Assisted Suicide Argumentative Analysis

Brittany Maynard is a women who recommend to people to take assisted suicide because she does not want to see people suffer from pain. However, the author do not agree with her idea. She said that Maynard’s reasoning has a huge flaw. She suggested that people do not choose suicide lack dignity in order to people even take palliative medication but they still suffer pain, personality changes, and verbal, cognitive loss.

“How to Die in Oregon” is a powerful and moving documentary that really opened my eyes to what assisted suicide is and allowed me to develop opinions and feelings on the topic. Before watching the documentary I didn’t know exactly how assisted suicide worked, but I supported it. I believed it should be in a person’s control and their own decision in certain circumstances to choose life or death for themselves. After watching the documentary, my opinion still holds strong, except I now take it more seriously. Obviously life versus death is a very serious matter, and while I still believe it should be the person’s decision, the choice one person makes can leave devastation in their wake. Their families are left broken and grieving. Losing a loved

Brittany Maynard was one of the people to use the Death with Dignity Act in Organ and once said,“To have control of my own mind…to go with dignity is less terrifying. When I look at both options I have to die, I feel this is far more humane” (Sandeen, 2014). No matter what, we will all eventually die, but we should have the right to die as humanely as possible. The Death with Dignity Act is an end-of-life choice possibility for terminally ill patients to be given the freedom to decide for themselves what it means to die with dignity. This act allows them to die with dignity by providing them with lethal medications prescribed by a physician (The Oregon Department of Human Services, 2006). The Death with Dignity Act started to allow people with six months or less to live, the right to die in a manner and at the time of their own choosing. Also, even though modern medicine has benefited humanity greatly, it cannot completely resolve the suffering and distress that comes with the dying process, so Death with Dignity can provide a painless end-of-life choice for suffering individuals (Humphry, 2009). Although Death with Dignity is a controversial topic I feel it can be very beneficial especially since people go through a long process just to try to get the medication and the ones that get it really need it. I chose this topic because death always has been interesting to me and I one day hope to have a career

Brittany Maynard stated in an article she wrote on CNN, “Having this choice at the end of my life has become incredibly important. It has given me a sense of peace during a tumultuous time that otherwise would be dominated by fear, uncertainty and pain (Maynard, Brittany).” Since Brittany Maynard had gotten her prescription of euthanasia knowing that she could use it at any point she felt a sense of calm at the end of her life and felt that she could now die with dignity. The rest of her life didn’t have to be painful. Since she did have a terminal brain disease she had spent most of the last year of her life in tremendous pain, and once Brittany is refused treatment, she felt relieved. In contrast to Brittany’s story is the story of a woman named Pam Parlanti. This woman had unendurable arthritis pain near the end of her life and could barely get out of bed. Although she requested multiple times to die, her body held on for 11 days after her request and she died angry that others should have control over how she wanted to die (Parlanti, Steve). The story of Mrs. Parlanti proves that without the right to have voluntary doctor assisted suicide people will be forced to suffer for the remainder of their life even though the quality of their life is immensely poor. Family members watch their loved ones deteriorate this

Brittany Lauren Maynard, was an american woman who was terminally ill with brain cancer. She was going to die a slow and agonizing death. It was a stage 4 glioblastoma, 70% of people will survive for 14 months. There is no cure. The headaches, the seizures, the buildup of pressure in her head, the loss of words and vision was very hard to endure. She took her life in oregon on November 1, 2014. Her whole family had to be uprooted from california, move to Oregon to take advantage of the death with dignity law. The death with dignity law provides an opportunity to die painless and without suffering for terminally ill patients. Euthanasia should be available everywhere in the United States for chronically ill patients because, people choose how they live, so terminally ill patients should be able to choose how they die.

As recent as last year, national headlines followed Brittany Maynard and her desire to die with dignity after being diagnosed with untreatable grade 2 astrocytoma brain cancer. Maynard made the conscience decision with her physician and family to have the ability to choose when she wished to end her own life via assisted suicide in Oregon as her home state of California does not recognize one's right to die with dignity. Maynard worked closely with the advocacy group, “Compassion and Choices” to bring awareness to the need of all states to recognize medical accessibility for every person to have the choice to end their own life (Compassion&Choices, 2015, p. 1). This initiative supports those who wish to die on their own terms. For those who

Schencker in the article, demonstrates that patient assisted suicide has opened a discussion for more options regarding palliative and hospice care. She stated that although PAS is heart wrenching and emotion provoking, palliative and hospice care is a growing concern in the United States. Palliative care is the means where health care providers strive to improve the quality of life of their patients, and alleviate their patients from suffering during the end of life stages. Since pain is self-subjective, PAS allows patients to determine when their quality of life has been diminished and intolerable, and living is no longer an option. Furthermore, Schencker mentions Brittany Maynard, a young woman who moved to Oregon after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and opted to end her life through PAS. Maynard met the criteria to receive a lethal prescription to end her life as she did in November in 2014. Before ending her life, she became an activist for death with dignity by working with advocacy groups, blogging and making videos explaining her reason for seeking death with dignity. In addition, Brittany Maynard’s advocacy work led 20 states to introduce legislations that challenge laws opposing PAS (Schencker, 2015). However, moral ambiguity is not the only obstacle in passing laws regarding PAS. Under

Glioblastoma are tumors that reproduce quickly. The cause of this disease is unknown and the survival rate after two years is 30%. The 30% survival rate is under ideal circumstances. Maynard knowing her odds decided to fight the disease and opted for surgery. The surgery was not successful. Maynard learned that her combative brain tumor could not be stopped and this would lead to her severe decline and eventual death. There was no fight anymore. Maynard now was a dead women-walking waiting for her eventual demise. She could wait for death or put her destiny in her control. Maynard stated, “I will rob cancer of the ability to take everything from me before it takes my life” and later announced that she planned to end her life with PAS (Printz 641). Brittany moved to the first state that had passed the Death with Dignity Act, Oregon. This law permits terminally ill patients to end their lives by getting prescribed a lethal medication by a physician to voluntarily self-administer the prescription. Maynard then contacted Compassion & Choices and told them she wanted to become an advocate for the organization. She launched an online video campaign and interviewed with People. On November 1 2014, Brittany Maynard issued a public goodbye on Facebook and ended her

On the morning of April 20th, 2017, nearly a year ago as of the writing of this paper, Charlie and Francie Emerick held hands for one last time. After months of preparation, both physically and mentally, the couple was ready. They were about to commit assisted suicide (Aleccia). While many argue against the ideals of assisted suicide, which is the act of, with the help of a physician, ending your life, I believe that, under the proper legislation, it is an acceptable form of death. While some people may argue that death should be natural, doctors won’t do it, and that it’s a cry for help, it’s obvious that this is a considerable alternative which is a genuine option to the end of life.

Assisted suicide or any type of suicide is a serious matter and should not be taken lightly. A criterion in some states where assisted suicide is legal are strictly followed. “Eligibility is managed so that patients do not suffer from a terminal illness may not participate”. In the article Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon: A Medical Perspective, authors Herbert Hendin and Kathleen Foley evaluate Oregon’s Death and Dignity act legalized in 1997. When discussing the criteria, Hendin and Foley say that these safeguards include “presenting patients with the option for palliative care; ensuring that patients are competent to produce end-of-life decisions for themselves; limiting the procedure to patients who are terminally ill; ensuring the voluntaries of the request; obtaining a second opinion on the case; requiring the request to be persistent; encouraging the involvement of the next of kin; and requiring physicians to inform OPHD of all cases in which they have written a prescription for assisted suicide” (Sullivan). This action of assisted suicide is for terminally ill patients who choose to be in control of his or her life and death and end their

Physician-assisted suicide first became legalized in Australia’s Northern Territory on 1 July 1996 (Walker 21). It was later legalized in Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Quebec, Oregon, Montana, Washington and Vermont (Gulu 1). In Michigan, throughout the 1990s, Dr. Jack Kevorkian petitioned to legalize assisted suicide and help over one hundred and thirty people commit suicided in and eight year period (Schneider 1). Dr. Kevorkian was in prison for eight years for second degree murder (Schneider 1). According to Jack Lessenberry, “Jack Kevorkian, faults and all, was a major force for good in this society. He forced us to pay attention to one of the biggest elephants in society’s living room: the fact that today vast numbers of people are alive who would rather be dead, who have lives not worth living”(Schneider 2). Due to Dr. Kevorkian’s assistance in an Oregon schoolteachers death, Oregon passed its Death With Dignity Act (Schneider 2). On the 1 November 2014, Brittany Maynard took advantage of Oregon’s legality of physician-assisted suicide.

With Assisted Suicide (most commonly known as physician assisted suicide), has been (and is being) argued in the states, while some have come to agreement on the topic, which include Oregon, Washington and Vermont. (Thompson 1)

Brittany Maynard, a young woman who shocked the world by announce her assisted death. This is the case many years ago and reported by all media that reopened the debate in the United States on assisted death. This issue is very controversial by religious people who oppose and preach that only God has the power to decide on the life and death of the human being, however, in modern and present life, there are states that support people who determine under much evidence to end their life if there are no other alternatives to continue living.

Support for physician-assisted suicide started to gain popularity growing from 37 percent in 1947 to 53 percent by the early '70s with the rise of the patients' rights movement (Drum). On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act. This act allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose. Though support for assisted suicide was high very few people were actually taking part in it “By 2014, after 16 years in which Oregonians could get used to the idea, 155 people requested prescriptions, and 105 used them. That's 105 out of about 34,000 total deaths statewide, or roughly one-third of 1 percent” (Drum). Though assisted suicide has been made legal in

Physician-Assisted Suicide has been a very controversial topic for many years. The major spark of the controversy was when Maynard lived in California when she was first diagnosed, but then moved to Oregon to take her own life. According to the Merriam-Webster