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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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This is an example of euthanasia, and act where a physician intentionally causes death of a terminally ill patient. More specifically, voluntary and active euthanasia, when a physician is given consent by the patient, and has the intent to cause the patients’ death. Although, physician assisted suicide can be described as an act of self-destruction committed by a patient with the assistance of a physician. In actuality, physician assisted suicide is giving a patient a prescription for a lethal amount of medication that the patient later ingests to bring about death.

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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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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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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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