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The Pros And Cons Of Assisted Suicide

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Anyone who has witnessed a person fights a life-threatening illness with no hope of recovery can sympathize with the patient's anguish and loss of will to live if it means more pain and less ability. Should a terminally ill person be able to choose when to lose their life? Some people oppose it for moral and religious reasons, while others support Physician-Assisted Suicide（PAS）, which is the voluntary termination of one’s life through administering a lethal substance with a physician's assistance. Unlike euthanasia, where the physician performs the intervention, PAS involves the physician providing the necessary means and the patient performing the act. Even to this day, when PAS is already legal in a growing number of states of the USA and …show more content…

Some medical professionals argue that assisted suicide violates the Hippocratic Oath (Esther, 1995); however, the phrase "first do no harm" in the Oath can also apply to aid a patient in finding ultimate relief from pain through death. Amazing marvels in human life extension have been made possible by modern medical research. Respirators can assist a patient's failing lungs, and drugs can maintain their physiological functions. The biggest benefit of science to humanity is medical technology, which improves the chances of survival for those who are truly ill or injured. while for those who are close to death, it is only a way to make their misery last longer. The purpose of medicine is to lessen a patient's suffering. However, the only thing that modern medicine can do for dying patients is to make their suffering worse every day. Not to mention, some life-prolonging measures themselves cause great harm to the human body. For instance, cancer patients are given chemotherapy, a form of radioactive medicine that is poisonous to the body. Chemotherapy causes the body to experience excruciating pain, baldness, nausea, and other very harmful side effects. Under the circumstances(Esther, 1995), PAS is more in keeping with the …show more content…

The expense is sometimes too high for the family of the terminally sick patient. Only a few wealthy dying patients can afford to have their remaining lives extended in the hospital because human life is expensive. Naturally, the majority of families do not skimp on the expense while the terminally ill patient is still alive. But when that person passes away, the family is left to deal with a considerable hospital bill and is frequently in danger of becoming bankrupt. Most individuals who are close to death want a peaceful, reassuring passing, leaving the family in financial ruin is far from a Consolation. Those patients are unable to keep their families from falling into debt because they have no way of stopping the medical bills from piling up. Only if they have the option of committing suicide can they relieve their families' financial burdens and their own

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444 Words | 2 Pages

“The real reason for not committing suicide is because you always know how well life gets again after the hell is over.” People are unable to realize how their situation can be resolved better than having to kill themselves. Terminally ill patients are notorious for taking their lives before they can realize the mistake they are making. They believe that it is best for their situation, however, there are multiple reasons for why they should reconsider their actions before something terrible happens. Doctor assisted suicides should not be allowed because of the effects it has on the deceased loved ones and how more terminally ill patients are overcoming their disabilities.

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1897 Words | 8 Pages

Though, in this paper, I have addressed several points that Dennis Plaisted has presented on why we should not legalize physician assisted suicide due to the issues with autonomy that convince the public that the state does not care enough to preserve the lives of those with less than six months to live. I argued that the limits of who and when an ill patient may be allowed to receive PAS are present for the state to relieve the pain of the ill who wish to have control over their death, and that it is only an alternative option for those patients. I considered a counterargument to my criticism, which argues that the state and doctors shouldn’t allow for PAS, as it gives the impression that the state does not care about the lives of the terminally ill. Just as well, the reputation of doctors as healers would be compromised if they supported this form of treatment. However, I explained that the quality of life is more valuable than forcing someone who is ill to suffer until their natural death.

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1546 Words | 7 Pages

Some families can not afford to drop everything in order to take on the full time responsibility of their sick loved one. This adds financial stress to the family and can lead to the desire to resolve the issue by forcing the idea of euthanasia on to the loved one. According to Time.com, one in every four Medicare dollars spent goes to the five percent of beneficiaries in the last year of their life. The result of this is often an overwhelming debt for the families of terminally ill patients, with the care of a single patient costing approximately $39,000 exceeding the financial assets for many households. When the patient is uninsured or denied coverage from an insurance company, the family inherits the costs.

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506 Words | 3 Pages

There are many ethical and practical concerns that must be taken into account when considering whether to end a person's life, including questions of autonomy, dignity, and pain management. Simply asserting that some individuals have a duty to die is not enough to address these complex issues, and it fails to take into account the potential for unintended

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677 Words | 3 Pages

For this reason, they contend, dying people should have the right to control the timing of their death and should be permitted to obtain a doctor's help in doing so.” Terminally ill people who do not have the option of physician assisted suicide have to go through an extremely painful and slow death. They should have the right to control when they can be put out of their misery. Nobody should be forced to suffer, and PAS is a relief from suffering. Accoding to “Physician-Assisted Suicide Should Be Legalized”, “The physician's obligations are many but, when cure is impossible and palliation has failed to achieve its objectives, there is always a residual obligation to relieve suffering.

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1823 Words | 8 Pages

It is an option that does not guarantee ethical outcomes and has been criticized for being unable to prevent individuals with depression from obtaining a lethal means (Shibata, 2017). Our society needs to respect and uphold the sanctity of life and commit to a more effective and accessible palliative care and hospice to the terminally ill. Improved palliative care should be created because life is sacred and should never be ended by a direct human act and the law does not give an individual a constitutional “right to assistance in dying” (Shibata, 2017). The role of the physician needs to be preserved to maintain a trustful physician-patient relationship and not one of an agent of hastened death. Physicians are supposed to save lives and abide by their Hippocratic Oath to do no harm and not assist in the dying process.

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1294 Words | 6 Pages

Physician assisted suicide is morally and ethically wrong due to the Hippocratic oath doctors take at the beginning of their term, and unlike euthanasia, it is therefore the patient that triggers the death and not a third party. Our culture subscribes to the notion of the “absolute sanctity of life”, Western religions do not plainly forbid suicide, and assisted suicide would result in overall no harm on the society. The physician-assisted suicide controversy surrounds the idea that assisted suicide rests on the difference between dying with dignity and dying suffering. The ethical issues of physician-assisted suicide are both emotional and controversial. It is ethically permissible for a dying person who has chosen to escape the unbearable

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1168 Words | 5 Pages

Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Right to Murder? Doctors spend over eight years attending college, studying and practicing how humans work and how to save them. So why should it be right for physicians to help out their patients in killing themselves? If a person chooses to end their life, they completely loose the possibility of a medical miracle of being able to live through whatever condition they have.

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1230 Words | 5 Pages

Physician aid in dying in those with chronic/terminal illnesses has been a long debated bioethical issue. It’s important to address what exactly physician aid in dying entails when trying to address whether this is an acceptable medical prescription. Ethical principles involved include those of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice. Those who may reason for or against this, may argue differing ethical perspectives on each of these ethical principles. Arguments for this topic may address the idea that the patient has the right to end suffering.

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972 Words | 4 Pages

Due to the rise in the healthcare industry, paying for health care expenses aren't easy. With thousands of dollars going down the drain for a patient to continue to eat and sleep in the hospital, resorting to assisted suicide might be an option they ponder and decide on. Even though it is sad for a patient to want to die based on economic circumstances, some patients, especially the elderly rely on their family's incomes to live, which hurts them more than dying. Having to pay $40 to $100 on a lethal dosage of prescriptions is much better, not only for the family's economic well-being but also because it lifts the burden from the terminally ill patient (Economic Aspects). Just like the Governor of California, who also signed the bill for PAS, admitted he would resort to PAS if he were in excruciating pain (Governor Jerry).

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959 Words | 4 Pages

The National Public Radio (NPR) once said and states, “Advocates of assisted-suicide laws believe that mentally competent people who are suffering and have no chance of long-term survival, should have the right to die if and when they choose. If people have the right to refuse life-saving treatments, they argue, they should also have the freedom to choose to end their own lives” (NPR Staff). As a patient’s pain grows increasingly worse, their only option is to adopt physician-assisted suicide. If there is no cure or chance of

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1168 Words | 5 Pages

Life is never guaranteed and whether it is through an illness or an accident, we as humans are eventually going to die. Physicians Assisted suicide is one of the most controversial issues. The issue of doctor-assisted suicide has been the subject of the heated dispute in recent years. While some oppose the idea that a physician should aid in ending a life, others believe that physicians should be permitted in helping a patient to end his or her unbearable suffering when faced with a terminal illness. Furthermore, Physician-assisted suicide should be legal; it should be the patient’s right to decide when and how he or she should die.

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1550 Words | 7 Pages

Physician-assisted suicide is a very controversial topic in today’s society. Physician-assisted suicide is defined as an action performed by the physician at the request of the patient to end the patient’s life with certain medical procedures. The legalization of physician-assisted suicide should not be passed in the United States because it is not morally acceptable in the society, leads to misunderstanding of a physician’s duty and increases mental suffering of both patient’s family and doctor. Physician-assisted suicide should not be legalized since the action itself is not justified morally. It is never morally acceptable for the society to give up on its people’s lives.

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1424 Words | 6 Pages

Most people would agree that taking a human’s life is almost certainly wrong. Despite this, the seemingly obvious moral rule becomes blurry with the mention of ending a terminally ill patient’s life as they wish. Physician-assisted suicide involves a doctor administering drugs to end a patient’s life at their request. Many argue that this is unethical and should remain illegal. By applying their beliefs and opinions on the value of life to explain the necessity for it to be illegal.

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522 Words | 3 Pages

The Right to Die 1) Introduction a) Thesis statement: Physician assisted suicide offers patients a choice of getting out of their pain and misery, presents a way to help those who are already dead mentally because of how much a disease has taken over them, proves to be a great option in many states its legal in, and puts the family at ease knowing their love one is out of pain. i) The use of physician assisted death is used in many different countries and some states. ii) Many people who chose this option are fighting a terminal illness.

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