I am writing my paper to a group of middle class college students. Majority of who are African American, and a teacher of Asian descent. My class is made up of about twenty student’s ages ranging from 18-33. The majority are females, and only 4 males. Most of the students in my class are from inner city Baltimore, and a couple are out of state. Also, majority of my class are working-class, not many are just students. In addition, we also have students that are also parents.
Euthanasia
Everyone should have a choice as to how and when they would like to end their lives. Terminally ill patients should not have to suffer for the rest of their lives, especially when the doctor deems that there is no hope left for them getting any better. Euthanasia should be offered to terminally ill patients. Euthanasia is killing someone who has no hope in living in a painless way. Terminal is death that will occur eventually. Terminal can also be having a illness that cannot be cured, that leads to death.
There is a medical pathologist who agrees. Dr. Kevorkian is a medical pathologist who helped dozens of people die becoming a celebrity, known as Dr. Death who helped over 130 people end their lives (Schneider par1).“ People from around the country traveled to the Detroit to get help from Dr. Death. Dr. Kevorkian developed a system to help achieve two goals ensuring the patient’s comfort and protecting himself against criminal conviction. He required patients who desired to die to express that clearly, and then he would bring in mental professionals to test the sanity of the person. After that the patient was giving a month to thinking over their decision just in case they wanted to change their minds. Dr Kevorkian also took videos interviews of t...
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...es to participate in Euthanasia (ProCon).
This information will be very helpful to me because it tells me where euthanasia is legalized and what methods have to be taken by the patient and their family. It shows all the different request the patient has to go through before being granted the right to end their life. This ensures that the doctors are not just killing people, they are in fact granting their patients wish.
Works Cited
Gregory, Andrew. “Stephen Hawking backs assisted suicide! “We don’t let animals suffer, so why humans?””Mirror News. MGN Ltd, 17 September 2013.Online Newspaper 2014.
Markoff, Steven. “State by-State Guide to Physician Assisted Suicide” ProCon.org. 13 December 2013, 30 March 2014.
Schneider Keith, “DR. Jack Kevorkian Dies at 83; A Doctor who helped End Lives”. The New York Times. Arthur Sulzberger Jr. 3, June 2011. Online Newspaper 2014
Let's mention a known name in the euthanasia field, Dr. Jack Kevorkian. If this name sounds unfamiliar, then you have been one of the lucky few people to have been living in a cave for the last nine years. Dr. Kevorkian is considered to some as a patriarch, here to serve mankind. Yet others consider him to be an evil villain, a devil's advocate so to speak. Physician assisted suicide has not mentioned in the news recently. But just as you are reading this paper and I'm typing, it's happening. This hyperlink will take you to a web page that depicts in depth how many people Dr. Kevorkian has assisted in taking their lives.
Physicians face an ethical dilemma when confronting their patients who are suffering. Many have to choose between abiding by the law or ignoring the law and acting on their own beliefs by assisting in a patient’s suicide. Dr. Jack Kevorkian is certainly one doctor who has taken the illegal route in assisting in many of his patients suicides. In “Killer Doc,” William F. Buckley provides a brief overview of the case and informs his audience of the shocking incidents of Kevorkian’s performed euthanasia on Thomas Youk. In “Offering a Helping Hand to those Who Long to Die,” Mark Nichols compares the famous euthanasia doctors, Dr. Kevorkian and Austrailia’s Dr. Philip Nitschke.
Dworkin, Gerald. " The Nature of Medicine." Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: For and Against. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998.
Velasquez, Manuel, Andre, Claire “Assisted Suicide A Right or Wrong.” Santa Clara university n.d. web 24 March 2012
Attention Getter: Jack Kevorkian is a well-known doctor in the medical field who gained his nickname, “Dr. Death” after being know to bring up controversial issues and ideas related to death. Finding a way to use organs from death row in ill patients, or using the blood from recently killed soldiers in other soldiers in need of blood transfusion are just a couple of these controversial ideas. He was arresting and tried for helping over 130 men and women end their lives via assisted suicide, and ended up being charged with 2nd degree murder. Dr. Kevorkian famously said, “I would not want to live with a tube in my neck and not be able to move a finger. I wouldn 't - that to me is not life”. When not given the backstory or nature of this quote, most people would agree that being
Braddock and Tonelli. “Physician-Assisted Suicide.” Ethics in Medicine University of Washington Medical School. 2008. .
Cotton, Paul. "Medicine's Position Is Both Pivotal And Precarious In Assisted Suicide Debate." The Journal of the American Association 1 Feb. 1995: 363-64.
Smith, Wesley J. "Assisted Suicide Will Not Remain Restricted to the Terminally Ill." Assisted Suicide. Ed. Sylvia Engdahl. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Death on Demand: The Assisted-Suicide Movement Sheds Its Fig Leaf." Weekly Standard (5 July 2007). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
Since the start of the debate there has been some initiatives voted on in states in order to deal with the issue. Currently, only one state, Oregon, has passed a law allowing physician-assisted suicides. The law, titled The Oregon Death with Dignity Act, allows physician-assisted suicides and not euthanasia. This law has sparked a huge debate on whether other states will follow Oregon’s lead and pass similar laws. It is also importan...
According to West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, between 1990 and 1999, a well-known advocate for physician assisted suicide, Jack Kevorkian helped 130 patients end their lives. He began the debate on assisted suicide by assisting a man with committing suicide on national television. According to Dr. Kevorkian, “The voluntary self-elimination of individual and mortally diseased or crippled lives taken collectively can only enhance the preservation of public health and welfare” (Kevorkian). In other words, Kevor...
“In 1999, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a Michigan physician known for openly advertising that he would perform assisted suicide despite the fact that it was illegal, was convicted of second-degree murder” (Lee). The fact of the matter is human being...
[2] R. M. Walker, "Physician- assisted suicide: the legal slippery slope," Cancer Control : Journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center, vol. 8, pp. 25, 2001.
...What Are the Potential Cost Savings from Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide? The New England Journal of Medicine, 339, 167-172.
Watching the film “You Don’t Know Jack” reminded me of three things. One, how excited I used to get in High School on movie days, and secondly, the fact that Al Pacino is without a doubt one of the most versatile and talented actor to grace the face of this planet. But most importantly, my third point, which is that it usually takes only a few people to stir up debate, and Jack Kevorkian and his very small circle of acolytes, did just that, by posing one essential question. When is it okay for a physician to administer a combination of medicines which would painlessly end his patient’s life? Such practice is now defined as euthanasia or Physician assisted suicide, and has been an unavoidable source of discord during political and social debates.
"State-by-State Guide to Physician-Assisted Suicide - Euthanasia - ProCon.org."ProConorg Headlines. N.p., 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.