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The Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

963 Words4 Pages

Imagine being told that you have a fatal illness that will eventually take your life and society expects you to just sit around, waiting to die. The question of whether we should be given end of life options is a huge controversy in both the medical and legal fields today.To live or not to live is a well-known quote, but what happens when it becomes to die or not to die? People are given the right to choose to live, so why not give them the right to choose to die?

Each year nearly 42% of Americans will have someone they know diagnosed with an illness that is fatal and of those people, about 23% of those will face the issue of withholding treatment to sustain life. We are given the right to choose what we wish to do with our lives throughout our entire existence, but what happens when we come to the end of our lives and must choose how we face our last days? In a world where we value the right of life and living, we also must value the right to die as well. If people are allowed the option to withhold treatment and live “normal lives” until death knocks on their door, then a person should be able to have the decision …show more content…

His very first documented assisted suicide was in 1990, with Janet Adkins, an alzheimer patient. From there, he helped over 130 other patients throughout the 1990s, and gave them a voice and a right to choose when and how to end their own life. Even though he was later tried and convicted of second degree murder and served eight years in prison, he helped develop a platform for end of life options. Through some of his work and in such cases like Nancy Cruzan, Kevorkian helped pave the pathway for many states to develop and adapt the Death with Dignity law that legally addresses voluntary euthanasia. The very first state to take on this law was Oregon and soon many other states

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Numerous legal issues are present in the trials of Dr. Kevorkian. All the issues circulate around the question, is Dr. Kevorkian’s actions in assisting a person with suicide and sometimes personally ending the person’s life considered murder if they want to willfully die? This issue cannot be easily solved, that is why to this day it is still argued in legislation. It contains an objective legal aspect, but a subjective moral, therefore until one is personally in that tragic situation, they cannot really state what is the right or wrong thing to do. A large issue in this case was not only that Dr. Kevorkian was assisting people in committing suicide, which is illegal in the state of Michigan, but he was also using doctor issued medicine and practicing without a medicine license.

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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.

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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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Do you know anyone who has a terminal illness? If you do would you want them to suffer till their last breath or be able to choose how and when they die? When death is certain people should be able to choose when and where and how they die. Most people disagree with assisted suicide because they feel it is wrong for Someone to ask their doctor to help them end their life but what they don’t know is how the people who ask for help feels everyday. Only three states, Washington, Vermont, and Oregon made it legal for someone to end their life if they have less than six months to live (CNN).

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In the 1900s there was a man named , Dr. Jack Kevorkian aka Dr. Death who exercised and respected the people's right to die . Dr. Jack Kevorkian went around the rules when it came to the Physician Assisted Suicide to give the patients the option to have the right to die. He got out of many cases of “ murder” for going through with what he believed was right. He assisted in over 130 deaths in the 1900s until the law was passed and assisted suicide was illegal. This proves that a patient should be able to have the choice of living through the pain but what about all the patients or are on their deathbed and are going to have to go through pain for a prolonged time period before actually dying?

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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”).

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Physician assisted suicide is a moral issue the country has been debating about for a very long time. Sources conflict with each other about when the start of the debating rose to attention, but Jack Kevorkian was a huge impact to the cause. Along with the Hemlock Society, both worked to provide patients, that are considered terminally ill, the care they asked for, which was death. The states that allow physician assisted suicide, or the Death with Dignity laws/

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Dr. Jack Kevorkian, whom many consider the Godfather of “The Right To Die Movement,” is attributed to sparking the plug in regards to serious reform in the medical field to legitimize those suffering with terminal illness who no longer wish to live (James, Legacy). During his time, Kevorkian assisted in the deaths of at least 130 people during the 90’s (James, Legacy). Opponents of Kevorkian’s work and physician assisted suicide altogether, voiced many reasons as to why they felt this practice was detrimental and in similar fashion the anti PAS crowd express some of those same reasons

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