A large percent of terminally ill patients ponder their impending death, no matter the diagnosis. Mental illness or degenerative disabilities are the majority of the cases involved in ‘assisted-suicide,’ which is the process of ending their life with help from another person. Assisted suicide, despite the chronic or degenerative illness, has caused great controversy. The debate arises when the question about whether or not the practice should be legalized is asked. Some say that every person has a God given right to do what they want with their bodies, when they want to do it. Others say that palliative staffs should be focusing on studying better ways to eliminate pain and make the process of passing on easier and more endurable. Palliative care for these terminally ill patients ensures comfort as an alternative to assisted suicide. Death is a rather difficult topic to discuss, especially because most people would not like to think about all of the different issues that could arise in the last couple of years of their life. Mercy-killing should not be legalized of many reasons, including the fact that legalizing voluntary euthanasia means legalizing involuntary euthanasia, because on occasion medical staffs do not provide thorough or sufficient care for patients, and because it would cause the idea to become meaningless and lackluster.
Allowing voluntary euthanasia means allowing involuntary euthanasia. Individuals who are not mentally or physically adept can make the decision to die by physician assisted suicide, but the question that remains regards whether or not they are making rational, thought-out decisions. A new law that is being passed proposes that people who are ‘not mentally adept’ should not be lavished with the ch...
... middle of paper ...
... York Times 4 Oct. 2013: A31 (L). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.
"Dying With Dignity." Australian Nursing Journal 21.2 (2013): 3. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
Lachman, Vicki. "Physician-Assisted Suicide: Compassionate Liberation Or Murder?." MEDSURG Nursing 19.2 (2010): 121-125. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
Bumsted, Brad. "Lawyers ask Schuylkill judge to dismiss 'assisted suicide' case." Pittsburgh Tribune-Review [Pittsburgh, PA] 10 Oct. 2013. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 8 Nov. 2013.
Mullock, Alexandra. "Compromising On Assisted Suicide: Is 'Turning a Blind Eye' Ethical?." Clinical Ethics 7.1 (2012): 17-23. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Oct. 2013
Sullivan, Stephen. "The Right to Die: A Discussion of 'Rational Suicide'." Mental Health Practice 14.6 (2011): 32-34. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
Campbell, Courtney. "'Aid-in-Dying' and the taking of Human Life." Journal of Medical Ethics. 18.3 (1992 ): 128-134. Web. 2 March 2015.
Braddok III Clarence H. MD MPH .” Physician aid-in-dying: Ethical topics in medicine” n.d University of Washington school of medicinestate death with dignity act” N.p n.d University of Washington department of bioethics and humanities 2009 web 24 March 2012
Braddock and Tonelli. “Physician-Assisted Suicide.” Ethics in Medicine University of Washington Medical School. 2008. .
Callahan, Daniel. "Physician -assisted Suicide Should Not be Legal." Suicide: Opposing Viewpoints. Biskup, Michael. ed. San Diego. Greenhaven Press, Inc.1992.
"Physician-Assisted Suicide Shows No Mercy." American Decades Primary Sources. Ed. Cynthia Rose. Vol. 10: 1990-1999. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 501-504. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
Harned, Mary. “The Dangers of Assisted Suicide.” Defending Life. Americans United for Life, 3 April 2012. Web. 20 March 2014.
Cotton, Paul. "Medicine's Position Is Both Pivotal And Precarious In Assisted Suicide Debate." The Journal of the American Association 1 Feb. 1995: 363-64.
Smith, Wesley J. "Assisted Suicide Will Not Remain Restricted to the Terminally Ill." Assisted Suicide. Ed. Sylvia Engdahl. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Death on Demand: The Assisted-Suicide Movement Sheds Its Fig Leaf." Weekly Standard (5 July 2007). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
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.
Physician assisted suicide is murder. Using euthanasia, increased dosage of morphine or injecting patient’s with a lethal combination of drugs to slow his/her breathing until he/she dies is also murder. Physician assisted suicide is morally wrong. The classical theory for physician assisted suicide is utilitarianism because according to Mosser 2010, “utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines the moral value of an act in terms of its results and if those results produce the greatest good for the greatest number.” Utilitarianism will solve the physician assisted suicide problem if all of the physicians will stand by the oath they say. According to the Hippocratic Oath doctor says, “I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.”
"Assisted Suicide: Finding Common Ground." Lois Snyder, JD; and Authur L. Caplan, PhD. Annals of Internal Medicine. March 21, 2000. v.132, n.6
This is an annotated bibliography for research on assisted suicide and how it effects the patient and the family and friends involved. I am researching whether or not assisted suicide is inhumane or dignified upon request of the patient.
Physician -assisted suicide has been a conflict in the medical field since pre- Christian eras, and is an issue that has resurfaced in the twentieth century. People today are not aware of what the term physician assisted suicide means, and are opposed to listening to advocates’ perspectives. Individuals need to understand that problems do not go away by not choosing to face them. This paper’s perspective of assisted suicide is that it is an option to respect the dignity of patients, and only those with deathly illness are justified for this method.
... Association. 1998. “Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.” Canadian Medical Association Board of Directors. Retrieved from http://www.cma.ca/index.php/ci_id/3214/la_id/1.htm on October 16th, 2010.
Kuhse, Helga. “Euthanasia.” A Companion to Ethics. Ed. Peter Singer. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 1991. 294-302. Print.