Assisted suicide has some benefits. One of those benefits is that it helps to end the
Assisted suicide is a suicide committed with the aid of another person, usually a physician. It is known as a physician- assisted suicide (PAS). Assisted suicide involve a doctor providing the patient with the means or the knowledge or both required to commit suicide. It is usually confused with euthanasia or the mercy killing. However, they are so different, in one hand, euthanasia the physician provide the means of death and it is usually lethal drug. Physician assisted suicide is always at the request of the patient, and the doctor will only provide them with the mean without killing them. For instance, I can decide that I want to die and I am only 25 years old and I am living a healthy life, all what I have to do is to
A Saskatchewan farmer, Robert Latimer, was sentenced to life in prison last year for the 1993 second-degree murder of his severely disabled daughter, Tracy. He asphyxiated her with exhaust from his pick-up (Heinrich).
Roh, J. (2006, January 17). Supreme Court Backs Oregon Assisted Suicide Law. Fox News. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,181881,00.html
What the Court did rule is that laws prohibiting assisted suicide (whether state or federal) are constitutionally valid and serve several important and legitimate interests. Excerpts follow:
As definition states, assisted suicide is the suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease. Assisted suicide originated so that a terminally ill patient could be aided with his/her intentions of suicide.(Webster, 2011) Also to give the patient an opportunity to die on their own terms. Euthanasia also plays a key role in assisted suicide. Euthanasia has to be required by a conscious patient suffering from an irreversible affliction inducing physical and/or psychological suffering, with no hope for improvement or for rapid spontaneous death; request for euthanasia has to be written by the patient or by his (her) representative who has no interest in the patient death. Modern medicine has come very far in recent years but, unfortunately, it cannot take...
...e medication or because of problems with the completion of physician-assisted suicide. The authors of the study also came to the conclusion that "...if physician-assisted suicide is legalized, but euthanasia is not, some competent patients may not be able to end their own lives for purely physical reasons, as in the case of patients with neurologic illnesses who have problems with swallowing or using their hands and patients who are physically too weak to take all the oral medication themselves."The Royal Dutch Medical Association recommends that a doctor be present when euthanasia is attempted. Two studies conducted in Oregon, where physician-assisted suicide became legal on Oct. 27, 1997 did not mention complications arising from the attempts. But critics suspect the results of the Dutch study were typical, and similar problems in Oregon had not been reported.
Assisted suicide by definition is the suicide of a patient suffering from an incurable disease, carried out by the taking of lethal drugs provided by a doctor for this purpose. Recently, it has been debated whether or not the decision to let someone die by the hands of a doctor because of prolonged evidence of pain is ethical or not. Part of this is because the patient might not be making the decision to die if they are being treated in a corrupted hospital or hospice center, where the doctor decides to execute the patient without their consent. It is also unknown how the doctor will choose to carry out the bringing of death and if he or she will be treating the patient humanely while doing so. On the other side however, it is considered
Medical science has made great strides to allow us to save more lives than ever before. Through modern medicine, procedures, and technology we have the power to cure or reduce the suffering of people with conditions and diseases that were once thought to be fatal. We have discovered or much rather, we have created the so-called “fountain-of-youth”. Even so, modern medicine cannot treat all forms of pain and suffering. This technology that is seemingly beneficial for us today is also bringing about pain and distress to those who wish to end their prolonged life. One of the most controversial topics discussed this past decade has been that of assisted suicide.
Since each funeral home is for the majority independent, the “leader” is either the owner or the manager. The position is achieved th...
In several countries around the world, assisted suicide is legal, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and some parts of the US. The Netherlands and Belgium both legalized euthanasia in 2002, but in Belgium, two doctors and a psychologist must always be involved. In Switzerland, euthanasia is banned, but “suicide assisted by a physician and a non-physician is allowed since 1941” (deccanherald.com). In the US, “most states now legally allow the making of such wills that instruct hospitals and physicians to suspend treatment or to refuse life-support measures in hopeless cases” (enyclopediabirtanica.com). Only 3 states in the US, Oregon, Washington, and Montana, have legalized passive euthanasia. 39 states have prohibited assisted suicide, and 4 don’t have any definite law of assisted suicide (procon.org). Passive euthanasia and assisted suicide both intentionally end a life, but passive euthanasia stops or refuses treating th...
“Actions that result in the withdrawal of life sustaining treatment are often referred to as passive euthanasia, while those that involve the positive act of causing death of another are referred to as active euthanasia. A further distinction can be made between voluntary euthanasia, where the consent of the patient is first obtained, and non-voluntary euthanasia, where consent is not obtained: for instance, when a patient is in a persistent vegetative state or other wise lacks the capacity to give informed consent. In addition, there is physician assisted suicide which involves the provision of a lethal substance to a patient by a physician for the patient to self administer in order to commit suicide in a painless manner.“
Although reading and researching its negative aspects has made me recognize the many difficulties associated with euthanasia I still believe that, if regulated properly, it could be used in an appropriate way. This has been seen to be the case in countries where it has been legalized. I believe that we are breaching human rights by not allowing people to make decisions that affect only themselves. The level of suffering and distress experienced by patients and their families contemplating euthanasia are impossible for outsiders to comprehend; therefore this decision should be able to made by those directly involved, within a well regulated system of