Physician Assisted Suicide

The act of killing one self is called suicide. Euthanasia is considered to be assisted suicide. Euthanasia is the “act of deliberately ending a person's life to ease suffering,” says Euthanasia and assisted suicide (2014, p. 1). Euthanasia is typically seen in the elderly, and the terminally ill. The normal biological phenomenon for Euthanasia is death itself, or suicide. A person is born to die, whether it is from old age, or a car accident, an individual is placed on Earth to die eventually. Death occurs when the heart stops beating, lungs do not take in anymore air, the brain stops functioning, and all the organs in the body shut down, etc. The reason for death is to end suffering and pain. Isik (2004) describes the purpose of death, describing

Euthanasia is helping a person kill themselves, whether it is agreed by the individual themselves, or by the immediate family. According to ProCon.org (2015) the goal of euthanasia is to allow the individual suffering to end their life, and become free of pain. This is according to, Methods of Euthanasia, usually performed by injections, drugs, starvation or dehydration, and gases, plastic bags, and “peaceful pills.” In the method of injections, the doctor first injects one injection to put the person in a coma, and then the doctor uses the second injection to stop the heart. In the method of drugs, the doctor will prescribe drugs to the patient that will kill him/her. However there have been cases of individuals taking the pills, going into comas, and waking up with serious side effects because the prescription was suppose to kill that individual. In the method of starvation or dehydration, the individual is either deprived from food or water. Terminal sedation is typically used with this method to ease the individual from pain. In the method of gases, plastic bags, and “peaceful pills”, individuals use methods that are normally taken by people who commit suicide. For example, carbon monoxide poisoning is one method used (2011,

Much of this controversy comes from religious reason. It is surrounded by many individuals’ personal beliefs. Some see it as murder, and others see it as a way to ease the pain and suffering. There is also a controversy with the medical aspect. When prescription drugs are used as the method of euthanasia, it does not always work. People wake up out of the comas, (Methods of Euthanasia, 2011) and then suffer extreme side effects, such as gasping and vomiting, because this prescription was meant to kill the individual. In the method of gases, plastic bags, and “peaceful pills” harm is deliberate.

There are many reasons that individuals will choose to be euthanized. One can be based off of illness-related experiences, says ProCon.org (2008) such as loss of humanly functions, weakness and feeling uncomfortable, and pain in general. Another reason why individual would want to be euthanized is because the fear of the future, according to ProCon.org (2008). In this stage of fearing the future, individuals might feel as if they will be a burden on