Should physician assisted suicide be legalized
The definition of Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is when a physician helps a patient die with lethal drug dosages. Another name for physician-assisted suicide is euthanasia the only difference between the two is that physician assisted suicide is the patients request not the doctor.("Opinion 2.211 Physician Assisted"). I believe that people having a terminal illness should have the right to a physician-assisted suicide.
But there must be safeguards that the person concerned genuinely wants to end their life and they are not being pressured into it or having it done without their knowledge or consent, as would have been the case with me (“Medscape” ). Some people believe a terminally ill patient
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As the patient feels as if their life is coming to an end the medicine the doctor can prescribe is typically 9 g of sec barbital in capsules or 10 g of pentobarbital liquid. This slows down the brain activity. Metoclopramide is a short-term medication to help treat gas reflux in people who have used other medications without relief of symptoms. These medications help the body slow down and help the patient come to a relaxed state. I believe that if these medications help the patient not experience pain or put them at ease they should be able to get what they want when the time is near. As the body begins to shut down, first goes the kidneys and then your breathing, eventually it all comes to a end. ("preparing for approaching death"). On the opposite side of physician-assisted suicide in most countries this action is illegal. There are states that have legalized physician assisted suicide: Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont . But there are nine states that have no laws for physician assisted suicide: Alabama, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming ("Assisted Suicide Laws in United"). Some doctors that believe it terminate the rights of medicine and believe that doctors should not help people die but help them
Terminally ill patients deserve the right to have a dignified death. These patients should not be forced to suffer and be in agony their lasting days. The terminally ill should have this choice, because it is the only way to end their excruciating pain. These patients don’t have
It should not be up to anybody except the dying patient. There are only four states that have legalized assisted suicide.
Derek Humphry, in Lawful Exit, defines PAS as a physician "providing the means by which a person can take his or her own life." The means, to which he refers, is a toxic substance and the directions for administration, which will produce death. Humphry argues for legal reform in order to make such acts lawful, calling them: "...the ultimate civil liberty, the freedom to select one's own manner of dying without interference from others, but with help if we choose." My academic research on Minerva 2000 produced 0 hits on the topic: US Practice of Physician-Assisted Suicide.
Patients are scared of what the disease will do to them and how they will feel. Advocates say that the name physician assisted suicide is misleading, in part because people associated suicide with being a horrid thing. Psychological factors are a major reason, mainly including depression, feeling like a burden, fearing loss of control or dignity, or being dependent. Many patients do not want palliative care because they feel they will be mistreated, harmed, or just not cared for by their caretaker. If this is the case, it can make things worse because it can cause more suffering through secondary illness 's and other complications due to neglect.(Lachman 3) The patient can develop bedsores and atrophy if not properly moved, they can lose the ability to feed themselves and use the facility. Patients that are utilizing PAS often remain in the care of family and hospice during the time of their death, but before then most utilize a limited amount of palliative care to help control their pain. (Lachman 4) Depending on what the patient is utilizing to aid in their dying the body itself may often help with pain management. If the patient is utilizing the VSED, the body will produce a strong Opiate, which is known to have an anesthetic effect on the body, reducing the pain and thirst felt. Chewing in ice and mouth washes often help with the feeling of thirst, and artificial saliva help when patients choose terminal dehydration. (Pickert
Physician-assisted suicide is defined as the practice where a physician provides a patient with a lethal dose of medication, upon the patient's request, which the patient desires to use to end his or her life. The Harvard Medical School conferred that we are "dead" when there is permanent loss of consciousness in the higher brain, even though one may not be flat lined. The idea for physician assisted suicide is for a medical doctor help someone die who is still alive but desires to terminate their own life due to an impairment or illness which causes suffering upon the individual. The question we must consider is where do we cross the line between suicide and murder.
It is important that patients and family members understand the conditions under which the patient is suffering from. People have an obligation of preparing themselves for end of live. This can be done by writing a will or an Advance Directive to guide the medical personnel and family members on what the patient wants. It can also be done by assigning a medical care proxy to decide on the patients behalf (Groopman and Hartzband, 2011). Medical personnel need to consider the patients wish and act as per the law when deciding on end-life options. Most of the decisions made by terminally ill patients are biased and compromised.
Physician assisted suicide (PAS) is a very important issue. It is also important tounderstand the terms and distinction between the varying degrees to which a person can be involved in hastening the death of a terminally ill individual. Euthanasia, a word that is often associated with physician assisted suicide, means the act or practice of killing for reasons of mercy. Assisted suicide takes place when a dying person who wishes to precipitate death, requests help in carrying out the act. In euthanasia, the dying patients may or may not be aware of what is happening to them and may or may not have requested to die. In an assisted suicide, the terminally ill person wants to die and has specifically asked for help. Physician-assisted suicide occurs when the individual assisting in the suicide is a doctor rather than a friend or family member. Because doctors are the people most familiar with their patients’ medical condition and have knowledge of and access to the necessary means to cause certain death, terminally ill patients who have made
(According to www.mentalhealthdaily.com ) Throughout the United States committing suicide or attempting to commit suicide is not illegal. But Physician assisted suicide is illegal in 45 states not
Although widely condoned around the world, only one nation, the Netherlands has made physician assisted suicide legal. Five states tried Washington in 1991, California in 1992, Michigan in 1998,and main in 2000, Oregon in 1994 approved the “Death with Dignity Act” it won 51 percent to 49 percent. 91 people committed suicide with the aid of a physician in the first four years the law was in effect.
Oftentimes when one hears the term Physician Assisted Suicide (hereafter PAS) the words cruel and unethical come to mind. On October 27, 1997 Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act, this act would allow terminally ill Oregon residents to end their lives through a voluntary self-administered dose of lethal medications that are prescribed by a physician (Death with Dignity Act) . This has become a vital, medical and social movement. Having a choice should mean that a terminally ill patient is entitled to the choice to pursue PAS. If people have the right to refuse lifesaving treatments, such as chemo and palliative care, then the choice of ending life with PAS should be a choice that is allowed.
Physician-assisted suicide should be a legal option, if requested, for terminally ill patients. For decades the question has been asked and a clear answer has yet to surface. It was formed out of a profound commitment to the idea that personal end-of-life decisions should be made solely between a patient and a physician. Can someone's life be put into an answer? Shouldn't someone's decision in life be just that; their decision? When someone has suffered from a car accident, or battled long enough from cancer, shouldn't the option be available? Assisted suicide shouldn't be seen as cheating death, but as a way to pay homage to the life once lived. As far as including the mentally challenged in this equation, I am against it. The mentally challenged, although less likely to grasp information, still has the physical awareness to grow. It can be subdued with medicine and psychotherapy. From personal experience I am a witness of being around mentally challenged adults who love life regardless of their conditions. Most don't have the ability to express a request such as life or death. Living life is a daily task just like it is for healthy citizens. Most if not all mentally challenged people aren't in any pain throughout their entire life. For this they shouldn't be targeted for assisted suicide. Death is an occurrence in life, whether it's unexpected or expected, it can't be cheated nor can it be avoided. The terminally ill should have the option to end their suffering with dignity.
All humans will die. Approximately 2,155,000 people from the United States will die in one year. In the United States, during the year of 1989, 34% of all deaths were caused by heart disease, 23% caused by cancer, 6% by strokes, and 2.2% by accidents involving motor vehicles. In that same year, 5.5% of the deaths were caused by medical negligence and suicide (Leading causes). This does not take into consideration the number of people who were killed by assisted suicide and euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is described as the intentional discontinuation, by the patient's physician, of vital treatment that could prolong the person's life. Assisted suicide occurs when a health care worker provides a patient with tools and/or medication that will help the patient kill him or herself, without the direct intervention of the care provider. Active euthanasia takes place when the doctor is responsible for the killing of the patient; for example, when the doctor administers a lethal injection (Schofield, 25). Active euthanasia is illegal in the United States. Only three states have legalized assisted suicide and only Oregon permits physician-assisted suicide. Thirty-five states, including Colorado, have statutes criminalizing assisted suicide and nine states criminalize assisted suicide through common law (Assisted suicide laws). In addition to active and passive euthanasia there are three other categories of euthanasia: voluntary, nonvoluntary, and involuntary. Voluntary, there is written or spoken consent from the patient; nonvoluntary, the patient can not voice his or her opinion because of unconsciousness or comatose; and involuntary, which goes against the wishes of the patient, and constitutes murder (Schofield, 26). Assisted suicide and euthanasia, in any form, are murder.
Physicians Assisted suicide is a topic many people are not fully informed about. Physician assisted suicide, or PAS for short is when a physician can legally prescribe medicine for a patient to take in order to medically kill themselves. I believe that PAS should be talked more about in order for more people to understand how bad or grave it can be to a family and to our world.
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.
Physician-assisted suicide refers to the physician acting indirectly in the death of the patient -- providing the means for death. The ethics of PAS is a continually debated topic. The range of arguments in support and opposition of PAS is vast. Justice, compassion, the moral irrelevance of the difference between killing and letting die, and individual liberty are many arguments for PAS. The distinction between killing and letting die, sanctity of life, "do no harm" principle of medicine, and the potential for abuse are some of the arguments in favor of making PAS illegal.