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Physician Assisted Suicide Pros And Cons Essay

2010 Words9 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.

Euthanasia vs. Physician Assisted Suicide Euthanasia is the medical practice of taking someone’s life due to a terminal illness in a pain free way to end the suffering of a dying patient. Doctors would enforce this practice of deliberately killing the ill patient by using a lethal injection, on scene, with no second chances. The …show more content…

The very first attempt was in the early 1900s, when Ohio tried to pass a bill which allowed assisted dying, and of course it failed. However, it really started in the 1990s, when Jack Kevorkian, also known as Dr. Death, created a “suicide machine” to help over 130 people take their own lives (Pickert). He eventually spent over five years in prison. Later in 1997, the government ruled that physician assisted suicide is not a right given to Americans under the Constitution. Numerous people wanted, and continue to want, a say in when and how they died, rather than letting their terminal illness, such as cancer, decide. Ever since then, there has been countless attempts to legalize PAS, and countless times that they have been denied. However, some states’ efforts have succeeded. For example, five states currently allowed assisted suicide, including Oregon, California, Vermont, Washington, and

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Physician-assisted suicide should be legal because it is a compassionate response to relieve the suffering of a dying patient. California should pass the Death With Dignity Act, despite the negative connotations associated with physician-assited deaths. Instead of prolonging the suffering experienced by these patients, the patients should have the opportunity to end their lives on their own terms, peacefully and quietly. Jack Kervorkian coined the term “Death Doctor. He was a physician who abused his power and “assisted with more than 130 suicides.

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Physician assisted suicide also known as physician assisted death dates back to the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. During this time, there was an oath known as the Hippocratic Oath. This oath stated that regardless of circumstances

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Physician-assisted suicide has become an increasingly controversial topic over the last two decades. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Physician-assisted suicide is, “suicide by a patient facilitated by means (as a drug prescription) or by information (as an indication of a lethal dosage) provided by a physician aware of the patient's intent.” The process one must endure to partake in assisted suicide is rather extensive; not everyone who qualifies for it receives the medication. The idea began in 1990, when Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisted 54 year-old Janet Adkins of Portland, Oregon, who suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease, in committing suicide with his hand-made “suicide machine.” This machine had three stages: a saline solution, a sedative (thiopental), and finally a lethal dose of potassium chloride that would stop the heart altogether.

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Although, this practice has been deemed as, “…there is no constitutional right to commit suicide, with or without assistance” by the Supreme Court under the case “People v. Kevorkian” (2). Several states such as Oregon have adopted a policy of PAD, which then in turn allows patients, under a specific set of circumstances, to end their lives as they please, and in doing so relinquishing themselves from a world of demise and agonizing torture. In the state of Oregon a patient must be, “Terminally ill, have six months or less to live, make two oral requests for assistance in dying…” and much more (8).

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1086 Words | 5 Pages

Physician-Assisted suicide is legal in five out of the fifty states in America. These states include: California, Montana, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Physician-assisted suicide is considered acceptable when a patient has less than six months to live. Physician-assisted suicide was publicly brought to attention in 1990 after Dr. Kevorkian assisted over 40 people into committing suicide in Michigan. Before the process starts, the patient must meet the certain requirements before given a lethal drug.

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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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Assisted suicide is a tough decision that comes down to what you morally believe in. The author of the article “The right to die” believes that doctor assisted suicide should be legalized in more states than just the four that it is. He approaches the topic from an ethical standpoint, stating its rights and wrongs. This essay will include reasons as to why assisted suicide should be legalized, how the system of death should work and if it is morally right. Only in four states is assisted suicide mandated by state law: Oregon, Washington, Vermont and California.

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The main difference is that in assisted suicide, the patient is in complete control over the decision. They decide when and whether to ingest it. With euthanasia, also known as mercy killing, the physicians take action to end one’s life to relieve suffering (Starks et al.). Nowadays, at least 5 countries and 5 states from the U.S. have legalized PAS, and at least 10 of the 50 states are considering doing so too (Anderson). These type of situations are where low numbers are best so it would be best to keep the numbers from increasing.

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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.

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Despite all of this back-and-forth, it has ultimately been decided to allow the states to choose for themselves on this topic, which is similar to the death penalty. Being able to decide state-by-state is only because the founding fathers never addressed anything about it in the Constitution, and the Supreme Court ruled no precedent on it. Moreover, the other structural issue of assisted suicide can be tied back to a Special Interest Bias. Extremely polarizing viewpoints between citizens and the government has left physician-assisted suicide in shambles for decades now, without any definitive answers being agreed upon. Those who are involved in the “Right to Die” movement only focus on legalizing PAS, and their main argument is that they should have the right to choose when they die.

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In The United States of America, only six states have physician-assisted suicide (PAS) legalized. California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington D.C. have physician-assisted suicide legalized via legislation. However, the state of Montana has physician-assisted suicide legal via court ruling only. Physician-assisted suicide has been a popular topic recently due to Brittany Maynard, who had to move from California, which did not have physician-assisted suicide legal at the time, to the state of Oregon, where it was legal. She moved because she had brain cancer, and wanted to end her life peacefully at home, surrounded by family, instead of dying slowly in a hospital.

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Physician assisted suicide is a viable option for terminally ill people who have the support of family. Therefor it should be legal in all 50 states. Euthanasia is similar to physician assisted suicide the only difference is that euthanasia is legal in all 50 states and physician assisted suicide is not. Assisted suicide is the doctor accommodating that person with death (“Euthanasia”). The doctor provides a drug for the patient for them to die.

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Physician assisted suicide is suicide by a lethal drug, which is prescribed by a physician. Physician-assisted suicide is unlike euthanasia, as the physician is less involved with the process. While euthanasia consists of administering a lethal dose to your patient, physician-assisted suicide allows the patient to end his or her life with simply a prescription provided by a physician. Physician assisted suicide is consistently a highly debated topic. It is permitted in several countries, but remains illegal in almost all US states.

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Physician assisted suicide is an option given to patients that are terminally ill when they are in excruciating pain and would prefer to terminate their lives by using a lethal medication. In the United States, there are seven states that have legalized physician-assisted suicide: California, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and District of Colombia. Oregon was the first state in the United States to legalize physician-assisted suicide in 1994, while the rest of the states followed in the twenty-first century. Physician assisted suicide is the last option a patient is given make when they have no other treatment plans that will help them live a comfortable life. The patient will have to meet specific criteria in which they have

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What is physician assisted suicide? Many people are unaware of what assisted suicide truly is and what it all entails. Physician assisted suicide is when a doctor prescribes a deadly drug, but the patient must take the drug themselves on their own will. In most of these cases, the patients are suffering from a terminal illness or are in a life destructive state. Many times due to being uneducated, people confuse physician assisted suicide with euthanasia.

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