ipl-logo

Physician Assisted Suicide Pros And Cons

1049 Words5 Pages

Physician assisted suicide has been a controversial topic in the medical world for centuries. Physician assisted suicide (PAS) is the act in which a doctor provides their terminally ill patients with the knowledge and means to commit suicide. Doctors must inform their patients on the lethal drugs that may be used and the process of the suicide. Physician assisted suicide has been legalized in a few states throughout the United States including Oregon, Montana, Vermont, Washington, and Bernalillo County in New Mexico. Although many families and doctors agree with the idea of physician assisted suicide, even more people disagree with “mercy killing” because it exploits the doctor's hippocratic oath and may violate the constitution. The right …show more content…

Dr Jack Kevorkian is a determined advocate of the right to die. Dr. Kevorkian has actively worked with patients to provide dying patients with “so-called respectable and painless manners to end their lives” (“Trial of Dr. Jack Kevorkian”). Dr Kevorkian and many other physician assisted suicide supporters work diligently to help their patients to the best of their ability. Physicians that aid in suicide are there to provide closure to their patients and end their suffering. The mass of people supporting the controversy see it as “the final form of mercy for an individual in great deal of pain or with a terminal illness” (“Euthanasia”). The “final form of mercy” eliminates the tremendous and horrific pain that the patient suffers from. Knowing this, the patient can gain closure. Euthanasia or PAS are not meant to be inhumane or animalistic. Allowing someone to end their lives based on their condition and and genuine hardships is not wrong! Physicians all over the world have been protesting this right for …show more content…

Physician assisted suicide can end family financial difficulties. A hospital stay can financially destroy a family. The bill given to the family at the end of their loved ones stay can range from $1,000 to $50,000 depending on the circumstances and condition of the patient. “According to data published by Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality, the average hospital stay costs about $10,000.” However, hospital stay cost varies depending on the age of the patient. “An average of $12,500 for people between the ages 45 and 84” (Physicians Now Urgent Care 1). Hospital stay cost also depends on where you live. However, no matter where you live, the hospital expense will be tremendous and unnecessary for necessary care. In Maryland, the average hospital adjusted expense per inpatient day is $2,368, while similar services will set you back only $1,141 in South Dakota and as much as $2,967 in Oregon (Physicians Now Urgent Care 2). Along with ending all the constant suffering faced by the patient, friends and family, the unrealistic medical cost will be ended as

Show More
Related

Physician Assisted Suicide Pros And Cons

857 Words | 4 Pages

In current society a debate on a controversial topic is rocking the nation. The debate of the Right to Die has been put back on the spotlight after an advocate for the cause made the choice to end her own life after being diagnosed with a terminal disease. The Right to Die is a campaign which supports every individual's choice to die when faced with a terminal disease. A specific form is called Physician Assisted Suicide which was the way the advocate chose to die. A Physician Assisted Suicide is when a physician prescribes a competent patient a lethal dose of drugs so he/she may use to intentionally end their own life whenever they see fit.

Read More

Physician Assisted Suicide Ethical Issues

1350 Words | 6 Pages

Dennis Mmasa Hakyoung Ahn English 104 18 November 2015 Dr.Jack Kervokian as many know him as “Dr.Suicide” died in 2011. He was well known for being the first physician to advocate for Physician Assisted Suicide. He helped hundreds of patients with terminal diseases end their lives. His effort to advocate for this led the state of Oregon to pass the Death with dignity act which would legally allow patient to go through with this procedure. This procedure has caused many concerns about the ethical rights of this procedure.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

470 Words | 2 Pages

Notably, the courts recognize the rights of patients to “die with dignity” however, others see these states encouraging patients to request the lethal injection to not become a burden on others instead of not suffering in pain or even fear of future pain. In this essay, I will focus on the six states law on physician-assisted suicide on the patients terminal condition or disease and whether patients with non-standard reasons such as non-terminal conditions (i.e. pain, disability, depression, free choice, etc.) have the right to end their own lives with physician-assisted suicide by the law.

Read More

Legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide Argumentative Essay

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

The Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

1464 Words | 6 Pages

Kevorkian was an American physician that aided many ill patients in dying. While filming a “60 minutes segment”, Kevorkian injected a lethal drug into a man with the terminal illness ALS, he later was convicted of this (NY Times, 4). Many medical ethicists disapproved of Kevorkian’s act saying that he violated one of the main approaches of the oath, Do No Harm (Britannica, 4). Kevorkian passed away in

Read More

Physician Assisted Suicide Pros And Cons Essay

2010 Words | 9 Pages

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.

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

266 Words | 2 Pages

Physician assisted suicide has brought up intense moral controversy on whether it is right or wrong. In the article, “Assisted Suicide: A Right or a Wrong?,” Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez, one side argues that a person should have the choice to end their own life, to end their prolonged suffering and pain if one desires. According to Andre and Velasquez, medicine and technology has allowed people to live longer lives, but also has allowed people to suffer longer too. To deny one’s pleas to end their life and continue one’s suffering is seen as inhumane yet, the opposing side argues the value of life, and the horrible effects that legalizing assisted suicide may cause.

Read More

Physician Assisted Suicide Pros And Cons Essay

1051 Words | 5 Pages

First of all, what is physician assisted suicide or physician aid-in-dying, also known as PAS or PAD? It is a practice in which a patient that is terminally ill requests to end his or her own life by asking a physician to prescribe a lethal dose of medication (Starks et al.). The physician can assist directly or indirectly. They can just give the medication to the patients for self-medication or help them physically when the patient does not have enough energy or strength to do it. Some people confuse this practice with euthanasia because they are similar.

Read More

Why Is Physician Assisted Suicide Wrong

849 Words | 4 Pages

Jacob Bresler Mrs. Singleton Honors English IV 4 May 2015 Physician Assisted Suicide: Right or Wrong? Physician Assisted Suicide, or PAS, is “suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease, effected by the taking of lethal drugs provided by a doctor” (Merriam-Webster). Most people cannot dictate whether PAS is an ethical, legal, or emotional issue. However, the fact cannot be denied that these suffering patients do not deserve to continue on suffering; they should be able to make their own decisions regarding their own lives. Deeming Physician Assisted Suicide illegal

Read More

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

744 Words | 3 Pages

The debate between physician assisted suicide has gone on for several decades. Physician assisted suicide, also known as PAS, is defined as suicide occurred from self-administration of a lethal dose of prescribed medicine. The question people frequently debate is whether practitioners should be allowed to help patients decide their death? Some people are for it, for their dignity of dying and others are against it because of religious reasons.

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Death

2076 Words | 9 Pages

Physician assisted death, more commonly known as physician assisted suicide, is the act of intentionally killing oneself through the use of drugs prescribed by a doctor. Something that is similar to physician assisted death is euthanasia, which is illegal in the United States, but legal in other countries. I feel that physician assisted death should be legalized in all fifty states because it is a person ’s right to choose, a way to end their suffering, and way for terminally ill patients to end their life with respect and dignity. Jack Kevorkian was a physician in Michigan who supported a patient’s wish for assisted suicide.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

1818 Words | 8 Pages

Physician assisted suicide differs from “active euthanasia” which is when a doctor administers a lethal dose of drugs to a patient, to “passive euthanasia” refers to the removal of comatose or unresponsive patient from life support. Euthanasia means good death, from the Greek eu “good” and thanto “death”. It is extremely unethical to condemn a suffering patient to a lengthened life when the patient’s wish is a dignified death. The right to die is important because it is the choice of life or death for terminally ill people, who are living a life of pain and suffering. These people only have a short amount of time to live and most of the time when they come to the end of their life, it is just full of hospital visits, medical bills, and pain for them and their family.

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

1102 Words | 5 Pages

One of the utmost debated issues in the United States is physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Several people consider it exceedingly unethical and unfair for patients to ask and/or plead for their health care provider to end their life; while others feel it is their right and within their power to be able to choose how and when they die. The supporters of physician-assisted suicide believe it should be legalized because they dread the thought of living dependently on someone else and becoming a burden. They also don't want to go through the suffering and/or excruciating pain caused by the terminal illness. They believe they have a right to a dignified death.

Read More

Essay On Physician Assisted Suicide

702 Words | 3 Pages

Meghan Wong Period 5 2/12/15 Proposal for Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) 1. The controversial issue I have chosen is about the current ban of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Euthanasia, sometimes referred as “mercy killing,” is the medical term of a physician administering any lethal agent to end a patients’ life. The two main types of euthanasia are active and passive; active euthanasia is defined as the physician directly administering the agent to the patient, while passive euthanasia is when the physician purposely withholds whatever life support the patient is on. Physician-assisted suicide, on the other hand, is similarly related to active euthanasia; the physician provides the patient with euthanasia though medicinal means, and allows the patient to be in-control of his death.

Read More

Physician Assisted Suicide Speech

1141 Words | 5 Pages

The practice of physician-assisted suicide is not a modern phenomenon. A young woman suffering from cancer became the first person known to die under the law on physician-assisted suicide in the state of Oregon when she took a lethal dose of drugs provided by her doctor in March 1998. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act passed a vote in November 1997, and for the past twenty years it has been a response to the progress of modern medicine. The issue of physician-assisted suicide has been the subject of the heated dispute in current years. Many people worry that legalizing physician-assisted suicide is opening the floodgate to non-critical patient suicides and other abuses and will decrease the value of human life.

Read More

More about Physician Assisted Suicide Pros And Cons

Related Topics

Open Document