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Common medicine Ethical issues Euthanasia
Making the final choice: should physician-assisted suicide be legalized
Ethical dilemma in euthanasia cases
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Physician-assisted suicide
It is difficult to make a decision on someone’s life without being in his or her situation. That is why the topic of physician-assisted suicide is a challenging one. Each patient is unique and should have his or her individual situation looked at separately from everyone else, because patients respond to their individual diseases differently. Unfortunately, there can only be one law that governs all. When all facts are taken into consideration, the side of illegalizing physician-assisted suicide prospers as the correct choice. Physician-assisted suicide should be illegal because it ensures that patients are not being pressured to die, and it keeps doctors from breaking their Hippocratic Oath. Also, those that are for physician-assisted suicide falsely use the concept of dignity.
Frequently, when a patient is in intensive care or has some sort of deadly disease, they require a lot of medical attention. However, they also require an equal amount of attention and support from their family and friends. Naturally, the patient will begin to feel like they are a burden to those around them. From the patient’s perspective, he or she is making their family and friends devote all of their time and energies at the hospital. They also feel that their family and friends no longer have time to do anything other than keep him or her company. The patient may begin to feel like they have become the main focus of their family and friends lives. This can pressure the patient into thinking the best solution is to surrender and just die, even if that is not what they want. The patient can easily become delusional with this type of thinking. However, little does the patient know, their family and friends want to be the...
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...too much pressure on themselves in order to relieve their family and friends of the anxiety attributed with having to take care of a terminally ill person. Not to mention the pressure that physicians and insurance companies will put on the patient, in order to save money and keep premiums low. In addition, euthanasia directly conflicts with the Hippocratic Oath, which most physicians pledge. On top of that, it will highlight the idea that the only way to have a dignified death is to use physician-assisted suicide. Illegalizing euthanasia benefits the patients and is essential in order to make sure they receive fair, and proper treatment in the last stage of their life.
Works Cited
http://euthanasia.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000198http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterubel/2013/08/26/death-with-dignity-should-not-be-equated-with-physician-assisted-suicide/
...the death rate and decrease the quality of care on patients. They argue that having the legal right to request an euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide will make doctors more comfortable ending a patient's life against their will without having to face any legal consequences. Although this point of view is true, I still think terminal ill patients should have the right to choose whether they want to keep living or not. This right should not be denied but modified. I think that once the patient knows he has no cure, he or she should sign a paper or make a will where it authorizes the doctor or family members to take the decision of ending his or her life in case his conditions worsens or the pain is unbearable. It would be just like the patients that have the "Do not resuscitate" request on their medical forms, but this time it would say "Do not prolong my agony."
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.
This officer was traveling south in the 1500 block of Cline Ave and observed a
Dr. Teagle will clean out the artery to the brain and thus eliminate a major stroke or senility. He says that the chances for success are 80-20. He adds that Orval will be better off no matter how the surgery turns out. “If your father dies in surgery, it will be quick and painless, but if the surgery is successful, he will once again have the use of his kidney and will return to normal.” The doctor promises not to use any machines to sustain Orval’s life artificially for more than 5 or 6 days after the surgery. Jerry’s conversation with Dr. Teagle ends with Jerry saying that both he and Gwen are all for the surgery and that they will talk with Virginia. Jerry calls Gwen and discusses the fact that Virginia does not want Orval to have the surgery. They decide to go up to the hospital and talk with Virginia.
Did you know, about 57% of physicians today have received a request for physician assisted suicide due to suffering from a terminally ill patient. Suffering has always been a part of human existence, and these requests have been occurring since medicine has been around. Moreover, there are two principles that all organized medicine agree upon. The first one is physicians have a responsibility to relieve pain and suffering of dying patients in their care. The second one is physicians must respect patients’ competent decisions to decline life-sustaining treatment. Basically, these principles state the patients over the age of 18 that are mentally stable have the right to choose to end their life if they are suffering from pain. As of right now, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont have legalized physician assisted suicide through legislation. Montana has legalized it via court ruling. The first Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) became effective in Oregon in 1997. Washington and Vermont later passed this act in 2009, and Montana passed the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act in 2008. One concern with physician assisted suicide is confusion of the patient’s wishes. To get rid of any confusion and provide evidence in case someone becomes terminally ill, people should make an advanced care plan. The two main lethal drugs that are used during physician assisted suicide are secobarbital and pentobarbital. Appropriate reporting is necessary when distributing these drugs and performing the suicide in order to publish an analysis. Studies found a large number of people accepted this procedure under certain circumstances; therefore, physician assisted suicide should be legal in the United States because terminally ill patients over the age of 18 that are...
Imagine, if you will, that you have just found out you have a terminal medical condition. Doesn’t matter which one, it’s terminal. Over the 6 months you have to live you experience unmeasurable amounts of pain, and when your free of your pain the medication you’re under renders you in an impaired sense of consciousness. Towards the 4th month, you begin to believe all this suffering is pointless, you are to die anyways, why not with a little dignity. You begin to consider Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS). In this essay I will explain the ethical decisions and dilemmas one may face when deciding to accept the idea of Physician-Assisted Suicide. I will also provide factual information pertaining to the subject of PAS and testimony from some that advocate for legalization of PAS. PAS is not to be taken lightly. It is the decision to end one’s life with the aid of a medical physician. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary states that PAS is “Suicide by a patient facilitated by means (as a drug prescription) or by information (as an indication of a lethal dosage) provided by a physician aware of the patient’s intent.” PAS is considered, by our textbook – Doing Ethics by Lewis Vaughn, an active voluntary form of euthanasia. There are other forms of euthanasia such as non-voluntary, involuntary, and passive. This essay is focusing on PAS, an active voluntary form of euthanasia. PAS is commonly known as “Dying/Death with Dignity.” The most recent publicized case of PAS is the case of Brittany Maynard. She was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in California, where she lived. At the time California didn’t have Legislative right to allow Brittany the right to commit PAS so she was transported to Oregon where PAS is legal....
The 1990s and 2000s boomed back and forth with the act as some states such as lost their Right to Die Acts, some kept them and Oregon in 1994 became the first state for physician-assisted suicide, which increased the present law and now known as the Death with Dignity Act. Dr. Jack Kevorkian was a physician in Michigan that was known for assisting patients of terminal and chronical illness end their lives, it has been estimated that he assisted 139 patients end their life from 1990-1998 (The Gale Group INC,. 2005). While he was insistent that he was helping and not harming the patients his medical license was suspended and was jailed multiple times for continuing to assist patients. In 1999 Dr. Kevorkian was charged with second-degree murder
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.
A man sits in a hospital waiting room, anticipating the test results that are about to come. While sitting there he over hears a doctor tell a young lady her diagnosis. She is a woman of her late twenties with a husband and family by her side and she has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness. This is a tragedy that no one ever sees coming. Would this woman want to die rather than deal with the pain or maybe she will stay strong and suffer through it all, for her kids and for her family. However, perhaps there is one option that she does not have that maybe she should; any victim of a terminal illness should also have the option to end his or her life through the means of legal euthanasia.
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.
These thoughts, in combination with the notion of autonomy to its fullest extant; being such that patients not only have a right to their life but to their death as well, made a lot of philosophical sense to me. At times it even seems asinine to prevent a patient from doing whatever they wish with their own body, as long as it does not harm others. Yet, in all these thoughts I couldn’t help but feel that my approach was too mechanistic, too simple, too, dare I say, logical for the complexity of the circumstances. Despite my black and white approach, I began to have doubts that greyed my
Assisted suicide brings up one of the biggest moral debates currently circulating in America. Physician assisted suicide allows a patient to be informed, including counseling about and prescribing lethal doses of drugs, and allowed to decide, with the help of a doctor, to commit suicide. There are so many questions about assisted suicide and no clear answers. Should assisted suicide be allowed only for the terminally ill, or for everyone? What does it actually mean to assist in a suicide? What will the consequences of legalizing assisted suicide be? What protection will there be to protect innocent people? Is it (morally) right or wrong? Those who are considered “pro-death”, believe that being able to choose how one dies is one’s own right.
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.
First of all, euthanasia saves money and resources. The amount of money for health care in each country, and the number of beds and doctors in each hospital are limited. It is a huge waste if we use those money and resources to lengthen the lives of those who have an incurable disease and want to die themselves rather than saving the lives of the ones with a curable ailment. When we put those patients who ask for euthanasia to death, then the waiting list for each hospital will shorten. Then, the health care money of each country, the hospital beds, and the energy of the doctors can be used on the ones who can be cured, and can get back to normal and able to continue contributing to the society. Isn’t this a better way of using money and resources rather than unnaturally extend those incurable people’s lives?
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