Assisted Suicide Persuasive Speech

I’m sure you’ve heard of the term assisted suicide. Well in Oregon, Washington, and Vermont they have the opportunity to participate in the Death with Dignity Act. It has been in place for over 10 years. It’s a way in which you take control of when and where you want to die. This gives anyone taking part in the act a sense of control and peace of mind. Not just anyone can do this though. You have to be 18 or older and a resident of these states. You also have to be capable of making health care decisions on your own, and you have to be diagnosed with an illness that is terminal and will lead to death within 6 months. It is proven that their family feels better about their loved ones dying on their own terms in a peaceful manner. It helps them

focus on the gift of life and the good times they had rather than the agonizing process of them dying.
Brittany Maynard participated in the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. She was 29 years old and was married for just over a year. After suffering from really atrocious headaches, on New Years Day she was diagnosed with brain cancer. Her and her husband’s lives were devoted to doctor consultations and many hours of being in the hospital. After nine days of finding out she had brain cancer she had surgery to get rid of her tumor. She had no luck the tumor came back and it was more aggressive. The doctors prescribed full brain radiation. After reading the side effects she knew her life would never be the same again. She would have no hair on her head and her scalp would be covered with first-degree burns. Her and her family did months of research to see if there was anything they could do. There was nothing they could do to save her life. The cancer was eating away at her brain; she would experience personality changes and a loss of verbal, cognitive, and motive skills. Brittany knew her life was coming to an end "When we all sat down and looked at the facts, there isn't a single person that loves me that wishes me more pain and more suffering" (Brittany Maynard). Crowley also mentioned that Maynard "suffered increasingly frequent and longer seizures, severe head and neck pain, and stroke-like symptoms. As symptoms grew more severe, she chose to abbreviate the dying process by taking the aid-in-dying medication she had received months ago"(Sean Crowley, a spokesman for the advocacy group Compassion & Choices). She died in the way she attended, peacefully in her bedroom in the arms of her loved ones.
John listens to the radio every morning on his way to work. After flipping on his radio one morning the topic was Brittany Maynard. The first caller mentioned “that Maynard’s husband should have talked her out of her decision.” John does not agree with that statement. As he sees it Maynard gave her husband a gift, a gift by preventing painful images being burned into his brain. John points out that “he will not have memories of his beloved gradually losing her mind and control over her bodily functions. He will not have memories of watching the person he loves most moaning in pain, and not being able to do anything about it. He will not have memories like the ones I have—of vomit and bedsores and things so horrible that I cannot bring myself to type them into this keyboard. He will not have memories of reaching the point where he started wishing that his wife, his partner of 38 years whom he loved with all his heart, would die. Those memories don’t go away; they come back in dreams and nightmares” (John La Grange).
A young woman named Amy Neese’s supported Brittany and her decisions and wishes she knew about the option sooner. Her father at the age of 61 suffered from a cancer that required brain radiation. He took the chance of getting the treatment, unlike Brittany. Every one of Brittany’s fears materialized in Amy’s father. The radiation ultimately caused brain necrosis; the necrosis slowly but effectively ate his brain one section at a time. Although the treatment brought him more time, her father lost his quality of life. For four years, he was in chronic pain and constant agony. Amy Neese’s expresses “My family and I were forced to helplessly watch the slow, brutal process of losing him a piece at a time. We sat beside him through numerous painful surgeries and recoveries. We stood by him as his ability to perform simple life tasks began to fail—drive a car, hold a fork, move his feet. We watched as he lost ability to comprehend and process information. We cried when he lost ability to communicate and recognize things familiar. We held his hand as he agonized from morphine-resistant pain, and fought back tears when he told us he was ready to go. In the end, we sat beside him in hospice, waiting, praying for God to bring him peace. The process was torture on my sweet daddy; the experience was heartbreaking for us” (Amy Neese’s). No one wants to see the people they love in pain. The family of the loved one goes through a ton more heartbreak and torture having to watch them go in such a painful way.
Another young women that supports the Death with Dignity act is Lee Macneall. She is 25 years old and a firm believer that people should have the right to choose. She believes her story is different. She lost someone close to her twice due to a terminal disease. She lost her father at 13 to cancer, and recently lost her mother to lung cancer and a brain tumor. She asked, “How is it fair that someone else can make the decision that she must go through this from start to finish in agony” (Lee Macneall). She feels very angry at the fact there are no sanctions in place that allows someone of a sound mind to make a decision about their own death. Her mom had to endure pain on a daily basis. It broke her having to watch her mother and father die in one of the worst ways possible.
There are numerous questions that are frequently asked about the Death with Dignity Act.

One question asked is, are the poor, undereducated, uninsured and other marginalized people encouraged to use the law? Actually, no one is encouraged to use the law. People who have chosen to use the law have been well educated, have had excellent health care, have had good insurance, have had access to hospice and have been well supported financially, emotionally and physically. Another question people have is are you allowed to move to Oregon, Washington, and Vermont to take advantage of the act? The law doesn’t prevent anyone from moving to these states , however reports show very few patients have moved to any of the these places to use the law. Unfortunately there is a time consuming process. The timeline starts with your first oral request to your physician, then a 15 day writing period, your second oral request to your physician, a written request to your physician, then there’s a 48 hour waiting period before you can pick up your prescribed medication. Some people wonder if assisted death is the same as euthanasia. No they are not the same because the patient chooses when and where they take the medicine, the physician does nothing but provides the medicine if you are eligible. Euthanasia generally means that the physician would act directly, for instance giving a lethal injection, to end the patient’s life. Not everyone who goes through the process and qualifies for it actually takes the medicine. Statistics say “Twenty-eight of the 122 patients who received Death with Dignity Act prescriptions during 2013 did not take the medications and subsequently died of other causes” (Oregon Public Health Division). People also wonder what kind of prescription the patient will receive; well it is up to the physician to determine the prescription. To date, most patients have received a prescription for an oral dosage of a barbiturate. A barbiturate is a sleep inducing drug.

Statistics also say “in the first decade of the law, the median age of decedents was 70 years; 54 percent were men, 82 percent were terminally ill with cancer, and 86 percent were enrolled in home hospice” (The Oregon Encyclopedia Portland State University). Before being prescribed the medication, the doctor recommends other options as in hospice care, the patient also has to agree that when they take the medicine they do it in a private place in a private manner.
Although rarely used the option of Death with Dignity helps a person regain control over their illness. It gives them peace at mind when their illness is rapidly stripping away options and control. “The law brings comfort to family and friends. Loved ones have the option— a way out” (Compassion & Choices). Their family members like to know that their loved ones died peacefully.