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.
Do people have the right to die? Is there, in fact, a right to die? Assisted suicide is a controversial topic in the public eye today. Individuals choose their side of the controversy based on a number of variables ranging from their religious views and moral standings to political factors. Several aspects of this issue have been examined in books, TV shows, movies, magazine articles, and other means of bringing the subject to the attention of the public. However, perhaps the best way to look at this issue in the hopes of understanding the motives behind those involved is from the perspective of those concerned: the terminally ill and the disabled.
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.
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.
Individuals often debate whether physician-assisted suicide is morally right or wrong. According to the text, Oregon has a law that was passed in 1998 that legalized physician-assisted suicide (Timmons, 2017). This law allows competent individuals who have only six months or less left to live and that resides in Oregon to request a prescription from a physician that will end one’s life (Timmons, 2017). Michael Gill discusses objections to autonomy-based justifications of physician-assisted suicide. Individuals that are against autonomy-based justifications of physician-assisted suicide believe that the autonomy-based justifications of the law are irrational and absurd. One of the objections to autonomy-based justifications of physician-assisted suicide is that the autonomy-based justification implies that non-terminally ill individuals should also be given the option to commit suicide. The individuals that oppose this law thinks that giving everyone, including individuals that are not terminally ill, the option of physician-assisted suicide is irrational.
“On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act which allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.” (The Oregon Health Authority, 2010). Physician assisted suicide can be constructed to have reasonable laws which still protect against its abuse and the value of human life. Recent Oregon and U.K. laws show that you can craft reasonable laws that prevent abuse and still protect the value of human life. When one thinks of suicide, we think of a person who takes their own life. But in physician-assisted suicide, this is not the case. “In physician-assisted suicide, the patient self...
Physician-assisted suicide is the voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician. It is the practice of providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication for the patient to use with the primary intention of ending his or her own life (“Physician-assisted Suicide”). Physician- assisted suicide is a dilemma that has been debated in the United States. While there are many reasons to consider it right, there are also many reasons to consider it wrong. Currently, states of Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have legalized assisted suicide through the legislature. While individuals have the right to choose whether he or she lives or dies, is physician- assisted suicide right or wrong? This paper supports that physician- assisted suicide is wrong. This paper will feature a case study on physician- assisted suicide. It will argue that physician- assisted suicide is unlawful, unethical, and is dishonoring.
Today's society is now introduced to one of the most controversial issues; assisted suicide. Just like in other controversial arguments, there are many people that feel that it is wrong for people to ask their healthcare provider to end one's life; while others feel that if the person is terminally ill and has given their will to die, that they can be assisted in suicide. Though both sides are reasonable many people believe that people should not take part in helping someone take their own life, assisted suicide should be legal because, it plays a factor of conquering one’s feelings, gives an option to those whom are terminally ill or in immense pain, and every human
One of the possible solutions to physician assisted suicide is to change the law regarding it. The only way to prevent such suffering appears to me to be to change the law, so as to allow such patients to lawfully receive assistance to die. Assisted suicide would, in these circumstances, be a compassionate and ethical response to a desperate need. A good rather than a harm, and complementary rather than in opposition to palliative care. (Joffe, J.
Assisted suicide is one of the biggest controversies in medicine to date. This is when a patient is terminally ill and wants to die already. It is called assisted suicide because the patient needs to be given lethal poisons to move on and needs the doctor or caretaker to administer those poisons. These are patients that are in palliative care. Palliative care is nurses and doctors making a terminally ill patient as comfortable as he or she can be. They do this by administering heavy narcotics that make them forgot about their pain. There are two sides to this argument support the right for a patient to sign his own death certificate or not allow patients to choose their own fate. This paper will outline a few of the pros, cons and benefits
Usually this action is done by providing access to a lethal dose of medication, in which the patient self- administers. Physician assisted suicide is commonly distinguished from both euthanasia and the practice of restraining certain medical treatments based on an informed patient’s repulse. Euthanasia comes from the Greek phrase meaning “easy death” and refers to killing terminally ill individuals to end their suffering (Stokely 1). Arguments in favor and against assisted suicide are complicated because of the fact that they come from several different points of view. Some types of points of view include, ethical issues, medical issues, legal issues , and social issues in which they all play a part in forming people’s opinions towards the subject. While many people approve of assisted suicide, I firmly support the idea that certain forms of
If one is to even begin to understand the dilemma stirred up by the proposition of legalizing physician-assisted suicide, they must first understand ...
To begin, though, it is important to point out that prohibiting the practice in our society requires greater effort and argument than letting one. This is a significance of the value we place on the rights and freedoms of the individual, because individual freedom is so significant, a convincing reason must be given to overrule it. Because the results of a decision on Physician assisted suicide are so intensely personal. The individual has a basic right to determine the course of their own life, and obviously death is a part of that course (Dworkin, p. 265). So then, in order to show that Physician assisted suicide should be legalized, one must simply show that there is no reason for them to be considered illegal.
There are concerns that the legalization of this will bring forth deaths for the wrong reason. It’s not that people don’t deserve the right to die, it’s that people don’t deserve to feel like they have to die. Everyone deserves the right to make a decision on his or her own, and no one should have to suffer; with that though, no one should have to feel like this is the easy way out. This is about the fact that making physician assisted suicide legal could put unneeded pressure on these patients. We have to think about the less fortunate, the lonesome, and the outcasts. Assisted suicide isn’t the answer to financial struggles or burdens. Rather than offering up this idea of physician-assisted suicide, shouldn’t we be making these patients comfortable? The healthcare system should focus on making terminally ill patients comfortable and
The Right to Die with Dignity is being brought out of the shadows and causes for assisted suicides continues to grow. As people began to notice the need for this cause more stories are continuously being released of the pros of assisted suicide, in which is discussed in this essay. The United States is not in full conclusion over the issue, whereas only few states it is legal. Oregon being the first state is paving the way. Doctors and other notable medical personnel remain in debate. Other areas of the world have all different stances on the issue. No matter where people are from, they will continue to travel to other countries to die with dignity. One day the entire world will eventually see it necessary to give the right to die to humans everywhere. The right to die with dignity is our human right.