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Assisted suicide case study
Physician assisted suicide pro and cons in conclusion
Pros of assisted suicide
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When it comes to the topic of assisted suicide, most of us will agree that this is a very complicated debate.Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of assisted suicide being a crime. Whereas some are convinced that assisted suicide is a reasonable matter, others maintain that it is manslaughter.
Assisted suicide is a type of euthanasia. Euthanasia is the act or practice of killing someone who is terminally ill or has a painful medical condition. There are different categories under euthanasia that are defined according to the patient’s consent and the procedure in which it is carried out. Assisted suicide is a voluntary decision made by a competent patient. The patient goes to a doctor and is prescribed medication to end their life themselves. In order to receive this medication, it has to be legal in the state in which they live in and their state of condition must meet the requirements to be eligible for this option.
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Assisted euthanasia is legal in Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont.
These states insist that patients requesting physician assisted suicide meet the requirements in order to follow through with their request. A few things are taken into consideration before the process of giving lethal medication to the patient is complete such as patient’s eligibility, physician protocol, patient’s request timeline, as well as a few other things. Most of the states require that the patient be of eighteen years of age or older, be a resident within the state where its legal, be capable of making and communicating health care decisions for themselves, and must be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six
months. With that being said, not just anyone is allowed the benefit of physician assisted suicide, or at least that’s what they think. It’s only a matter of time before people find other ways of getting around the system. According to CNN’s website, what Dr. Sanjay Gupta discovered after investigating the death of Jana Van Voorhis was devastating. After investigating her house they found a brochure of this website called Final Exit Network which an organization that ““…serves members in all 50 states who are suffering from intolerable medical circumstances, are mentally competent, want to end their lives, and meet [their] official, written criteria”” (CNN Assisted suicide or manslaughter 2014 Final Exit Network). In Voorhis’ case she did not meet their official, written criteria legally. According to Gupta,“The problem is that Dr. Edgurb took her word. No doctor ever confirmed her
Imagine a family member being extremely ill and suffering from day to day. When they decide they cannot take the pain any more, would you want them to pull through for you or would you fulfill their dying wish and let the doctor pull the plug? Could you even make a decision? Many people would not allow such an event to happen because with all the pain and confusion the patient is enduring may cause confusion and suicidal tendencies. However, there are people who believe otherwise. This is called physician-assisted suicide. Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is a controversial topic that causes much debate. Though it is only legal in the three states Oregon, Washington and Montana, there are many people who are for it and think it can be necessary. Even with morals put aside, Physician-assisted suicide should be illegal because it will be a huge violation of the oath every doctor must abide by, there would be no real way to distinguish between people who are suffering and the people who are faking or depressed, and it causes a lot of confusion to people with new diseases or new strands of disease that does not have a clear cure.
There are many convincing and compelling arguments for and against Physician Assisted Suicide. There are numerous different aspects of this issue including religious, legal and ethical issues. However, for the purpose of this paper, I will examine the ethical concerns on both sides. There are strong pro and con arguments regarding this and I will make a case for both. It is definitely an issue that has been debated for years and will continue to be debated in years to come.
Physician assisted suicide, is it ethically right or morally wrong? The global controversy becomes emotional as some argue that physician assisted suicide contradicts moral reasoning to preserve life. Others argue that it is acceptable for a dying person to choose to escape unbearable suffering and to alleviate their pain. In order to choose a side of the controversy one must understand the meaning of physician assisted suicide and what a terminally ill patient is. Physician assisted suicide occurs when a physician supervises a patient’s death by providing the necessary means for the patient to enable the death. Terminally ill as stated in CNN news is a person with a life threatening illness that has a prognosis of 6 months or less to live.
It should not be up to anybody except the dying patient. There are only four states that have legalized assisted suicide.
Did you know, about 57% of physicians today have received a request for physician assisted suicide due to suffering from a terminally ill patient. Suffering has always been a part of human existence, and these requests have been occurring since medicine has been around. Moreover, there are two principles that all organized medicine agree upon. The first one is physicians have a responsibility to relieve pain and suffering of dying patients in their care. The second one is physicians must respect patients’ competent decisions to decline life-sustaining treatment. Basically, these principles state the patients over the age of 18 that are mentally stable have the right to choose to end their life if they are suffering from pain. As of right now, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont have legalized physician assisted suicide through legislation. Montana has legalized it via court ruling. The first Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) became effective in Oregon in 1997. Washington and Vermont later passed this act in 2009, and Montana passed the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act in 2008. One concern with physician assisted suicide is confusion of the patient’s wishes. To get rid of any confusion and provide evidence in case someone becomes terminally ill, people should make an advanced care plan. The two main lethal drugs that are used during physician assisted suicide are secobarbital and pentobarbital. Appropriate reporting is necessary when distributing these drugs and performing the suicide in order to publish an analysis. Studies found a large number of people accepted this procedure under certain circumstances; therefore, physician assisted suicide should be legal in the United States because terminally ill patients over the age of 18 that are...
Euthanasia - Pro and Con & nbsp; Abstract & nbsp; This paper will define Euthanasia and assisted suicide. Euthanasia is often confused with and associated with assisted suicide, definitions of the two are. required. Two perspectives shall be presented in this paper. The first perspective favor euthanasia or the "right to die," the second perspective. favor antieuthanasia, or the "right to live". Each perspective shall. endeavor to clarify the legal, moral and ethical ramifications or aspects of euthanasia. & nbsp; Thesis Statement & nbsp; Euthanasia, also mercy killing, is the practice of ending a life so as to.
Both physician assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia are requests that could be made by a terminally ill person with a clear mind in seeking for aid in dying. Physician assisted suicide involves a patient with a clear mind asking a physician for an order for a prescription that will end their life when they choose to do so at home. The physician is typically not present in this setting and patient must be of clear mind and be able to administer the drug to themselves when they choose to do so. Voluntary euthanasia is the physician administering a lethal dose to kill a patient at patients’ request. This practice is considered a criminal offense in almost all U.S. states. Physician assisted suicide is currently legal in only three U.S. states; Oregon, Washington and
Physician-assisted suicide is legal in three of the fifty states in America: Oregon, Montana, and Washington. Getting approval for physician-assisted suicide in Oregon is a long process with many guidelines and restrictions. The patient must be terminally ill, with little hope for treatment and less than six months to live. It is required that they are a resident of Oregon, and at least 18 years of age. They must also be able to communicate their own wishes. Once the initial decision is made by the patient, he or she must make two oral requests for a prescription of lethal drugs to their attending physician, or the doctor that has initial care of that patient. These two requests should be made no less than 15 days apart, and a the patient must sign a written request in the presence of at least two witnesses. Once the forms are signed, the attending physician, as well as another consulting physician, will review the patient’s case and verify the diagnosis and prognosis. If either of the two physicians believes the patient is being influenced by a psychological or psychiatric disease, they must refer the patient for a psychological examination. If the patient is declared mentally fit to make this decision, the attending physician has an obligation to offer alternatives to the Death with Dignity Act, including hospice care, comfort, and pain management. Should the patient decide to proceed with physician-assisted suicide, the attending physician is required to recommend that the patient notify their next-of-kin of their request for lethal drugs, although it is not required (Oregon 1).
Physician assisted suicide (PAS) is a very important issue. It is also important tounderstand the terms and distinction between the varying degrees to which a person can be involved in hastening the death of a terminally ill individual. Euthanasia, a word that is often associated with physician assisted suicide, means the act or practice of killing for reasons of mercy. Assisted suicide takes place when a dying person who wishes to precipitate death, requests help in carrying out the act. In euthanasia, the dying patients may or may not be aware of what is happening to them and may or may not have requested to die. In an assisted suicide, the terminally ill person wants to die and has specifically asked for help. Physician-assisted suicide occurs when the individual assisting in the suicide is a doctor rather than a friend or family member. Because doctors are the people most familiar with their patients’ medical condition and have knowledge of and access to the necessary means to cause certain death, terminally ill patients who have made
Other states have not passed a law approving this action.. Oregon is one of the few states that allows doctors to preform assisted suicide. Oregon has a few requirements in the law to execute this procedure: the patient has to be at least 18 years of age, a resident of Oregon, and a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months or less. The number of assisted suicide deaths in Oregon has increased over the years. In 2009 there were 59, 65 deaths in 2010, 71 deaths in 2011, and 77 deaths in 2012.
Whose life is it, anyway? Euthanasia is a word that means good death. Euthanasia normally implies that the act must be initiated by the person who wishes to commit suicide. But, some people define euthanasia to include both voluntary and involuntary termination of life. Physician assisted suicide is when a physician supplies information and/or the means of committing suicide (lethal dose of sleeping pills or carbon monoxide gas) to a person, so that they can easily terminate their own life.
“In 1997 death with dignity act went into effect” (Time). The patient must be terminally ill and have no possible cure. Physicians cannot prescribe a drug to their patient until they are within their last six months of their life. That means the doctor can infer this option once the time of death is defined. That does not always mean the doctor is right, some patients could possibly live longer then their expected life. ”You must be a resident of Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, or New Mexico” (Death with dignity laws). Doctors cannot prescribe the drug without a license in that state. There is a 48 hour time period from being approved until obtaining the drug. The drug does not need to be taken in the hospital, but does need to be witnessed by a doctor. “Death with dignity laws protect you, your family and physician from criminal prosecution” (Death with dignity laws). Patients will need to be approved by two or more physicians and have another non-related adult witnessing. Witnesses cannot include anyone who is included in the patients will. Patients will also need to pass a psychological exam if questioned about their mental state. They do this so they can conclude that the patient is not just suicidal. Physician assisted suicide is a choice the patient gets to make if they meet the
A 65 year old terminal cancer patient sits and waits. Everyday her pain increases and the treatment to ease her pain has ceased to work. She wants to escape the pain; she wants to be at peace. The doctors tell her to wait and be patient because she has less than 6 months to live so, she should just fight through, but she cannot, she does not have any fight left. She has had cancer for five years, she has been on a roller coaster of good and bad days since her diagnosis. She is tired. She has requested to participate in Assisted Suicide but, unfortunately, in the state that she lives in, it is illegal. Her daughter visits her in the hospital every morning before she goes to work and seeing her daughter cry while seeing her mother in pain and
From a legal perspective, if the patient were not already terminally ill, then it would be easy to see this as manslaughter. Assisted suicide is kind of a hybrid between the active and passive euthanasia. It is an active process, but the third party only provides the advice or means to achieve death, and the patient is the one who administers the intervention that results in death. For example, if a family member provides a terminally ill patient with a firearm and tells them where to aim in order to hit major organs, than this would be an example of assisted suicide. Due to the possibility of unintended consequences from a layperson providing this information, terminally ill patients that seek assistance with suicide plans may seek the advice of experts on the human body: physicians. This leads to the concept of physician-assisted suicide, in that a physician is providing the advice and sometimes the means (the prescription) for achieving death. This could be achieved by providing a legal prescription for a painkiller such a morphine or oxytocin but instructing the patient
Assisted suicide brings up one of the biggest moral debates currently circulating in America. Physician assisted suicide allows a patient to be informed, including counseling about and prescribing lethal doses of drugs, and allowed to decide, with the help of a doctor, to commit suicide. There are so many questions about assisted suicide and no clear answers. Should assisted suicide be allowed only for the terminally ill, or for everyone? What does it actually mean to assist in a suicide? What will the consequences of legalizing assisted suicide be? What protection will there be to protect innocent people? Is it (morally) right or wrong? Those who are considered “pro-death”, believe that being able to choose how one dies is one’s own right.