...Seminar 5 First Draft – Physician Assisted Suicide INTRODUCTION In my term paper I am going to be answering the question is Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) ethically justified? The debate on Physician-Assisted Suicide has been a topic of debate for many years. Born and raised in Michigan I remember all of the news on Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisting terminally ill patients in their death and the controversy on it. The dilemma is whether or not a physician should be allowed to assist a person in ending their life even if they are terminally ill. According to a recent article on The New York Times website, New Mexico just legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide for terminally ill patients. This ruling would make New Mexico the fifth state to allow physicians to prescribe to their terminally ill patients a fatal dose of medications to end their life (Eckholm, 2014). Proponents of Physician-Assisted Suicide believe that terminally ill people should have the right to choose go to the doctors and ask for their help to end their lives and stop their suffering. Of course there would have to be certain steps taken to make sure they were making the right choice. Many supporters of Physician-Assisted Suicide believe that there should be some psychiatric evaluation to make sure that the patient is of a sound mind in their decision to end their life. Opponents of Physician-Assisted Suicide believe that a person does not have a right to end their own life and that it goes against...
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...with your life, especially in a terminally ill state, should be a fundamental human right and a legal option for anyone around the globe. One major benefit of physician-assisted suicide is that it ends suffering. According to "Doctor Assisted Suicide Pros and Cons List," as death nears, a lot of physical pain can occur from terminal...
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...thing, this quote shows that most people would want to die peacefully and with dignity. This topic is very controversial because there are so many people who can argue for either side. Also not everyone can agree to the point of it is or it is not a good thing. Granted assisted suicide is helpful, there are some people who believe it to be bad. It is important to realize assisted suicide would provide terminally ill patients with the chance to die in peace with less suffering. To point out everyone knows being terminally ill...
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...compelled them seek for suicide assistance in form of prescriptions for lethal drugs to help them terminate their lives. Such patients have undergone extreme pain that they are left with no options rather to beg to die. This is an illusion to some critics who preach about the sanctity of life. This paper intends to explore on legalizing Physician Assisted Suicide for terminally ill patients with certain guidelines. Introduction According to Birnbacher (2008), the question of legalizing physician assisted suicide still generates great debate. These two scholars have added their voice to the debate by stressing that physician assisted suicide should be permissible medical caregivers. This should only be possible under certain and considerable conditions. Manning (1998) also argued that some diseases are quite traumatizing. The patients tend to face extreme suffering that even doctors can seldom extend their olive branch. For instance, when an individual is suffering from incurable syndromes that press them to the extreme throughout their life, then euthanasia should be allowed (Snyder, 2002). This showed that physician assisted suicide could relieve such patients from the suffering. Based on the debate on physical assisted suicide, the proponents of the debate have appealed for legalizing physical assisted suicide. Their arguments have basically been founded on principle of autonomy (Birnbacher, 2008). The supporters have maintained that terminally ill patients should be...
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...Hastening a death usually occurs when a physician assist someone in their death. Most people who have a hasten death is often someone who is terminally ill. In other words, people who have been informed that have a terminal illness and will have a few months to live. People who are terminally ill should be able to have a hasten death, because they should be able to end their pain and suffering. However, people who have mental illnesses often do not have a hasten death. Physicians often do not hasten death of people who have been diagnosed with mental illnesses. People with mental illness often try to attempt suicide, because they are several depressed and are often having suicidal thoughts. In addition, people with mental illness should be...
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...Physician-Assisted Suicide Physician-assisted suicide presents one of the greatest contemporary challenges to the medical profession's ethical responsibilities. Proposed as a means toward more humane care of the dying, assisted suicide threatens the very core of the medical profession's ethical integrity. Physician-assisted suicide occurs when a physician provides a patient with the medical means and/ or the medical knowledge to commit suicide ("Module 5: Physician-assisted,"). For example, the physician could provide sleeping pills and information about the lethal dose, while aware that the patient is contemplating suicide. In physician-assisted suicide, the patient performs the life-ending act, whereas in euthanasia, the physician administers the drug or other agent causing death. Although, the medical field has made great strides in improving end-of-life care through palliative and hospice programs, sometimes it’s just not enough. The care that is offered to the chronically ill and elderly is less than ideal and it is estimated that 40-70% of patients die in pain, another 50-60% die feeling short of breathe; 90% of nursing homes, where patients go to receive 24 hour nursing care, are gravely understaffed (Morrow, 2010). Debates Physician-assisted suicide is among the majority of debates in bioethical technology, in our time. Every reasonable person prefers that no patient ever contemplate suicide (with...
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...Physician assisted suicide has been a controversial topic in this country for many years. Some believe that people who are sick and dying should have the legal right to end their life with the help of a physician. There are many terminal cancer patients who are so sick they will not have a chance to live the rest of their life so they choose the route of physician assisted suicide. They choose it because it is an easy pain free way to end their life. Although people may say physician assisted suicide is unethical, physician assisted suicide is ethical because it is a person's individual choice whether they want to live or die and it reduces suffering. There have been many cases and statewide issues that have dealt with physician assisted suicide. The state of California and Washington denied the idea of physician assisted suicide. In the early 1990’s California and Washington rejected the votes that would have allowed Physician assisted suicide to be legal. Physician assisted suicide is a state issue. Physician assisted suicide was a problem in states...
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...expectancy of their patients. Unfortunately, there are some medical conditions and diseases that are incurable. And these medical conditions and diseases are unpredictable and may cause us to have to make some difficult decisions to want ease the patient from suffering. There are ethical issues surround anything that is done in the medical field, particularly concerning the treatment and voluntary euthanasia of a patient that is dying. There are strong controversy whether voluntary euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, of a patient that is dying, is morally right or wrong. Should it be up to the patient and their family to make the decision for end-of life care? The choice for end of life a mission for many individuals, “the nineteenth-century philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that individuals are, ultimately, the best judges and guardians of their own interests”, (Singer, 2005). In this essay, I will discuss the difference between euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, and the utilitarian ethical theory for this topic and how it results in the happiness for several people. After being diagnosed with a serious terminal illness, the body can begin to deteriorate causing physical pain and trauma before death. As the patient with serious illness gets closer to the end of life their symptoms and pain may intensify. Watching...
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...Suicide, the Option Miguel Betances Informal Logic ACL1533D Michael Pankrast September 13, 2015 Death is a natural part of life yet comes with many conditions that may morally challenge someone who is sick or someone who is watching someone who is sick. Through death is inevitable for all, we all possess no pre-arranged expiration date, yet some wind up in scenarios which unconventional decisions may need to be made. Terminally ill patients are those who have been given said expiration date, with no chance at getting better, and the question arises as to whether or not it is acceptable to allow them to end pain or discomfort before their natural time of departure. Though terminally ill patients are not medical professionals and cannot determine their medical decline, they can feel it. Thus, physician-assisted suicide becomes an option, whereby, a terminally ill patient who can no longer stand pain or no longer wants to live out their “sentence” can go to said medical professional and calmly go in peace. However, this becomes a moral quandary, for who is to say whether or not it is okay for someone to kill themselves, even if they are in pain, even if they are assisted by a physician. Physician-assisted suicide is a viable option for terminally ill patients. The fact that the word “suicide” is used may create the wrong picture for those who oppose the concepts, because “suicide” implies a willingness to take a life not yet lived. However, physician-assisted...
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...A Good Death ENG 155 Advanced Composition For the terminally ill, death in advanced modern societies can often be described as undignified. Terminally ill patients are frequently connected to machines, tubes, and a variety of other life-support equipment. They experience intolerable pain that would be inconceivable to a healthy individual. The terminally ill patient is often left with no option other than to die in an impersonal medical institution. They are unable to get out of bed, feed themselves or even go to the bathroom without assistance. As reported recently in a survey issued by the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, “Many of the 550,000 American patients who die of cancer each year spend their last days in distress, suffering from pain, nausea, fatigue and depression” (Toufexis). In such circumstances there is no means for a terminally ill patient to sustain their dignity in the dying process. Unfortunately, much of the misery suffered by the terminally ill is done so needlessly. Surveys indicate that along with the loss of a patient’s dignity and quality of life is the fear of facing death in uncontrollable pain. A recent survey by the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine And National Research Council indicated that, nine million Americans are now living with cancer and about...
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...voted and passed a law to legalize assisted suicide, called Death with Dignity Act in 2009. This law is for terminally ill patients, diagnosed by their physician to have less than six months to live. There are several steps before the patient is allowed to receive the medication for assisted suicide .“The patient must be a resident of the state, be at least eighteen years old, declared mentally competent to make the request, and two doctors have to certify that he or she has less than six months to live” ( Medical News Today, 2009 ). The representative for Compassion and Choices, an aid in dying advocacy group for assisted suicide, is very supportive of the new law, which gives terminally ill patient other option and helps he or she decide how they wish to live their last days. The Death with Dignity Act allows physicians to prescribe lethal doses of medications to the terminally ill patient. Barbara McKay is terminally ill from advance ovarian cancer and she said “I have watched both my parents suffer with few choices at the end of their lives. I want to be able to decide what time and the way I wish to die.”(Medical News Today,2009). Death with Dignity Act has placed a considerable load of ethical and unethical consequences of emotions on the health care professionals, who will be performing this request. Death with Dignity Act passed, many health care facilities been deciding whether to opt in or stay out of the assisted suicide. Cassie Saucer, from the Washington...
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...COMS 321 – Rhetorical Discourse 18 Jun 2015 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS: LET’S CALL PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE WHAT IT IS I have conducted a descriptive analysis from an article written by Karin Klein, Editorial Writer of the Los Angeles Times, published on February 17, 2015. Klein tackled the topic “Let’s call physician-assisted suicide what it is”. The newly written Senate Bill (SB) 128 would “allow physicians in California to write lethal prescriptions under tightly controlled circumstances” for the terminally ill but will not call it as “suicide” nor will it be reflected as such on death certificates. Klein’s editorial is focused on the these two major flaws of the bill written for the terminally ill who are looking for a dignified way to end their life by allowing them access to lethal prescription drugs if the bill is passed. The bill is mirrored after the State of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act law passed by its legislature in 1997. Klein’s purpose, at the time of her writing the editorial, was to reach out to the legislators and advocates of the bill, her audience, to modify the bill by naming it as it is, “a physician-assisted suicide” and reflecting it as such in death certificates. The tone and approach to her writing was straight to the point while at times satirical, stretching how the definition of “suicide” can have a different connotation in the eyes and perspectives of the advocates of the bill. Klein seeks to appeal to the writers and proponents of the...
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... Is this right? No. Physician assisted suicide should be legal. There are many people suffering right now wanting to have the option to end their lives safely with the help of their doctor. This option will give patients more control over their death and end patient suffering and here are a few reasons why. Firstly, this option is less costly than medication that will only prolong the patient’s life for a few days. It costs $55,000 for terminally ill cancer patients to receive chemotherapy in the last 2 months of their lives and researchers found that 20 to 30 percent of these treatments have had no impact on the patients’ health. (Meyer, 2010). These...
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...Gavin Martin Period 6 Research Paper Assisted Suicide A survey of U.S. oncologists suggests that support for assisted suicide in this profession has declined dramatically in recent years. Although there are certain instances where it is justifiably considered okay, it is essentially murder. Some doctors use a machine that injects a deadly dose of poison which kills the person in less than 10 minutes. Assisted suicide is most normally awaited by the terminally ill. Terminally ill patients do suffer significantly, but is it the actual physical pain they suffer from or is it the way they are treated? Many people seem to believe it is depression that leads these patients to want suicide. What is hard for these people to understand who are terminally-ill is that depression is treatable. A person would suffer less physically if they suffered less...
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...Assisted Suicide Suffering from an illness that is terminal can last weeks, months and even years, or it can take one massive decision on taking yourself away from the pain with assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is when a patient that is terminally ill, and qualifies for the procedure, asks for medication to take their own life to stop the pain. In the United Sates, forty six states do not give the option for assisted suicide, which means there are millions of people suffering from incurable illnesses, waiting to die. Many people try killing themselves on their own, because they are not a citizen of a state that allows assisted suicide. I believe that killing yourself unassisted is worse than killing yourself with provided medication. Assisted suicide should be legal, because it allows suffering people to decide when they want to overcome the pain. Assisted suicide is not like any ordinary suicide. It is a suicide to relieve pain from a patient who only has so long to live. To receive assisted suicide, the patient has to qualify to all of the requirements. Out of the four states that have legalized assisted suicide, three of them involve the same requirements. Oregon was the first state to legalize assisted suicide on November 8, 1994. “An adult who is capable of making choices, is a resident of Oregon, and has been determined by the attending physician and consulting physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, and who had voluntarily expressed his or her life in...
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