Assisted Suicide Argumentative Essay

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

The article “Brittany Maynard Death With Dignity Advocate for ‘Death With Dignity’ Dies” by Catherine E. Shoichet delivers the story of Brittany Maynard. She was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2012 and was told she had from 3-10 years to live. However, in another diagnose that she had she was told she only had about six months to live. Maynard graduated from Berkeley and obtained a Masters in Education from the University of Irvine. She was a California resident and could not obtain her wish of dying with assisted suicide here. She moved to Oregon and there she became a resident. In 2014 Brittany Maynard consumed the drugs and peacefully died at 29 years.

The article “Brittany Maynard Death With Dignity Advocate for ‘Death With Dignity’ Dies” by Catherine E. Shoichet delivers the story of Brittany Maynard. She was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2012 and was told she had from 3-10 years to live. However, in another diagnose that she had she was told she only had about six months to live. Maynard graduated from Berkeley and obtained a Masters in Education from the University of Irvine. She was a California resident and could not obtain her wish of dying with assisted suicide here. She moved to Oregon and there she became a resident. In 2014 Brittany Maynard consumed the drugs and peacefully died at 29 years.

“My dream is that every terminally ill American has access to the choice to die on their own terms with dignity. Please take an active role to make this a reality” (qtd “Brittany Maynard Fund”). Brittany Maynard Diaz, a 29-year-old woman who was diagnosed with Glioblastoma and only given six months to live, turned her tragedy into a legacy when she chose to die with dignity. She became an advocate for the “Compassion and Choices ' End of Life Consultation or EOLC” program by sharing her story and decision with everyone in America in an effort to help give everyone in her situation the same options. She believed in dying with dignity for the same basic reasons that many others do; constitutionally speaking, it is within everyone’s individual rights, it is an established medical practice used all over the world, and no one should be forced to suffer needlessly. After researching her diagnosed form of cancer and discussing her options with her family, any type of treatment given would only destroy the quality of life during the time she had left to live. What would you do?

Because her body was young and healthy, she was likely to physically stay alive for a long time, but the cancer was eating her brain which would have caused her to suffer in hospice care for months while her family watched her deteriorate slowly. Even with palliative medication, she could develop morphine-resistant pain and lose her verbal, cognitive, and motor skills at any time. For her, that seemed like a nightmare to put her family through. She wanted to live the rest of the life she had left to the fullest, surrounding herself with family and friends, doing things she had always dreamt of doing and saying goodbye to her loved ones in her own time. Much like Dr. Rimmel, Brittany’s quality of life was critical to her happiness. Because the state of California has not authorized death with dignity. Brittany and her family had to move from their home to Portland, Oregon. Oregon was one of five states where death with dignity is legal.

Matthew Paris explains in his article “Soon We Will Accept That Useless Lives Should End,” published in the Spectator, that dying is not a desire for the patients with a terminal illness. Terminally ill patients end their life because they did not receive pleasure from the life that they had. Pleasure was taken away in their lives when the pain and suffering took over. Patients who are labeled with a terminal illness lose their quality of life quick. There are many cases in which patients would much rather choose an assisted death over living in pain. In Brittany Maynard’s article, she describes the suffering that she endured in her battle with brain cancer. Even though Brittany’s cancer was labeled terminal, she still had many surgeries. When given her prognosis of six months, she knew her quality of life would rapidly diminish. She went through with physician assisted suicide for many reasons, one of them being that she did not want to suffer anymore. The same article displays a perfect reasoning as to how physician assisted suicide ends suffering for the patient. Brittany Maynard chose physician assisted suicide to escape the pain and suffering that she would soon face. Having full brain radiation would leave her scalp with first-degree burns. Even if Brittany chose hospice care, the tumor developing in her brain would eat away at her mind and she

Brittany Maynard was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor at the age of twenty-nine. She was given six months to live and the option of full brain radiation. If she chose to go with radiation, it could have caused her to experience the following: fatigue, nausea, memory loss, and speech loss. She began to research physician-assisted suicide and decided that it was the best choice she had left. Physician-assisted suicide is the act of a doctor ending a terminally ill patient’s life using lethal drugs. As of modern day, physician-assisted suicide is only legal in 6 states which include; Oregon, Montana, Washington, Vermont, California, and Colorado. Luckily, she lived near Oregon: one of the six states to have it legalized. She went through with it to end the suffering. More states should legalize physician-assisted suicide because it would let people who are terminally ill die with tranquility and dignity.

In 2014, Brittany Maynard became the face for those supporting physician assisted suicide or PAS. At 29 years old and newly married, Maynard was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and immediately underwent a partial craniotomy and partial resection. Her tumor came back much stronger, however, and in April she was given six months to live. Maynard’s only treatment option to slow but not stop the growth of the tumor was full brain radiation, but she opted against this because of the unavoidable side effects of hair loss, first degree burns, and the inevitability of death. In consideration of hospice, Maynard feared becoming resistant to morphine and losing her cognitive, motor, and verbal skills. Even more so, she did not want her family

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

Brittany was educated by her doctor on the possible treatments which would prolong her life for a little amount of time. However, since her tumor was so large she would have to receive full head radiation where she would lose all her hair and be left with severe burns in her scalp. After talking with her family she decided that there would be no treatments to save her and that those treatments would worsen her life style. She considered dying in hospice care, meaning that she would refuse radiational treatment and live the rest of her days on morphine to lessen her pain. After realizing that morphine would make her suffer of personality changes and verbal and cognitive motion loss she decided to die while was she was young and was able to function on her own. She did not want her family to see her dying terribly ill at the hospice. Therefore, she decided to move to Oregon where she became educated on the topic and was able to contact a doctor to assist her with lethal medicine that she would self inject when she started feeling like her symptoms were unbearable in order to end her suffering. Giving her relief after

“Having this choice at the end of my life has become incredibly important. It has given me a sense of peace during a [time] that otherwise would be dominated by fear, uncertainty, and pain” ("11 Emotional Quotes ). This quote was stated by Brittany Maynard, a twenty-nine year old who chose to end her own life. She had terminal brain cancer and chose to move to Oregon which, at the time, was one of the only states that offered the Death With Dignity Act. In a 2014 TIME article, it was stated that, “Maynard is one of more than 750 people in Oregon who have ingested a lethal dose of prescription medication since the Death with Dignity Act went into effect in 1997” (Barone). Every citizen should have the right to physician assisted death under circumstances of terminal illness and unbearable pain. (ADD THREE MAIN IDEAS AT THE END OF THIS PARAGRAPH)

First of all, many support assisted suicide because they believe that it is a humane, free choice that every patient desire. A person have the right to end their life allows them death with dignity. It’s a free will because no patients should have the righteous to suffer dying without lethal dose from seeking freedom and authority. Let’s assume a person is being placed on life support, he or she feels have a unconscious mind. Which an individual cannot say or do anything and disabled if they’re in a vegetative state. In a way that it allows physician to grant medication whether he or she want to be euthanized. This statement insists that assisted suicide is a way of life, not a threat:

29 years old Brittany Maynard, she’s been married for just over a year and has terminal brain cancer. In April 2014, she had six months or less left to live. She made a decision to move from California to Oregon to access that state’s Death with Dignity Act. The law authorized her to a take life-ending medication, so she can pass away gently and peacefully at home with family. Also she said she is not suicidal, she doesn’t want to die. But there’s no treatments that save her life. And she wants to die on her own terms. She posted her video on “Youtube” that she’s planning to end her life on November 1, 2014. She had life ending medication that prescribed by her doctor on November 1 surrounded by her family. Her story has gone viral. Millions have been inspired by her strength and bravery. Also there are many arguments for death with dignity and against it. There are many concerning about moral and ethical issue. Is it “Right to die” or “Right to live”? What about Medical World’s opinion? Keep the Hippocratic Oath or Respect Patient’s Dignity? Religious aspect is also important, is your belief can get over the life-end suffering?

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.

“Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.”