...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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...Physician-Assisted Suicide Suffering has always been a part of human existence. Request to end suffering by means of death through both physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia have occurred since the beginning of medicine. By definition, assisted suicide is a type of active euthanasia in which a physician facilitates a patient’s death by providing the necessary means of death to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act. Usually by prescribing a lethal dose of drugs but the patient is responsible for performing the final act (Codes of Ethics). Even though physician- assisted suicide is illegal, many people and doctors believe that it should be legal to help terminally ill people at the end of their life while others believe it is against their beliefs and religion to commit any type of suicide. This paper is going to show why doctor assisted suicide should be legalized because at the end of their lives, most people do not want to suffer. Only a terminal ill patient is really aware of what it is like to experience intractable suffering; even with pain relievers. Those who have not experiences it cannot fully appreciate what effect it has on quality of life. Apart from physical pain, overcoming the emotional pain of losing independence is an additional factor that only the patient comprehends fully. In medicine prolongation of living may sometimes turn into prolongation of dying. Why should be a patient be forced experience a slow death? Many families don’t want to see...
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...Euthanasia refers to the painless killing of a patient with an incurable and painful disease. One form of euthanasia is physician-assisted suicide. “Physician-assisted suicide is when a doctor assists a competent adult to voluntarily end his or her own life” (Roberts). “Physician-assisted suicide remains a very controversial topic throughout the country. Terminally ill patients, physicians, and pharmacists often have different beliefs about the practice” (Fass). If this form of euthanasia was legal in the United States, people could be put out of their misery. Also, it would be safe because it is watched over by a physician. Not many people consider physician-assisted suicide a reasonable way to pass away because they have never been so close...
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...Physician-assisted suicide is a controversial issue at the forefront of American society. The idea is that if someone has been diagnosed with a terminal illness they should have the option to end their own life through a quick and painless drug administered by a physician. Many terminally ill patients believe this gives them a sense of control and gives them an option to end the pain of dealing with their illness. The opposition of physician-assisted suicide are those who believe that suicide is immoral and forcing a physician to administer this procedure would unfair. While many are now in favor of physician-assisted suicide there are still those who oppose it for moral or religious reasons. Many believe that the practice is morally wrong because it...
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...Adolescent Suicide: Come Out of the Darkness Introduction Even though adolescents think that there is no other option to there problems, then suicide, I found an organization that personally helped me to understand the necessity of such a group. This organization is The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is a leading not-for-profit organization entirely dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide through research, education and advocacy, and to reaching out to people with mental disorders and those impacted by suicide. The foundation also engages in funding scientific research, offers education programs to professionals and the public about mood disorders and suicide prevention and provides resources for survivors of suicide loss. Discussion An adolescent goes through a period of time, where they are shifting from being a child to becoming an adolescent and then moving into adulthood. It is this period that has the most influence on an adolescent because of the changes to their social relationships. Their relationships with their friends become increasingly more important and eventually become the most important relationships to them. The onset of puberty particularly brings a distancing from parents (Galambos, 1992). Some factors of distancing from parents are wanting to spend more time with their peers, risky behaviors – such as unsafe driving, unprotected sex, alcohol and / or drug use and breaking...
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...issues issues. One major issue in today’s world is physician assisted suicide. When people think about physician assisted suicide, they think primarily about five things; they ask what is it, what are the facts, who’s choice is it, what are the development in health care, and where can this lead? What is physician assisted suicide? Physician assisted suicide, also known as PAS, is when a physician provides the necessary means or information to a patient to kill himself/herself. However, the patient is the one who actually performs the act. People often get physician assisted suicide confused with euthanasia. Euthanasia is when the physician does both actions for the patient; the physician provides the means and performs the means. After people realize what physician assisted...
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...Teen suicide in comparison to Hamlet is not that far off from modern day teens. They all work together in unison, as the time goes by nothing is new under the sun. Teens now and days have to go through so much pressure to live up to their parents, significant other, and lastly peers standards. It can be struggle to deal with these daily battles so in some situations teen suicide can potentially be the only option in their minds of course. Hamlet a young man is to be the sole heir to the throne, suddenly has his adolescence snatched from underneath him. Then to find that his uncle has taken the throne by marrying his mother, full of rage Hamlet finds himself conjuring up a plan to get his revenge for his father. Hamlet soon begins to slowly...
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...patients have been pressed to the walls by their ailments. This has 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)...
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...Issue Paper The topic I have chosen for this paper is the issue of suicide across the nation. Suicide is on the rise across the nation and it is extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of what makes a person want to commit such a devastating act. On average around 1 person commits suicide every 16 minutes. There are around 7 billion people in this world and it is almost impossible to accurately diagnose and foresee future events, especially something like suicide. There are many different websites and hotlines to call if people are ever feeling down or at risk of hurting themselves. Many people are unaware of the different options and sources that they could use in order to help them feel better. They are afraid of telling their problems or how they feel to others because the last thing they want to feel is judged. People who are thinking about suicide or are hurting themselves tend to be in a very fragile state but it is still difficult to clearly see that if you were to see them in person. Although it may be difficult to recognize how a person feels, there is still many small warning signs that the person may have that could indicate whether they feel suicidal or not. Small signs such as changes in sleep or having increasing mood changes good be two good indicators as to how a person is managing their life. Although it is very difficult for a person who wants to potentially commit suicide or is having negative thoughts to speak up about how they are feeling...
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...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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...terminal brain cancer that is growing exponentially, destroying each part of my brain that it slowly takes control over. With no hope of surviving until my next birthday, I look at my options for death. I know my options, although no one has mentioned assisted suicide. I know they cannot tell me about the option or influence it in any way. However, I’ve done my research about assisted suicide and my other options as limited as they are. If anything my options are dying by pills or dying by brain cancer. Aren’t I lucky? Morbid humor aside, assisted...
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...What are your views on assisted suicide? According to our text, Active euthanasia refers to positive steps taken to bring about someone else’s death, by administering a lethal injection or by some other means. Active euthanasia is morally wrong and I strongly object to it. For Christians, life is viewed to be sacred and the bible teaches, “Thou shall not kill.” Assisting someone else commit suicide is an act of killing the person, either by administering a lethal injection or by some other means. The bible teaches that killing another person is sin. With this basic understanding, Active euthanasia remains morally wrong in my opinion. Many argue that if a person so chooses to end his or her life or have someone else assist them in doing so, then it is morally permissible as long as no harm is done to others. Advocates of this argument fail to see the emotional stress people undergo in deciding to assist others commit suicide. This argument aims at elevating the individual right of the hopeless person rather than focusing on the damage Active euthanasia can cause the individuals assisting others. The family of the person requesting assisted suicide feels the grief of suicide more. As required by the laws of many states, family members are required to give consent to such request. Losing a love one through natural death is painful, losing a love one through assisted suicide compounds that pain as family members are left with the emotional turmoil from the trauma. The...
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...Legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide Stacy L. Free Top of Form PHI103: Informal Logic (ACL1248D) Instructor: Stephen CarterBottom of Form January 14, 2013 Legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide “To be or not to be ” the infamous question brought about by Shakespeare in his famous play called Hamlet (No Sweat Shakespeare, 2004-2013) begged Hamlet to question whether to exist or not exist. As in the play, there are people who have struggled to answer this question throughout human history. In modern times a debate has sprung regarding the sickly who are terminally ill. Although some believe that physician-assisted suicide should not be legalized because it is a moral issue that they maintain is unnecessary and what it boils down to a lack of physician training that puts undue pressure on patients to opt for suicide, the procedure should be legalized because, when death is imminent, people should not be limited by laws that affect their basic human rights, forcing them to live in agonizing pain due to inadequate medical services, and allow them to die with dignity. If physician-assisted suicide were legalized then terminally ill people would be relieved from having to endure unnecessary pain and suffering when, even with medical intervention, the patient is forced to endure an agonizing demise. Assisting in more than 130 terminally ill patient suicides between 1990 and 1998, Dr. Jack Kevorkian believed that terminally ill patients should be allowed to determine...
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...Legalizing the Right to Your Own Life The term assisted suicide refers to the practice of a physician giving a patient, per their request, a prescription for a lethal drug which the patient would consume as a means of ending their own life. Assisted suicide should be legalized for any and all people who seek this out in order to put an end to their life. People deserve to have a right to their own bodies and lives, so if they choose to put an end to it, they should not be restricted in their access to a way of doing so. Much of the debate over whether assisted suicides should be legalized has to do with whether people have the right to die along with the right to live, whether or not people should have to suffer, the Hippocratic Oath that physicians have to abide by, and religious standpoints. Many of these arguments have an ethical grounding, and deal with the morality of the action of a suicide. Originally, assisted suicide was known as, or synonymous with euthanasia, which is the killing of a person out of and by a doctor’s mercy for that person. Many people tend to equate euthanasia with physician assisted suicide because both involve having the help of a physician. However, physician assisted suicide differs from euthanasia because it requires the patient’s consent and an evaluation of the patient before the patient is given a prescription for lethal drugs. The practice of an assisted suicide where it is currently legal, involves a patient who is terminally ill, and has...
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...Attention Getter: Picture your dog having been in a horrible accident. The only options are to let it suffer or to put it down. Most would choose to take the dog out of its suffering. Now, imagine this happening to a family member. What if the family member was asking for their suffering to end? Introduction: Assisted suicide is an intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who wishes to die. There are current debates on the legality of assisted suicide. Issue Statement: We believe assisted suicide should be legal. Premise 1: Performing assisted suicide on a person is no different than putting a pet down. The American Veterinary Medical Association Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals 2013 Edition defines euthanasia as, “Ending the life of one individual animal in a way that minimizes or eliminates pain and distress.” This definition resembles the definition of euthanasia performed on humans. Therefore the same ethics and morals can be applied. We should be compassionate towards humans as we are to pets as far as assisted suicide. Behavioral science professor Barton Ross discusses in his book Pet Loss and Human Emotion: A Guide to Recovery, “A man who was suffering from lung cancer had a dog with the same disease. He was well educated on the options available to him in fighting the disease progressed and chose a similar course of treatment for his dog. As the disease progressed in the dog, the veterinarian recommended euthanasia...
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