Assisted Suicide Reflection Paper

When I originally signed up for this course, I was uneasy about it. Talking about death has always made me feel anxious, as it does with most people in our society. However, over the course of the semester, I’ve learned that not only is it okay to talk about death and dying, but it also makes me feel less anxious about death. Things that I have learned in this course will help me in many ways in both my professional and personal life. One learning of social importance that I have had this semester involves hospice care. I knew that hospice services were given to dying patients in order to make them comfortable instead of curing them; however, I did not know that there was a time limit for hospice care. Terminal patients have to be expected

However, instead of making them comfortable until their death, this one involves a doctor helping a patient to end their life. Physician-assisted suicide is a very controversial topic. Many people think that if physician-assisted suicide were to be legalized in cases where the patients are terminally ill, it could then be opened up to be legalized in other cases as well. This could include mentally ill patients and chronically ill patients. In some states, physician-assisted suicide is already legal, such as in Oregon. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act allows for doctors to prescribe lethal dosages of medications to their terminal patients. Doctors who are opposed to the act are allowed to refuse to participate. The most important part of this act, to me, is that while the doctor prescribes the lethal medication, they do not administer it to the patients. Even after the patients receive the prescription, they are not obligated to take the medication. As I understand it, those who get the prescription but don’t take the medication do so because they want to feel as if they have a choice. While they may not want to end their lives now, they have the power to if at any point their suffering becomes too much for them. Learning about physician-assisted suicide in this course made me even more comfortable with the idea of legalizing it. If I was terminally ill, I would want as

While I do not have a terminal illness, I have a chronic illness and with all illnesses come complications. Many of these complications are solved through quick emergency room visits or an adjustment to my medications, but I am aware that it could be much worse. It is very important that I write up a living will so that if there was a major complication with my illness and I was unable to make medical decisions for myself in the moment, my wishes would still be known and carried through. I am very adamant that I do not stay on life support machines if there was not a chance that I survive without them. I also am very adamant that my family should not have to make the decision whether or not I stay on life support. I’ve seen too many people I know go through having to make that decision for their loved ones to wish that on mine. So instead, I will take that burden off of them and decide now while I still am able to express my