Persuasive Essay On Physician Assisted Suicide

Every debate is brought about by someone who is willing to do whatever needs to be done to get their side heard. Dr. Jack Kevorkian brought the issue of physician assisted suicide to the forefront of American media during the mid to late 1990s. Kevorkian started out as a physician and became interested in this topic once his mother passed away from cancer. She had no one to help her end her pain and suffering. During Kevorkian’s younger years doctors were even unwilling to prescribe enough pain medication to assist a terminally ill patient with the pain. This spearheaded his attempt to assist terminally ill patients end their lives before the illness progressed too far. In Michigan alone, Kevorkian was put on trial and acquitted eight times. This was due to Michigan not having any laws that pertained to assisted dying. To help his patients Kevorkian utilized a machine he built himself. There are a few misconceptions held about

There is fear that patients would be coerced by family of doctors to turn to assisted dying before they could try any alternatives. An example of relatively good safeguards includes those in Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, which bear a resemblance to Kevorkian’s original guidelines. A patient must be 18 years of age or older, be a resident of the state, must be capable of making and communicating health care decisions for himself or herself, the patient must be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death in six months, two doctors must agree that the patient is mentally competent and that the decision is voluntary, 2 oral requests and one written request must be done for assistance and verified by two witnesses other than family members, they must consult with a palliative care expert about all alternatives, they must wait 14 days before the request is granted, and the patient can orally revoke at any