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An ethical review of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide essay
Physician assisted euthanasia for and against
Thesis statement on physician assisted suicide and euthanasia
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Sarah Hughes English -102-13 November 1,2015 Mark Dudick To treat or not to treat Euthanasia/ physician assisted suicide is a hard topic to decide if you are for or against it. I would have to choose for because people with terminally ills should have the right to die if they want to or live. I believe that aid death has been around for a long time. for example, when someone is in a coma or vegetative stage and the doctor believe the best is to end their suffering , so they give the lethal injection or they will put a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) on the patient. I believe that pathos and logos going to be a big part of this topic. It get goes to your emotions and makes people think that aid-death has been around for a while. …show more content…
(2012, December 10). Physician Assisted Death in America: Ethics, Law, and Policy Conflicts. Retrieved from Cato-Unbound: http://www.cato-unbound.org/2012/12/10/howard-ball/physician-assisted-death-america-ethics-law-policy-conflicts Caplan,Arthur L.; Siegel,Andrew M.; Sisti,Dominic A. (2014, May 21). Pediatric Euthanasia in Belgium. Retrieved from JAMA: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1863566&resultClick=24 Clarridge, B.R ; Daniels, E.R ;Emanuel, E.J ; Fairclough, D.L . (1996, June 29). Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: attitudes and experiences of oncology patients, oncologists, and the public. Retrieved from The Lancet: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(96)91621-9/abstract Euthanasia and assisted suicide laws around the world. (2014, July 17). Retrieved from theGuardian: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/17/euthanasia-assisted-suicide-laws-world Is it Against the Law to Help Someone Else Commit Suicide? . (2013). Retrieved from FindLaw: http://healthcare.findlaw.com/patient-rights/is-it-against-the-law-to-help-someone-else-commit-suicide.html#sthash.2Rg28YAQ.v2hYML0G.dpuf Mannig, M. (2015, October 5). State-by-State Guide to Physician-Assisted Suicide. Retrieved from ProCon.org:
Article 115 of the Swiss penal code considers assisting suicide a crime if and only if the motive is selfish. It actually condones assisting suicide for altruistic reasons. Normally, the permissibility of altruistic assisted suicide cannot be overridden by a duty to save life. Article 115 does not necessitate the involvement of a physician nor that the patient to be terminally ill. It only necessitate that the motive be unselfish. This dependence on a base motive rather than on the intent to kill to define a crime is foreign to Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, but it can be crucial in continental Europe.
Assisted suicide should be legalized nationwide in the United States, because every human deserves a peaceful death. Assisted suicide is when person that has been told they are terminally ill and won’t survive, they can go to a doctor and get prescribed a medication that results in death. It’s not murder, it’s giving the person a chance to say their good byes and leave this world when they are ready to go. Not making them suffer and go on when they don’t want to.
Sloss, David. "The Right to Choose How to Die: A Constitutional Analysis of State Laws Prohibiting Physician-Assisted Suicide." Stanford Law Review. 48.4 (1996): 937-973. Web. 2 March 2015.
There are many convincing and compelling arguments for and against Physician Assisted Suicide. There are numerous different aspects of this issue, including religious, legal and ethical issues. However, for the purpose of this paper, I will examine the ethical concerns of both sides. There are strong pro and con arguments regarding this, and I will make a case for both. It is definitely an issue that has been debated for years and will continue to be debated in years to come.
There are many legal and ethical issues when discussing the topic of physician-assisted suicide (PAS). The legal issues are those regarding numerous court cases over the past few decades, the debate over how the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution comes into play, and the legalization vs. illegalization of this practice. The 14th Amendment states, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (U.S. Const. amend. XIV, §1). PAS in the past has been upheld as illegal due to the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment of the constitution, but in recent years this same 14th amendment is also part of the reasoning for legalizing PAS, “nor shall any State deprive any person of…liberty” (U.S. Const. amend. XIV, §1). The ethical issues surrounding this topic include a patient’s autonomy and dignity and if PAS should be legalized everywhere. This paper is an analysis of the PAS debate and explores these different issues using a specific case that went to the supreme courts called Washington et al. v. Glucksberg et al.
In terms of the effects that euthanization has society, there are many benefits. The most beneficial aspect of this technology is that it is comforting for family and friends to know that their loved one is no longer suffering from intolerable pain. Although euthanasia is used for all ages, parents have specifically spoken out by saying that “the best parents are the ones who let their children go” (Braw). In today’s society, instant gratification is a priority; people will go to any extent to make a loved one to get what he or she wants. The nature of today’s society is to view an immediate death as an instant resolution to life’s problems. This concept is specifically demonstrated in Belgium; euthanization acts as a way to not only put patients out of their misery but also “to maintain the right population balance” (Frederich). Scholars idealize Belgium as a model for future societies because it has proven to be successful; Euthanasia will likely be used to control the population of overpopulated
distant cousin of euthanasia, in which a person wishes to commit suicide. feels unable to perform the act alone because of a physical disability or lack of knowledge about the most effective means. An individual who assists a suicide victim in accomplishing that goal may or may not be held responsible for. the death, depending on local laws. There is a distinct difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide. This paper targets euthanasia; pros and cons. not to be assisted in suicide. & nbsp; Thesis Argument That Euthanasia Should Be Accepted & nbsp;
The issue of physician assisted suicide has been around for quite a while. There has been many court cases on it to make it legalized but all of it has been struck down by the Supreme Court. What seem to be a lost cause in the past is now becoming a real possibility as America moves further into the twenty-first century. As citizens increase their support for PAS, many states are beginning to draft bills to legalize this cause, with tough restriction and regulation of course. In 1997, Oregon became the first state to legalized physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Soon after, three other states (Washington, Vermont, and Montana) follow Oregon’s footstep while two other states are inching closer to making this procedure legal. Even so, there are still many people against PAS and are constantly fighting this from becoming legal. With the rise of popularity on this issue, the debate on whether one has the right to end their life, and the morality of this issue are reason why the UTA community should care about this topic and why it is worth exploring the three position concerning PAS. In this paper, I will discuss the three main position on this debate: that physician assisted suicide should be illegal, that physician assisted suicide should be limited to terminally ill patient, and that physician assisted suicide should be available for everyone.
Nolan, Jenny. "Legalized Euthanasia in the Netherlands Raises Serious Ethical Concerns." The Ethics of Euthanasia. Ed. Nancy Harris. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. 56-59. Print. Rpt. of "Dutch Legalize Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide." National Right to Life News 28 (2001): n. pag.
Wilson, Keith G., John F. Scott, Ian D. Graham, Jean F. Kozak, Susan Chater, Raymond A. Viola, Barbara J. De Faye, Lynda A. Weaver, and Dorothyann Curran. “Attitudes of Terminally Ill Patients toward Euthanasia and Physician-assisted Suicide.” Archives of Internal Medicine 160.16 (2000): 2454-460. Google Scholar. Web. 10 Nov. 2011.
Furthermore, people feel that legalizing doctor-assisted suicide will open the floodgates and lead to a slippery slope that will ultimately devalue the worth of human life and lead to doctors pressuring the terminally ill to request assisted suicide. The evidence tells a different story however. One Dutch research article found that those most often requesting suicide were terminal cancer patients (15%) and those who had a terminally progressive neurological disorder (8%) (Onwuteaka-Philipsen et al., 2010). The same article showed that of all the patients these doctors saw, only 7% asked for doctor assisted suicide/euthanasia and around only 2.4% of the patients actually received euthanasia/doctor assisted suicide (Onwuteaka-Philipsen et al., 2010). To be clear, active euthanasia is when a doctor actively does something that will end a patient’s life, like injecting the patient with a lethal dose of poison and passive euthanasia is when the doctor withholds treatment that could potentially save a patient, such as in the case of a do not resuscitate order. Physicians, the study showed are generally very conservative in allowing PAS, as two thirds of those who requested euthanasia/PAS did not receive
The first reason to allow the legalization of assisted suicide is the autonomy of people. According to Ronald Dworkin (cited in Safranek 1998) right to autonomy is "a right to make important decisions defining their own lives for themselves." Therefore, right-to-die is associated with the right of people to make decisions about their own life. The controversy about this right is that might the patient is not in the right mental state to make choices properly. However, allowing doctors to assist a suicide provides necessary supervision of the process and to guarantee that the patient is in the right psychological state to make such decisions and also doctor can ensure that patient is aware of all the consequences that this implies. Price, A, McCormack, R, Wise...
As one can see, physician-assisted suicide has a long and complicated history. Recent developments in the United States have brought the issues associated with end-of-life decisions under the microscope. The morality and ethics associated with voluntarily assisting someone while committing suicide have struck a chord with individuals, organizations, and in the political and medicinal sectors. The Hippocratic Oath and Pharmaceutical Oath have become subject to scrutiny with the gaining popularity and legalization of terminally ill patients seeking dignity in death. Increasingly, people are supporting the tough decisions made by patients.
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.
Throughout the course of history, death and suffering have been a prominent topic of discussion among people everywhere. Scientists are constantly looking for ways to alleviate and/or cure the pain that comes with the process of dying. Treatments typically focus on pain management and quality of life, and include medication and various types of therapy. When traditional treatments are not able to eliminate pain and suffering or the promise of healing, patients will often consider euthanasia or assisted suicide. Assisted suicide occurs when a person is terminally ill and believes that their life is not worth living anymore. As a result of these thoughts and feelings, a physician or other person is enlisted to “assist” the patient in committing suicide. Typically this is done by administering a lethal overdose of a narcotic, antidepressant or sedative, or by combining drugs to create an adverse reaction and hasten the death of the sick patient. Though many people believe that assisted suicide is a quick and honorable way to end the sufferings of a person with a severe illness, it is, in fact, morally wrong. Assisted suicide is unethical because it takes away the value of a human life, it is murder, and it opens the door for coercion of the elderly and terminally ill to seek an untimely and premature death. Despite the common people’s beliefs, assisted suicide is wrong and shouldn’t be legalized.