Euthanasia Essay - Dr. Quill and Dr. Kevorkian

1296 Words3 Pages

There are many different methods of approaching patients facing the

end of their lives. Since technology has increased the ability to sustain

life longer, patient assisted suicide has become an increasingly more

popular avenue for doctors to explore. This topic, since it deals with

the power over life and death, touches on some of the deepest of human

feelings. The argument over whose or which approach is most viable can

become a heated one and could never be solved with one broad stroke since

it deals with individuals on such an intimate level. Both Dr. Jack

Kevorkian and Dr. Timothy Quill have there own views on which methods are

correct, some of their views are similar and some are quite different.

Both doctors agree that certain people at the end of their lives shouldn't

have to suffer any more than they have to, but they differ in the methods

in which lead up to the decision process of choosing euthanasia or not.

The belief that individuals facing terminal illnesses and or

certain death in a short period of time should have the "right to die with

as much control and dignity as possible" is shared by both Kevorkian and

Quill (Quill 434). There are many cases in which people become sick and

life becomes an endless episode phasing between unconsciousness and severe

pain. There are also cases in which an individual becomes diagnosed with a

disease with no definite cure and faces a road of painful treatment and

emotional heartache . One example of this was Diane's case. Diane was one

of Dr. Quills patients who was diagnosed with "acute myelomonocytic

leukemia", a disease with a 25% survival rate with treatment and certain

death in at most a few months without treatment (Quill 434). This disease

is very painful to say the least. She was faced with the decision between

a painful treatment process or death. Diane chose to let the disease run

its course, this way she would be able to say her final good-byes to her

family. Her only worry was that in the final stages of her death, would

she be able to control herself, or would she slip away in agony. To avoid

this she asked Dr. Quill if he would give her a prescription for

barbiturates so that when the end was near she would be able to control her

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