Compare Euthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide

Social Issues evolve when a group of people find something to be “unfair” or “not right”. Due to our basic human nature, someone somewhere will have an opposing view on such subject, thus creating a social issue. Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide is a social issue that has been a debatable topic for a few decades but has gained more attention the past few years. In 2005 according to Rita Marker (2005), the only place euthanasia was legalized was in Oregon, the Netherlands, and Belgium. However, according to Susan Behuniak (2011), in 2008 Washington and Montana passed an act allowing euthanasia to be legalized there as well. Eventually, Montana revoked their act after a terminally ill patient

According to Ho, Robert and Natalie Chantagul (2015), euthanasia is a phrase for mercy killing which involves either prescribing lethal medication or physically injecting a patient who is terminally ill. This means that a physician can choose to either actively or assist someone in getting life-ending medication. Both methods would solely leave the physician as the primary assassin. According to Quaghebeur, Dierckx de Casterlé, and Gastmans (2009), euthanasia… is defined as the administration of lethal drugs by someone other than the person concerned with the explicit intention of ending a patient’s life, at the latter’s explicit request. This definition sums up euthanasia into a simplified version in which someone is given life-ending

According to Jyl Gentzler (2003), after someone is experiencing so much pain their life focuses specifically on the pain they lose all of their dignity. At this point they should be able to choose if they want to live and have help ending their life if they choose to. This explains that euthanasia should be legal in the United States because their life becomes centered around their pain. The pain is so unbearable and constant that they should have the right to take their life. Though legalizing euthanasia would mean opening the door to uncertainty, Karen Sanders, and Maura Buchanan (2012) states that the commissioner has suggested that only terminally ill patients that have been given less than twelve months to live, and are over the age of eighteen, will be granted physician assisted suicide. Other suggestions include the patient completing the action of taking their own life and putting in strict guidelines to protect individuals. This source argues that even if euthanasia is legalized there would be certain guidelines in place to protect and guide patients. Euthanasia could be a safe way for terminally ill patients to die with their dignity still intact. These arguments conclude that euthanasia should be legalized in the United