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In case of terminal illness, physician-assisted suicide should be legal
In case of terminal illness, physician-assisted suicide should be legal
Legalizing physician-assisted suicide research paper
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The decision to end a life is a difficult one no matter the situation presented. It stirs a great deal of emotions when thinking about a loved one choosing to die in situations where they are terminally ill. Death is a scary thought for most people, but we need to remember that it is just a fact of life, no matter how morbid it sounds. There is some dignity in ending a life for a patient is who terminally ill and suffering, although it may be a tough decision, it can sometimes be the right one. If a situation came about where I was terminally ill and the doctors told me that I had just six months to live, I wouldn 't opt to end my life. This is probably because I’m young and I could desperately use those six months to see and do as much as I’d miss for the rest of my life. I’d ask that the doctor give me some medication for pain mediation, and then I’d scrape together whatever energy I had and I’d go travel and live what was left of my life. Even if I didn 't want to travel or I was bedridden, I’d still opt to live the time that I had left for the reasons that it would allow people who are close to me to spend time …show more content…
In A Tender Hand in the Presence of Death, Heather, the nurse, would put in IVs and feeding tubes in hopes of prolonging hospice care even when they were ineffective in order to give more time to the families who were having trouble letting go (MacFarquhar, 2016). In my personal situation, I can relate, as two of my grandparents have passed away from cancer and suffered for a long time before passing. Although it was incredibly sad and our families bargained for more time, there was some peace in knowing that the suffering had come to an end once they passed. For our own selfish reasons, we want as much time as possible with our loved ones who are suffering and close to death, but in reality, the decision for assisted suicide should only concern the individual whose life it
Jerry Fensterman, in his essay "I See Why Others Choose to Die", talks about how he can understand why terminal ill people after so long in pain with no hope to cure choose to end their life sooner than expected. Fensterman, who was a dignose with cancer, says "I know now how a feeling, loving, rational person could choose death over life, could choose to relieve his suffering as well as that of his loved ones a few months earlier that would happen naturally." I agreed with the writers point of view, and I can also understand why someone would make this type of decisions. It is not only physically devastating for the whole family to go through this type of situations, but it could also be economically damaging, and not to mention the stress that is slowly draining everyone around.
When faced with a terminal illness a person has to go through a process of thinking. What will happen to me? How long will I suffer? What kind of financial burden am I going to leave with my family when I am gone? What are my options? For many years the only legal options were to try a treatment plan, palliative care, hospice, and eventually death. For residents of Washington State, Oregon, and Vermont there is another option. They have the option to end their own life with a prescription from their physicians.
Imagine, if you will, that you have just found out you have a terminal medical condition. Doesn’t matter which one, it’s terminal. Over the 6 months you have to live you experience unmeasurable amounts of pain, and when your free of your pain the medication you’re under renders you in an impaired sense of consciousness. Towards the 4th month, you begin to believe all this suffering is pointless, you are to die anyways, why not with a little dignity. You begin to consider Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS). In this essay I will explain the ethical decisions and dilemmas one may face when deciding to accept the idea of Physician-Assisted Suicide. I will also provide factual information pertaining to the subject of PAS and testimony from some that advocate for legalization of PAS. PAS is not to be taken lightly. It is the decision to end one’s life with the aid of a medical physician. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary states that PAS 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.” PAS is considered, by our textbook – Doing Ethics by Lewis Vaughn, an active voluntary form of euthanasia. There are other forms of euthanasia such as non-voluntary, involuntary, and passive. This essay is focusing on PAS, an active voluntary form of euthanasia. PAS is commonly known as “Dying/Death with Dignity.” The most recent publicized case of PAS is the case of Brittany Maynard. She was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in California, where she lived. At the time California didn’t have Legislative right to allow Brittany the right to commit PAS so she was transported to Oregon where PAS is legal....
I would not want my family to be forced to watch me suffer and be in excruciating pain twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I would want to save my family from that and save them the burden of giving up their lives to take care of me and pay for all the medication that will never save my life. I rather give them many happy memories to live on with of me and the things we’ve done together. I would never want their last image of me to be in a bed dying in pain that can't be helped. I have seen way to many people suffer from an illness, that has no cure. I’m sure if they had a choice, they’d want the option of assisted suicide. I’d want to die happy and on my own terms and I feel that many people want that and should have the option for
The American Nurses Association (ANA) thinks that nurses should stay away from doing euthanasia, or assisting in doing euthanasia because it is against the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements (ANA, 2001; herein referred to as The Code). Overall, nurses are also advised to deliver a quality of care what include respect compassion and dignity to all their patients. For people in end-of-life, nursing care should also focus on the patient’s comfort, when possible the dying patient should be pain free. Nurses have also the obligation to support the patient but also the patient’s family members during these difficult moments. We must work to make sure that patients and family members are well informed about every option that is
The right to assisted suicide is a significant topic that concerns people all over the United States. The debates go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Some are against it because of religious and moral reasons. Others are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. Physicians are also divided on the issue. They differ where they place the line that separates relief from dying--and killing. For many the main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. Many terminally ill patients who are in the final stages of their lives have requested doctors to aid them in exercising active euthanasia. It is sad to realize that these people are in great agony and that to them the only hope of bringing that agony to a halt is through assisted suicide.When people see the word euthanasia, they see the meaning of the word in two different lights. Euthanasia for some carries a negative connotation; it is the same as murder. For others, however, euthanasia is the act of putting someone to death painlessly, or allowing a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or condition to die by withholding extreme medical measures. But after studying both sides of the issue, a compassionate individual must conclude that competent terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital care on their families, and preserve the individual right of people to determine their own fate.
In today's society, one of the most controversial health-care-related ethical issues is assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Assisted suicide is not to be confused with ethically justified end-of-life decisions and actions. Nurses have a responsibility to deliver comprehensive and benevol...
Anyone can be diagnosed with a terminal illness. It doesn’t matter how healthy you are, who you are, or what you do. Some terminal illnesses you can prevent by avoiding unhealthy habits, eating healthily, exercising regularly and keeping up with vaccinations. However some terminally ill people cannot be helped, their diseases cannot be cured and the only thing possible to help them, besides providing pain relieving medication, is to make them as comfortable as possible while enduring their condition. Many times the pharmaceuticals do not provide the desired pain escape, and cause patients to seek immediate relief in methods such as euthanasia. Euthanasia is the practice of deliberately ending a life in order to alleviate pain and suffering, but is deemed controversial because many various religions believe that their creators are the only ones that should decide when their life’s journey should reach its end. Euthanasia is performed by medical doctors or physicians and is the administration of a fatal dose of a suitable drug to the patient on his or her express request. Although the majority of American states oppose euthanasia, the practice would result in more good as opposed to harm. The patient who is receiving the euthanizing medication would be able to proactively choose their pursuit of happiness, alleviate themselves from all of the built up pain and suffering, relieve the burden they may feel they are upon their family, and die with dignity, which is the most ethical option for vegetative state and terminally ill patients. Euthanasia should remain an alternative to living a slow and painful life for those who are terminally ill, in a vegetative state or would like to end their life with dignity. In addition, t...
As a result, life-sustaining procedures such as ventilators, feeding tubes, and treatments for infectious and terminal diseases are developing. While these life-sustaining methods have positively influenced modern medicine, they also inadvertently cause terminal patients extensive pain and suffering. Previous to the development of life-sustaining procedures, many people died in the care of their own home, however, today the majority of Americans take their last breath lying in a hospital bed. As the advancement of modern medicine continues, physicians and patients are going to encounter life-altering trials and tribulations. Arguably, the most controversial debate in modern medicine is the discussion of the ethical choice for physician-assisted suicide.
As patients come closer to the end of their lives, certain organs stop performing as well as they use to. People are unable to do simple tasks like putting on clothes, going to the restroom without assistance, eat on our own, and sometimes even breathe without the help of a machine. Needing to depend on someone for everything suddenly brings feelings of helplessness much like an infant feels. It is easy to see why some patients with terminal illnesses would seek any type of relief from this hardship, even if that relief is suicide. Euthanasia or assisted suicide is where a physician would give a patient an aid in dying. “Assisted suicide is a controversial medical and ethical issue based on the question of whether, in certain situations, Medical practioners should be allowed to help patients actively determine the time and circumstances of their death” (Lee). “Arguments for and against assisted suicide (sometimes called the “right to die” debate) are complicated by the fact that they come from very many different points of view: medical issues, ethical issues, legal issues, religious issues, and social issues all play a part in shaping people’s opinions on the subject” (Lee). Euthanasia should not be legalized because it is considered murder, it goes against physicians’ Hippocratic Oath, violates the Controlled
A person that is suffering from a terminal illness decides that life is not worth living because there is too much pain involved and ends his own life, would that be wrong of him? That is the question that is at hand. Many supporters of the “right to die movement” can justify euthanasia. First, because terminal illness causes pain that is unbearable for that individual. That is the main reason why people seek self-induced death.
According to Immanuel Kant, a person has dignity that makes him autonomous. Thus, the decision of the autonomous patient to die has intrinsic value. Because patients are rational agent, they are able to make their own decision based on reason. A rational patient will reason that if continued existence is full of suffering and no-hope for better well-being, therefore, the best option is to discontinue his/her life to save him/herself from that future condition. It is the patient’s approach to manage his/her own life. Dan W. Brock is right in his article “Voluntary Active Euthanasia” when he said that, “self-determination [or autonomy] has fundamental value… [because]… individual [can] control the manner, circumstances, and timing of their dying and death” (75). The dignity of the patient lies in their “capacity to direct their lives” (Brock 75).
Keeping a person alive who is in pain and terminally ill does not keep the person from a painful death or from dying. Doing so only causes the person to die slower and makes the process of it worse than it would have been. Letting the patient choose the time of their death is not only merciful to the patient being euthanized, but it is also merciful to the family, friends, and loved ones to the patient. In the article “Death With Dignity: Choices and Challenges” by Faye Girsh, it gives an example of a merciful death by physician assisted suicide that puts ease on both the family and the patient as the article
In my life I have lost many close family members to disease and illness. I have watched them waste away from the ravages of Alzheimer’s, AIDS, cancer and kidney failure. Each time their lack of choice leads them to treatment that only prolonged their pain and suffering and offered no hope. It is because of these experiences that I am a strong proponent of assisted suicide. Hospice care was the choice we made for each of them. Although it gave them relief from their pain it did not provide them with any value of life. We would never consider hospice care assisted suicide but there are decisions made that do help to shorten the lives of those that have this care. Most people on hospice are given morphine, or some derivative of it, to help them be “comfortable”. Morphine is a respiratory depressant and as the body systems begin to shut down the morphine does not get metabolizes as efficiently so eventually it will depress their respiratory system and eventually stop their heart. This is the hard truth about the end of life for many. It is at this time of the dying process that patient and their family member, with the guidance from doctors and nurses and safe medication practices, make the decisions on how often to give this medication. If it is ok at this time to help shorten a life, why is it not ok to let this same person chose to end their life with the same form of medication at the time of their
Coping with a terminal illness or having someone in your family that has a terminal illness is a very difficult thing to address. These things usually come up unexpectedly and we are never prepared for something like this. When you first hear of your terminal illness you might feel isolated and even numb to the world. People are usually not comfortable with talking about their own problems but when you are experiencing something like this the best thing you can do is talk about it. There are pros and cons that come with assisted suicide and no one can ever really tell what they would do until they are in the situation. If someone in my family had a terminal illness I personally feel that I would assist my family member in whatever decision they chose. I think that if you have a terminal illness you should have the decision to do whatever you would like. If you are experiencing a lot of pain and you believe you are ready to die I think you should have that right.