Exemplification Essay: Terminally Ill Patients

Picture yourself hungry, but unable to chew. Picture yourself tired but not strong enough to take yourself to bed. Think about having to use the bathroom, and the only way you could do so is by wearing a diaper, to be cleaned and wiped by a stranger. These are basic functions and daily routines that we often take for granted. Would living like this still allow you to have a desired quality of life? If the answer is no, would you prefer to go on living?

This is the same question terminally ill patients, as well as their families face every day during their rough journey to the end. So, would it not be advantageous to make that journey easier as well as shorter? In my personal opinion, the answer is yes. As an active paramedic, I often come in contact with terminally ill patients. These patients are in pain, they feel like a burden too their loved ones, and often are unable to live as they once did. They wither away as time passes, while their family sits by and watches. This is

Now some people might have looked at Craig and said, well you can technically still breathe on your own, still swallow, still speak, you can still go outside in your wheelchair, you can still enjoy life, so how come you are choosing to end it now? I do understand that side of the argument, and recognize that somebody who is not that bad just yet, may not appear to be in need of physician assisted suicide. However, Craig, like all ALS patients, will in fact lose function over their body, and eventually not be able to swallow, or breathe on their own, or even get to a point where his hand cannot work the automatic wheelchair. As Dworkin wrote, each individual has the right to make the most intimate and personal choices central to a person’s dignity and autonomy. The right encompasses the right to exercise some control over the time and manner of one’s