Persuasive Essay On Euthanasia

925 Words2 Pages

Physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia is the voluntary termination of one 's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician. Patients suffer daily from implications regarding both mental and physical health. The stigma surrounding euthanasia is that the patients cannot make a well thought out decision because many believe the patients’ thoughts are clouded or that the patients are trying to take advantage of the economic system backing both physician assisted suicide or end-of-life care. Although these claims may contain some truth in regard to certain people, terminally ill patients who deal with some form of physical or psychological pain should have the right to physician-assisted …show more content…

Those who have a terminal illness and are in excruciation pain should have the right to choose to end their lives and the physicians who help them should not be prosecuted. Especially, since people have the right to refuse life-saving treatments, they should also have the freedom to choose when to end their lives. But, someone who is for example, terminally ill, in a hospital setting or even disabled may not be to use this option, either because of mental or physical restrictions. In effect, they are being discriminated against because of their disability. They should be allowed to have the same access of suicide as to people who are not terminally ill have. Terminally ill patients are in a lot pain and/or experience an unbearably poor quality of life. They would prefer to end their life rather than continuing with all of the pain they are dealing with. Does the state have a right to deny them their wish? It is understandable, though tragic, that some patients in extreme duress, such as those suffering from a terminal, painful, debilitating illness may come to decide that death is preferable to life. People debate that pain felt by terminally ill people can be controlled to bearable levels through proper management. They conclude that there is no need for physician-assisted suicide. However, many people in North America do not have access to adequate pain

Persuasive Essay On Euthanasia
1281 Words | 3 Pages
Euthanasia is the fact of ending somebody’s life when assisting him to die peacefully without pain. In most cases, it is a process that leads to end the suffering of human beings due to disease or illness. A person other than the patient is responsible for the act of euthanasia; for example a medical provider who gives the patient the shot that must kill him. When people sign a consent form to have euthanasia, it is considered voluntary, involuntary euthanasia is when they refuse. When people are not alert and oriented they are not allowed to sign any consent including the consent to euthanasia. When euthanasia is practiced in such situation, it is a non-voluntary euthanasia. In sum, people who practice voluntary euthanasia in honoring other
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The Need for the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide
2478 Words | 5 Pages
Throughout the course of history, advances in medical technology have prolonged the length of life and delayed death; however, terminal illnesses still exist and modern medicine is often unable to prevent death. Many people turn to a procedure known as Physician-Assisted suicide, a process by which a doctor aids in ending a terminally ill patient’s life. This procedure is painless and effective, allowing patients to control their death and alleviate unnecessary suffering. In spite of these benefits, Physician-Assisted suicide is illegal in many places both nationally and internationally. Despite the fact that Physician-Assisted suicide is opposed by many Americans and much of the world on ethical and moral grounds such as those based on religion and the morality of taking another life, it should still be legalized because it alleviates suffering of patients, allows patients to choose a dignified death, and allows patients to control their own fate instead of their disease controlling them.
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Mapping the Issue: Assisted Suicide
1341 Words | 3 Pages
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.
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The Right to Physician Assisted Suicide
1874 Words | 4 Pages
The right to assisted suicide is a significant topic that concerns people all over the United States. The debates go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Some are against it because of religious and moral reasons. Others are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. Physicians are also divided on the issue. They differ where they place the line that separates relief from dying--and killing. For many the main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. Many terminally ill patients who are in the final stages of their lives have requested doctors to aid them in exercising active euthanasia. It is sad to realize that these people are in great agony and that to them the only hope of bringing that agony to a halt is through assisted suicide.When people see the word euthanasia, they see the meaning of the word in two different lights. Euthanasia for some carries a negative connotation; it is the same as murder. For others, however, euthanasia is the act of putting someone to death painlessly, or allowing a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or condition to die by withholding extreme medical measures. But after studying both sides of the issue, a compassionate individual must conclude that competent terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital care on their families, and preserve the individual right of people to determine their own fate.
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Persuasive Essay On Euthanasia
1117 Words | 3 Pages
The topic of euthanasia and assisted suicide is very controversial. People who support euthanasia say that it is someone 's right to end their own life in the case of a terminal illness. Those in favor of this right consider the quality of life of the people suffering and say it is their life and, therefore, it is their decision. The people against euthanasia argue that the laws are in place to protect people from corrupt doctors. Some of the people who disagree with assisted suicide come from a religious background and say that it is against God’s plan to end one 's life. In between these two extreme beliefs there are some people who support assisted suicide to a certain degree and some people who agree on certain terms and not on others.
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Arguments In Support For Physician Assisted Suicide
692 Words | 2 Pages
Arguments in support for physician-assisted suicide are that it allows people who are terminally ill to be relieved of their pain and suffering. It also allows a terminally ill person to die in dignity. Furthermore, choosing when to die is personal freedom. On the other hand, death is the natural part of human nature and nobody has the right to decide when to die or live not even the doctor. Physician-assisted suicide may lead to abuse by relatives or friends who have ulterior motives other than the wish of the person to get well. Legalization of euthanasia might lead to assaults on individual autonomy, which means it will be abused by people; that is people might be placed in terrible conditions intentionally by their friends, relatives or families and then suggest to the doctor that their lives be terminated since the individual cannot function as a human being. It might end up being a substitute for rational therapeutic, psychological, and social interventions, which could have otherwise enhanced the quality of life for patients who are dying. There is now even evidence that the legalization of assisted suicide in the Northern Territory in Australia has undermined the people's trust in the medical care system (Levine 2012).
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Should Physcian-Assisted Suicide be Legal
826 Words | 2 Pages
Terminally ill patients should have the legal option of physician-assisted suicide. Terminally ill patients deserve the right to control their own death. Legalizing assisted suicide would relive families of the burdens of caring for a terminally ill relative. Doctors should not be prosecuted for assisting in the suicide of a terminally ill patient. We as a society must protect life, but we must also recognize the right to a humane death. When a person is near death, in unbearable pain, they have the right to ask a physician to assist in ending their lives.
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Persuasive Essay On Assisted Suicide
1496 Words | 3 Pages
Giving a patient this option not only allows him or her to abstain from unnecessary pain, but it also allows the patient to die a dignified death. Colleges of the Boston College Law School Faculty Papers explain their views on assisted suicided to readers expressing, “We believe that it is reasonable to provide relief from suffering for patients who are dying or whose suffering is so severe that it is beyond their capacity to bear…The most basic values that support and guide all health care decision-making, including decisions about life-sustaining treatment, are the same values that provide the fundamental basis for physician-assisted suicide: promoting patients’ well-being and respecting their self-determination or autonomy”. The contributing authors make an excellent point stating the same values that are used in prolonging an individual 's life are the same used in assisted dying. Nonetheless, the majority of the United States remains opposed to assisted dying ignoring the individual’s mental, physical, and emotional pain he or she has undergone.With that in mind, this law also ignores the trauma close family members endure witnessing his or her loved ones face such an undesirable
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Persuasive Essay On Assisted Suicide
1955 Words | 4 Pages
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
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Euthanasia Persuasive Essay
1380 Words | 3 Pages
Euthanasia is the act of ending a person’s life through lethal injection or through the removement of treatment. Euthanasia comes from the Greek word meaning “good death.” When a death ends peacefully, it is recognized as a good death. In modern society, euthanasia has come to mean a death free of any pain and anxiety brought on through the use of medication; this can also be called mercy killing, deliberately ending someone’s life in order to end an individual’s suffering. Anything that would ease human suffering is good. Euthanasia eases human suffering. Therefore, euthanasia is good. Because active euthanasia is considered as suicide or murder, it is a very controversial issue and therefore, illegal in most places. Although there are always
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Controversy and Ethics: The Euthanasia Debate
2830 Words | 6 Pages
If a patient is suffering intolerable pain day and night with no way of being cure shouldn’t they be allowed to end their lives by a legal law. Being put through ineffective medical treatments should not be encourage to terminally ill patients persuading them that they will be cure when they will only be prolonging their dying process. A patient who requests to be euthanized from suffering agony should be terminated upon request because it would e inhumane for some one to continue to be in pain. When a patient is at this point in his terminal illness doctors should be allowed to grant their patients whatever they desire to do with their lives. If a patient does not want to go living the suffering lifestyle he is forced to live in to get through a day a doctor can grant the patient their last wish. As human beings we have the right to decide what is best for our own life. If you were in the shoes of a person who is suffering of pain both day and night, would you go along with the therapies’ doctors offer you even though they will not be curing you but stretching your days more of suffering until you finally die. Why would you want to be tied down to a bed with machines all over your entire both just so you can be artificially alive? There is no point on holding onto something that is basically gone already. This is why
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Physician Assisted Suicide Safeguards Essay
1729 Words | 4 Pages
For years physicians have been restricted from assisting suffering patients in terminating their own lives. Those who suffer from great pain and agonize from terminal illnesses should have the right to end their lives. It is a physician’s duty to relieve any patients suffering as best as possible and to preserve the dignity of the patient. Although they should also “do no harm,” denying patients the option to terminate their own life, thus ending their suffering, is doing harm. Although physician assisted suicide is currently legal in a few states, it should be legalized across the entire Unites States. This can be done with proper guidelines and safeguards such as requiring patients to undergo psychiatric evaluations after requesting assisted death, thoroughly investigating the patient’s reason for the request and ruling out coercion, and holding doctors legally accountable.
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Assisted Suicide
2075 Words | 5 Pages
The legalization of assisted suicide has been a controversial topic that has created a divide within the medical community, as well as the general public, for many years. Assisted suicide occurs when a patient decides to take their own life, with help from their doctor. The doctor can end the patient’s life without causing any additional pain or suffering. While some believe that assisted suicide should be legal for patients who are suffering from a terminal and painful condition, others argue that it is unethical and going against the doctor’s oath to help and not harm their patients. As the average life expectancy age increases, people are living longer while also having to live with more serious illnesses. As a result, lives are ending with a great amount of suffering and pain, rather then dying peacefully. Since death is ultimately inevitable, I will therefore argue in favor of the proposition that assisted suicide should be legal for those capable of making a rationale end of life decision.
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Persuasive Essay On Euthanasia
1122 Words | 3 Pages
The right to life has been a subject of controversy for decades. We can mention it when we talk about abortion, the death penalty, and simply by a natural process we allow such as the simple act of natural birth of a baby. Whether a life is worth living? and whether to assist the act to end a life? Has been one of the most controversial subjects among the religious communities and the society. According to the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies reported on its website in the document "Physician-Assisted Suicide Survey," (accessed on Oct. 27, 2006), "Religious identity correlates with attitudes toward the ethical status of assisting in suicide. Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox Jews believe in the majority that it
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Argumentative Essay On Euthanasia
1374 Words | 3 Pages
Should a patient have the right to ask for a physician’s help to end his or her life? This question has raised great controversy for many years. The legalization of physician assisted suicide or active euthanasia is a complex issue and both sides have strong arguments. Supporters of active euthanasia often argue that active euthanasia is a good death, painless, quick, and ultimately is the patient’s choice. While it is understandable, though heart-rending, why a patient that is in severe pain and suffering that is incurable would choose euthanasia, it still does not outweigh the potential negative effects that the legalization of euthanasia may have. Active euthanasia should not be legalized because
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Persuasive Essay On Euthanasia