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Persuasive Essay On Physician Assisted Suicide

815 Words4 Pages

Physician assisted suicide, physician assisted death (PAD), or “death with dignity” is frowned upon within the medical and social world. Once the cases of patients who desire PAD are scrutinized, it is easy to undermine why this issue should not be outlawed. Many people seek PAD because of illnesses rotting away at their health; these illnesses and disorders cause individuals to experience unbearable pain and ultimately decide to end their life. There was a case of five year old girl in Oregon who her whole life suffered from muscular dystrophy. The girl experienced involuntary muscular movements, difficulty breathing, and unbearable pain. This led her, at the young age of five, to consider PAD. Many advised her, on religious grounds that she would be in heaven without her parents, but she decided to continue with her decision of PAD. Doctors respected her wish and conducted the procedure under the Oregon Assisted Suicide Law. If it wasn’t for the state’s law, the girl …show more content…

In this girl’s case though, PAD was outlawed in her country, and she had to suffer through many years. This girl was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age twelve. The disorder ravaged her lungs and digestive system until the pain became unbearable at age nineteen. This disorder can be life long and cannot be cured; she did not want to live with pain for the rest of her life. She made and sent a video of herself writhing in pain, begging her country’s prime minister to allow her to receive PAD. After the video went viral across the web, many stated that PAD would be an act of mercy for the girl who has lived with the disorder for years. Through these remarks, prime minister was subjected to accept, and the girl was allowed to die by PAD. Although PAD is still outlawed in the girl’s country, this girl’s case brought the country together to look at PAD as mercy against raging disorders that cause

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As the United States continues to grow and develop for the better, multiple issues still challenge and impact the people. Within these numerous issues, physician assisted suicide (PAS) has also been recently tacked onto that list. In today’s society, PAS is commonly debated due to ethical, emotional, and legal reasons involved throughout the topic. Each of these topics consist of a variety of benefits and drawbacks, all of which are constantly bickered about. Through ethical reasoning, emotional testimonials, and legality cases, both those in support of and those who oppose physician assisted suicide create their own arguments from differing viewpoints.

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Physician assisted suicide was first introduced to our society in 1997, when the citizens of Oregan voted to legalize this highly controversial practice (Friedman, 2007). At the time, they passed the “Death with Dignity Act, which allowed a terminally ill person meeting certain criteria to end his or her own life with the help of a doctor” (Friedman, 2007). When a patient meets all the requirements needed to undergo physician assisted suicide, he or she will voluntarily take a lethal dosage of medication at their own discretion. According to the 2006 Eight Annual Report on the Death with Dignity Act, only 17 percent of dying patients in Oregan consider physician assisted suicide, but only 2 percent go through with the procedure. Even though

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Physician-assisted suicide should be legal throughout the United States as a lawful medical procedure for able, terminally ill adults with a limited amount of time, because it is a compassionate response to ease the suffering of dying patients and respect their rights and freedom. Currently, Oregon, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont, and Washington have adopted this policy. It is often offensive to call this suicide, because these patients are physically healthy and are not clinically depressed. “Dying patients who see their lives being destroyed by illness sometimes come to view death as the only way to escape their suffering and, therefore, as a means of self-preservation—the opposite of suicide.” (3) For most of these patients, there are no other options but to wait and stay stagnant in their often poor quality of life.

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In contrast, Kevin Drum, also a California resident and son-in-law to Harry, will not have to face such devastating and cruel choice of dying prematurely because in “2016 California passed the bill in support of assisted suicide” (Drum 30). Drum, who is also suffering from “myeloma” (27) and currently facing the fight for his life, finds comfort in knowing that when the time is right he will not have to die alone. As a result, the passing of the “assisted suicide” (Drum 28) bill will allow people like Drum to be aided by a physician in ending their suffering when the pain is too unbearable. The bill comes too late for Harry but Harry’s case highlights the need for such legislation throughout the nation. Consequently, the passing of this bill provides people with options and the confidence of knowing that when things are too much to handle there will be help available.

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