought of being completely dependant is a scary situation because they will lose dignity A person would never have to worry about it with an assisted suicide program. Their dignity could stand strong and they could die with it. If a nurse is required to make the patients lives the best they can to keep their dignity, they should take the next step to let them choose when they die so that they can skip the part of how they die. As humans, the Aristotelian idea says we have the ability to act upon what the think is right, and dignity is a choice we are fond of. For medical staff to make sure a patient does not leave this world with indignities done, we should be able to do what needs to be done for the person to make them comfortable, even that means their decision is to die via assisted suicide. If we know a the patient is suffering from pain or has become depressed for a reason that their dignity has been wronged (Allmark 255).

In summarization, assisted suicide should be a pro choice. Many people do not want to

Show More
Related
1841 Words | 8 Pages

Since Oregon began allowing physician-assisted suicide of the terminally ill in 1997, more than seven hundred people have ended their own lives with prescription medications in the state alone (NPR.org). Physician-assisted suicide is not only becoming a topic of controversy in the United States, but foreign countries as well. Supporters of the issue believe that competent people who do not have a chance of longevity should be able to choose their fate. Opponents argue that terminal diagnoses can be inaccurate, or that the person with the illness may not be capable of making informed decisions. Assisted suicide refers to the act of one giving another the “Instructions, means, or capability to bring about their own demise.”

Read More
354 Words | 2 Pages

She believes that it would be much easier to have a physician do it because they already have all the necessary means of performing the task. The physician could discuss the suicide with a psychologist, a social worker or a clergyman to make sure the patient truly wants the suicide. For now physician assisted suicide still depends on the patients state of health, but a new question arising is whether someone can have assisted suicide if they are just tired of life. If someone is tired of life because they have medical issues, but just not as severe as a terminal illness

Read More
1179 Words | 5 Pages

The medical field is filled with opportunities and procedures that are used to help improve a patient’s standard of living and allow them to be as comfortable as possible. Physician assisted suicide (PAS) is a method, if permitted by the government, that can be employed by physicians across the world as a way to ease a patient’s pain and suffering when all else fails. PAS is, “The voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician.”-Medicinenet.com. This procedure would be the patient’s decision and would allow the patient to end their lives in a more peaceful and comfortable way, rather than suffering until the illness takes over completely. Physician assisted suicide should be permitted by the government because it allows patients to end their suffering and to pass with dignity, save their families and the hospital money, and it allows doctors to preserve vital organs to save

Read More
361 Words | 2 Pages

“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

Read More
1168 Words | 5 Pages

Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Right to Murder? Doctors spend over eight years attending college, studying and practicing how humans work and how to save them. So why should it be right for physicians to help out their patients in killing themselves? If a person chooses to end their life, they completely loose the possibility of a medical miracle of being able to live through whatever condition they have.

Read More
1137 Words | 5 Pages

In the defense of Physician Assisted Suicide, a wide publicly talked about topic, it should be a choice every terminally ill patient receives. Physician Assisted suicide is when a patient is terminally ill and has no chances of recovering. The patient themselves can make the decision, with the help from their physician, to get lethally injected and end their life reducing and ending the pain. In America each state has a little over 3,000 patients that are terminally ill contact an advocacy group known as the Compassion and Choices to try to reduce end-of- life suffering and perhaps hasten their death. Physician Assisted Suicide shouldn’t be looked at as suicide, but as ending the pain and suffering from an individual whose life is going to be taken away anyway.

Read More
1736 Words | 7 Pages

The dying patient no longer has quality of life, they have lost their independence, are lonely, are forced to endure inevitable pain, are publicly humiliated, are suffering immensely, and are forced to watch their loved ones grieve because of them. It is an innate Constitutional Right to choose how to die, since we all will die. There comes a point when the poking and prodding becomes too much, when the patient wants to just die in silence in the loving arms of their

Read More
1000 Words | 4 Pages

Americans argue that physicians are required to give the patient other alternatives, but they are inexperienced on how to relieve the patient’s physical and emotional suffering to help keep them from making this life-changing decision. This argument is why I believe that when physician-assisted suicide gets legalized, doctors would be required to learn how to help the patient with any suffering, and a psychologist should closely monitor their physician-assisted suicide cases. By requiring a psychologist to monitor the cases, the physician would be able to ensure the patient is completely fit to make the request. This requirement would also keep the physician from experiencing any legal troubles or punishment. I believe that the argument is why the majority of Americans are against physician-assisted suicide, but with the right safeguards in place, it would no longer be a valid

Read More
1376 Words | 6 Pages

Even if they don’t choose assisted-suicide, they “still have to die” (The). A person may get old enough and be in a nursing home, ready to end it, but the right to die gives them more control that they may not have in their old age. It gives them the control to when they actually go. In states like Oregon, they have a “Death with Dignity Act” (Assisted). Such things like this gives exactly what it says, ‘death with dignity’.

Read More
814 Words | 4 Pages

It is our responsibility to make sure death is painless and comfortable for those who are sick and people such as hospice workers do just that. Why can’t they assist someone like Craig Schonegevel, a patient who suffered from neurofibromatosis had decided to end his life in a brutal way. He had took 12 sleeping pills, (Probably so he wouldn’t have to endure what came next,) and he then placed two plastic bags over his head, and tied them down with zip ties (“Should Euthanasia”). He died of suffocation. He asked for help from a physician, but laws are laws and he had to make a choice.

Read More
1252 Words | 6 Pages

Assisted suicide is a rather controversial issue in contemporary society. When a terminally ill patient formally requests to be euthanized by a board certified physician, an ethical dilemma arises. Can someone ethically end the life of another human being, even if the patient will die in less than six months? Unlike traditional suicide, euthanasia included multiple individuals including the patient, doctor, and witnesses, where each party involved has a set of legal responsibilities. In order to understand this quandary and eventually reach a conclusion, each party involved must have their responsibilities analyzed and the underlying guidelines of moral ethics must be investigated.

Read More
551 Words | 3 Pages

In society today, there is a huge debate whether assisted suicide should be legal or illegal. If an individual is suffering and living a poor quality of life due to a medical issue, than the doctors could give them a needle that contains a serum that will put them to rest peacefully. In Canada it is legal as of June 2016 for a physician to assist with assisted suicide. Giving the choice for individuals to live or die can be seen as an act of kindness considering it is letting the individuals choose what's best for their quality of life. “...Now is the time for simplicity.

Read More
522 Words | 3 Pages

The Right to Die 1) Introduction a) Thesis statement: Physician assisted suicide offers patients a choice of getting out of their pain and misery, presents a way to help those who are already dead mentally because of how much a disease has taken over them, proves to be a great option in many states its legal in, and puts the family at ease knowing their love one is out of pain. i) The use of physician assisted death is used in many different countries and some states. ii) Many people who chose this option are fighting a terminal illness.

Read More
1321 Words | 6 Pages

One reason why patients would want to end their life with euthanasia is because of their disorders and immobility to get around and enjoy things. Euthanasia is a physician assisted

Read More
1749 Words | 7 Pages

Imagine having to endure so much pain and suffering for a majority of your life that you would just want it all to end. Well, there is a way one can stop their own pain and suffering and it is called euthanasia. Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease. The act may only be done solely to those diagnosed with terminal illnesses such as cancer, aids, and heart disease. Many people agree with the idea of euthanasia as it can help those who are suffering be stripped of all the pain they are enduring.

Read More

More about Legalizing Assisted Suicide Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document