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Legalizing physician-assisted suicide research paper
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Legal aspects of physician-assisted suicide
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Brooke Scott Mrs. Grimes English 1020 15 April 2014 The Sanctity of Life One of multiple objectives, medicines most important of all should be to allow terminally ill people to decease with as much comfort, control, and dignity as possible. Various individuals feel that it is incorrect for others, irrespective of their health status, to ask their physician to end their lives; while others believe it is their moral right to be able to determine how and when they will pass. When physicians are asked to assist a patient through the process of death, they have multiple accountabilities that come along with that one question. Physician assisted suicide should be a legalized medical practice; therefore, America should start by educating terminal patients about their final options; deciding whether or not to help the patient die; and also, if they do decide to help, providing the lethal dose of medication that will end the patient's life. However, at the center of medical practice, the talent of healing should always stay paramount. Bob Sneed is a 68-year-old man with a case of prolonging prostate cancer. Before diagnosis he began to experience the following symptoms: trouble urinating, noticed blood in his urine, and experienced general pain in his lower back, hips and thighs. He also experienced discomfort in his pelvic area. As the fatal disease continued to evolve, he has begun chemotherapy. He has become weak, and he has very small notion to eat. He has been seeing a physician on a current basis. His back pain is now controlled with high-dose of antibiotics, but the antibiotics have caused an increase drop in blood pressure. In addition to seeing the health care provider, he has also been seeing a psychologist to help him to manag... ... middle of paper ... ...erstand the situation at hand. A terminal illness can promote multiple cases of doubt, concern, and terror into any individual, regardless of race, religious conviction, or belief. Death is an inevitable fate. No man can escape death. A normal human being does not want to have his life ended by conditions he cannot control. Nevertheless, disease and illness prevent an individual of sanity and choice throughout the course of his life. Not only does this relate to an individual undergoing a disease, but also consist of the individual's family and acquaintances. The physician's main part is to reconcile and upkeep terminally ill patients, furthermore, the author of this paper does believe assisted suicide should be supplementary within the job description. Presented throughout this writing assignment are the main arguments in the debate over Physician Assisted Suicide.
The purpose of this article was to inform readers of the thoughts and feelings of patients, families, and physicians. This article informs others of what is really in the thoughts of people going through physician assisted suicide. The audience can be anyone from other physicians to patients and families or anyone who wants to read about this topic. This article can help explain why physician assisted suicide has more positive than negatives. It helps to explain the thought process and feelings of someone who had to really consider this as an option.
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.
The pro-life stance on abortion is often associated with and defended by traditional Christian beliefs , ; however, this paper will argue that it can and should be defended with secular arguments that appeal to reason and our shared human condition. This paper will try and counter the notion that the argument is simply another battlefield where religion and secular thought meet. Rather, it is an important issue that carries with it heavy implications not only for the religious but also for the secular. The major arguments discussed include the emotional and physical toll on the mother, the societal toll of having abortion legalized, and the rights attributed to every human being; first, however, the stance taken in this paper will be further defined and clarified.
“On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act which allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.” (The Oregon Health Authority, 2010). Physician assisted suicide can be constructed to have reasonable laws which still protect against its abuse and the value of human life. Recent Oregon and U.K. laws show that you can craft reasonable laws that prevent abuse and still protect the value of human life. When one thinks of suicide, we think of a person who takes their own life. But in physician-assisted suicide, this is not the case. “In physician-assisted suicide, the patient self...
The right to assisted suicide is a significant topic that concerns people all over the United States. The debates go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Some are against it because of religious and moral reasons. Others are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. Physicians are also divided on the issue. They differ where they place the line that separates relief from dying--and killing. For many the main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. Many terminally ill patients who are in the final stages of their lives have requested doctors to aid them in exercising active euthanasia. It is sad to realize that these people are in great agony and that to them the only hope of bringing that agony to a halt is through assisted suicide.When people see the word euthanasia, they see the meaning of the word in two different lights. Euthanasia for some carries a negative connotation; it is the same as murder. For others, however, euthanasia is the act of putting someone to death painlessly, or allowing a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or condition to die by withholding extreme medical measures. But after studying both sides of the issue, a compassionate individual must conclude that competent terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital care on their families, and preserve the individual right of people to determine their own fate.
People in today’s society, there is many opinions about physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Many people think that it is wrong for people to ask their physician to end their life; while others feel it is okay for them to be able to choose how and when they want to die. A physician has to be very responsible, they have to provide valid information about the terminal illness the patient is suffering from, making the decision if whether or not to help the patient into death and to decide what medication they will have to use to end the patients life. The types of lethal drugs that the physician prescribes would be euthanasia. There are many types of Euthanasia which is voluntary,involuntary,passive, and active.
The approach of physician-assisted suicide respects an individual’s need for personal dignity. It does not force the terminally ill patient to linger hopelessly, and helplessly, often at great cost to their psyche. It drive’s people mad knowing they are going to die in a short period of time, suffering while they wait in a hospital bed.
Anyone can be diagnosed with a terminal illness. It doesn’t matter how healthy you are, who you are, or what you do. Some terminal illnesses you can prevent by avoiding unhealthy habits, eating healthily, exercising regularly and keeping up with vaccinations. However some terminally ill people cannot be helped, their diseases cannot be cured and the only thing possible to help them, besides providing pain relieving medication, is to make them as comfortable as possible while enduring their condition. Many times the pharmaceuticals do not provide the desired pain escape, and cause patients to seek immediate relief in methods such as euthanasia. Euthanasia is the practice of deliberately ending a life in order to alleviate pain and suffering, but is deemed controversial because many various religions believe that their creators are the only ones that should decide when their life’s journey should reach its end. Euthanasia is performed by medical doctors or physicians and is the administration of a fatal dose of a suitable drug to the patient on his or her express request. Although the majority of American states oppose euthanasia, the practice would result in more good as opposed to harm. The patient who is receiving the euthanizing medication would be able to proactively choose their pursuit of happiness, alleviate themselves from all of the built up pain and suffering, relieve the burden they may feel they are upon their family, and die with dignity, which is the most ethical option for vegetative state and terminally ill patients. Euthanasia should remain an alternative to living a slow and painful life for those who are terminally ill, in a vegetative state or would like to end their life with dignity. In addition, t...
The ethical issues of physician-assisted suicide are both emotional and controversial, as it struggles with the issue of life and death. If you take a moment and imagine how you would choose to live your last day, it is almost guaranteed that it wouldn’t be a day spent lying in a hospital bed, suffering in pain, continuously being pumped with medicine, and living in a strangers’ body. Today we live in a culture that denies the terminally ill the right to maintain control over when and how to end their lives. Physicians-assisted suicide “is the voluntary termination of one's own life by the administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician” (Medical Definition of Physician-Assisted Suicide, 2017). Physician-assisted
As patients come closer to the end of their lives, certain organs stop performing as well as they use to. People are unable to do simple tasks like putting on clothes, going to the restroom without assistance, eat on our own, and sometimes even breathe without the help of a machine. Needing to depend on someone for everything suddenly brings feelings of helplessness much like an infant feels. It is easy to see why some patients with terminal illnesses would seek any type of relief from this hardship, even if that relief is suicide. Euthanasia or assisted suicide is where a physician would give a patient an aid in dying. “Assisted suicide is a controversial medical and ethical issue based on the question of whether, in certain situations, Medical practioners should be allowed to help patients actively determine the time and circumstances of their death” (Lee). “Arguments for and against assisted suicide (sometimes called the “right to die” debate) are complicated by the fact that they come from very many different points of view: medical issues, ethical issues, legal issues, religious issues, and social issues all play a part in shaping people’s opinions on the subject” (Lee). Euthanasia should not be legalized because it is considered murder, it goes against physicians’ Hippocratic Oath, violates the Controlled
“We [the Islamic and Catholic faiths] share a special reverence for life. For Catholics this is often summarized under the expression ’the sanctity of human life’, which includes respect for the life and dignity of every human being...Muslims fully agree with this…” (Extract from the Joint statement on the Cairo conference on population and development by the American Muslim Council and the United States Catholic Bishops Conference.) The sanctity of human life is the belief that life is precious and must not, under any circumstances, be damaged or destroyed, but respected, protected and preserved. The Catholic Church and Islam have an almost identical concept of the sanctity of life where life is seen as a fundamental gift from their god. The protection and respect of human life has been a very controversial issue and is a matter of concern to the Catholic Church and Islam. Bioethics is one of these issues related to the sanctity of life where this belief is constantly being violated, causing much debate and a need for a spiritual solution. Bioethics is defined as “the study of the ethical, social, legal, philosophical and other related issues arising in health care, biological sciences and from biotechnology” (Healey, J. 2009). Subtopics under bioethics where the Islamic faith and the Catholic Church have some similarities are surrogate motherhood, organ donation and euthanasia. They also have differences in their positions on in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), contraception and abortion. Catholics make decisions about such issues using the teachings of Jesus, the Bible and the authority of the Pope. Muslims base all their decisions on the words of Allah which were revealed to the Prophet Muhammed in the Holy Qur’an, Islamic scholars ...
Throughout the course of history, death and suffering have been a prominent topic of discussion among people everywhere. Scientists are constantly looking for ways to alleviate and/or cure the pain that comes with the process of dying. Treatments typically focus on pain management and quality of life, and include medication and various types of therapy. When traditional treatments are not able to eliminate pain and suffering or the promise of healing, patients will often consider euthanasia or assisted suicide. Assisted suicide occurs when a person is terminally ill and believes that their life is not worth living anymore. As a result of these thoughts and feelings, a physician or other person is enlisted to “assist” the patient in committing suicide. Typically this is done by administering a lethal overdose of a narcotic, antidepressant or sedative, or by combining drugs to create an adverse reaction and hasten the death of the sick patient. Though many people believe that assisted suicide is a quick and honorable way to end the sufferings of a person with a severe illness, it is, in fact, morally wrong. Assisted suicide is unethical because it takes away the value of a human life, it is murder, and it opens the door for coercion of the elderly and terminally ill to seek an untimely and premature death. Despite the common people’s beliefs, assisted suicide is wrong and shouldn’t be legalized.
Abortion is an ethical issue because there are many differing views on if it morally right to terminate a pregnancy before normal childbirth. Some people believe that abortion is acceptable, others completely disagree with the practice and other believe it is acceptable under some circumstances. This is an ethical issue because there is the ‘Pro Life’ argument, where there is the belief that abortion is murder, and the unborn child has the right to live as anyone else does, there is also the ‘Pro Choice’ argument, where there is the belief that the woman has ‘reproductive rights’ and can choose what she does with her body, because it is her body. There are also views of abortion that come from religion. People base their views on their values,
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.
Should a patient have the right to ask for a physician’s help to end his or her life? This question has raised great controversy for many years. The legalization of physician assisted suicide or active euthanasia is a complex issue and both sides have strong arguments. Supporters of active euthanasia often argue that active euthanasia is a good death, painless, quick, and ultimately is the patient’s choice. While it is understandable, though heart-rending, why a patient that is in severe pain and suffering that is incurable would choose euthanasia, it still does not outweigh the potential negative effects that the legalization of euthanasia may have. Active euthanasia should not be legalized because