Argumentative Essay: Assisted Suicide

Assisted suicide is a topic that has ignited a severe debate due to the controversy that surrounds its implementation. Assisted suicide occurs when a patients expresses their intention to die and request a physician to assist them in the process. Some countries like Oregon, Canada, and Belgium have legalized the process terming it as an alternative to prolonged suffering for patients who are bound to die. Unlike euthanasia where a physician administers the process, assisted suicide requires that the patient voluntarily initiates and executes the process. Although there exists concession such a process is important to assist patients die without much suffering, there has emerged criticism on its risk of abuse and as an expression of medical

Who dictates how you live your life? How does one define life and when that life should end? If you become terminally ill, would you like the choice to choose how your life ends? In the United States, assisted suicide, is a highly-debated issue. On one side, there are many in support of allowing a person the right to end their life with dignity at the time of their choosing. While others believe, it is a moral right to sustain life and leave a person’s exit from this world to a higher power. The two opposing viewpoints have both compassionate reasons and disadvantages; nevertheless, a person’s human rights as an individual are the most important aspect to uphold.

Brittany Maynard, a woman known for her advocacy in the controversial topic of assisted suicide, officially ended her life this fall after learning of her fatal brain tumor. After complaining of horrible headaches, she decided to see a doctor where they gave her this traumatic news. She had two corrective surgeries to try and stop the growth of her large tumor, but they were unsuccessful. Her doctor then suggested full brain radiation, but after months of researching this option, along with many other, she knew her quality of what short life she had left would quickly deteriorate. With the help of her family, friends, and newly-wed husband, she made the decision to move with her loved ones from her California home to Oregon, where death with

Many people in the world are suffering from illness that cannot be cured. They live their last days in pain and suffering wondering when and why it happened to them. Instead of suffering, many people dream of suicide to take their pain away but they know no one would understand. In very few states, it is legal for people to get assistance to put them out of their pain and suffering. It is called assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is the help from a physician to end their patients’ lives with their permission. The patient must have a terminal illness with less than six months to live to qualify. Many people are against assisted suicide because they believe that it is just a cover for murder. People should be thought of as dying with dignity

Everyone will die at some point, and many people wish to have a good death. The Institute of Medicine defines a good death as one that is free from avoidable stress and suffering for both the patient and family, and is in accord with family and patient wishes. Physician assisted suicide can help those who are terminally ill receive the good death that they wish to have. Physician assisted suicide allows patients to die on their own terms before suffering from their terminal illness becomes too much for them to bear. Jason Barber’s wife, Kathleen, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Both Kathleen and Jason believed in physician assisted suicide. Kathleen had watched her mother battle leukemia, and stated, “I wish there were a pill which would

In the ever changing role and dynamic atmosphere that healthcare provides, unique challenges and opportunities constantly arise which are a multi-faceted labyrinth of ethical and moral dilemma. One of the most contested and widely debated topics to be found in the healthcare workplace today is the subject of Assisted Suicide. Altering a person’s course of death into a process driven role, rather than the client’s final life event, creates a myriad of ethical and moral dilemmas.

The legalization of physician assisted suicide (PAS) in Oregon in 1994 changed the face of the argument between those who believe in death with dignity and those who believe in letting nature take its course. It was a major victory for PAS advocates as the first state in America had legalized PAS in the country’s history. In 2008, the neighboring state of Washington followed suit with a similar law and legalized PAS by a 58-42 margin. Vermont legalized it in 2013. PAS has also been decriminalized in the state of Montana. The assisted suicide of a 29-year-old Oregon woman with terminal brain cancer named Brittany Maynard in late 2014 brought light to the debate again.

Physician assisted suicide does not lead to abuses or down the hypothetical slope. Peter Rogatz, a physician, states that requesting someone to be taken off a ventilator is socially acceptable. What is the difference between assisted suicide and ending a ventilator? Does one have to be in coma or brain dead to allow him to die with dignity? These are the questions that patients and society are asking today. Rogatz asks these questions from a physician’s point of view and explains the pain that he has seen through suffering patient’s eyes. These questions alone are one factor that Rogatz is sickened by because he does not understand what in the world the difference should be between these two tragic events. The next point Rogatz explains is that people should see assisted suicide as a merciful end rather than killing. The word killing has such a strong meaning and that does not have any place in the right to die debate because killing is intentional without consent (134). Rogatz believes that the physicians who understand the plea for assisted suicide are doing good not harm. More often than not, the physicians responding to assisted suicide will handle the situation correctly. Rogatz does accept that there will be someone who will abuse this power, but that will not happen with everything physicians have as guidelines. According to Rogatz, physicians also have a strict criterion to even think about mentioning assisted suicide. The patients must qualify for assisted suicide. This factor alone also helps to eliminate abuses because physicians only can administer to a select number of terminally ill patients (134). Assisted suicide is not an act of murder and does not lead down a hypothetical slope.

"You have stage IV lung cancer that has metastasized to your lymph nodes and bones. Your prognosis is poor; you may have another 18 months left [to live]." The oncologist’s words marked the beginning of my ex-husband’s physical and emotional suffering until his untimely death in January 2017. Witnessing his unrelenting pain and watching him suffer from lung cancer and the horrible side effects of chemotherapy, I wondered why the doctors did not offer him any other alternatives other than living in progressive pain. Why would they let him suffer for the next 18 months with ineffective pain management treatment when his prognosis was so poor? This option should have been available to him, but due to state laws and

In 1994, Oregon became the first state to pass a bill legalizing physician aid-in-dying (Richardson, 2011). This law would allow a terminally ill patient with 6 months or less to live to end their life by their own terms (“It’s Not Assisted Suicide”, 2011). This bill leads to the question “Why would a form of purposeful death be legalized?” The bill, itself was passed for many reasons including the fact that the patients want to have control over their life and ultimately their death (“It’s Not Assisted Suicide”, 2011). They also do not want to live in fear of what will eventually happen to them. “Death with Dignity” was passed is because many terminally-ill patients do not want to live in excruciating pain and in fear of what will happen to them, living a prolonged life or taking control over one’s death is a personal choice belonging only to the individual making it.

Too feeble to stand up himself, a grown man sits in the arms of hospice care day in and day out, just waiting to be picked up out of bed, given a little relief. All that crosses his mind is the thought of death. This man suffers through the pain of his condition everyday, until he sluggishly deteriorates. His body hangs on longer than his mind, until he dies exactly the opposite of how he wanted to, not of a sound mind. Death with Dignity states that 70% of people in the U.S. have joined the fight to legalize a practice in which people can chose to die at the end of their life in specific conditions. Voluntary assisted suicide should be legalized in Wisconsin because there are strict laws that will make sure that this process is done correctly,

For the most part, everybody throughout the world views life as sacred. In America, we see this in our laws which serve justice to those that have killed, and in our constitution alongside liberty and the pursuit of happiness as an inalienable right. It is generally agreed upon that most everybody would rather not die, and for that matter, would rather not see other people die as well. In short, barring serial killers and psychopaths, almost everybody supports life. However, when discussing the death and life of certain people, such as terminally ill patients and those sentenced to die by the court (capital punishment), a fair deal of disagreement arises. Within the politically fueled discussions that seem to dominate today’s discourse, we

The debate for assisted suicide has been around for centuries. In more modern times, when one thinks of assisted suicide, their first thoughts may revert to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, infamously known as “Dr. Death”. He proposed several ideologies when it came to the topic of death including that voluntary euthanasia should not be a crime as a person should have rights over their own life (Grant, 2017). Those that proposed Kevorkian argued that helping someone take their life should be rendered a crime on the same level as murder as it is taking a life. In the article, “Assisted Suicide: Pro-Choice or Anti-Life” by Richard Doerflinger (1989), the author discusses the opposing views of this critical debate and how it relates to terminal patients and others who wish to have an absolute decision over their own lives. This article, although written almost 30 years ago, examines most of the attitudes that still hold firm for many debaters to this day.

Assisted suicide is becoming a widespread topic among elderly and terminally ill patients in America. It straddles the line between having the moral right to choose to die versus the ethical decision to maintain life at all cost. Through modern medicine is having breakthroughs with lifesaving procedure and medications on a daily basis, we are now posed with the question “Does Society have a moral obligation to protect and preserve all life?” We can talk about dignity and respect or even the person’s right to choose but in situations where we are under duress, we can make hasty decisions involving our lives. I believe that all lives should be perceive as precious and no one should have the right to assist someone with ending their life.

Physician assisted suicide is requested by the terminally ill, typically when the pain from the illness is too much to handle and is not manageable through treatments or other medications. Assisted suicide is more of a broad term for helping someone die a good death, physician assisted suicide is where a medical doctor provides information and medication and the patient then administers the medications themselves. Euthanasia is also another term that is commonly heard, this refers to a medical doctor that voluntarily administers the lethal dose of medication to the patient when the patient requests it, due to not physically being able to do it themselves (Humphry, 2006). There pros and cons with this topic throughout the world, but is one of the biggest debated things here in the United States of America and to this day there are only five states that have legalized physician-assisted suicide (ProCon.org, 2015). The government should allow patients that are terminally ill the right to choose physician assisted suicide, why should they have to suffer when there is a way out.