Assisted Suicide Ethical Essay

The word suicide gives many people negative feelings and is a socially taboo subject. However, suicide might be beneficial to terminally ill patients. Physician- assisted suicide has been one of the most controversial modern topics. Many wonder if it is morally correct to put a terminally ill patient out of their misery. Physicians should be able to meet the requests of their terminally ill patients. Unfortunately, a physician can be doing more harm by keeping someone alive instead of letting them die peacefully. For example, an assisted suicide can bring comfort to patients. These patients are in excruciating pain and will eventually perish. The government should not be involved in such a personal decision. A physician- assisted suicide comes with many benefits for the patient. If a person is terminally ill and wants a physician assisted suicide, then they should receive one.

I believe that assisted suicide should be legal because it allows freedom of choice, it gives dignity to the sick, and it ends the suffering of patient. Terminally ill people should be able to make their choices, not their government around them. Freedom of choice is in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, and is in many other countries. Not allowing terminally ill patients to end their life is also cruel and takes away their dignity. Forcing someone to live when they don’t want makes them feel unimportant and not respected. Also, many terminally ill patients suffer from a lot of pain, and forcing them to live just prolongs that pain, especially if the sickness or disease will kill them anyways. A study conducted by the University of

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

In recent times, there has been much debate about whether or not Euthanasia should be permitted. Voluntary Euthanasia is when terminally ill people wish to have their lives ended with the assistance of medical procedures before nature takes its course. This is because they may be suffering and in great pain, or cannot live a reasonable or comfortable life. Voluntary Euthanasia should be introduced, provided that there are safeguards to stop the system from being misused.

People with incurable diseases are living in excruciating pain up until the day they die. Assisted suicide, though it sounds dreadful, can put an end to the suffering. Terminally ill patients should get the option to “die with dignity.” It is their individual right! For the common good, I think assisted suicide should be legal in all fifty states. Otherwise individuals will be suffering for years on end, knowing that there is

The thoughts of assisted suicide are very mixed. Some people believe that it is a great way to put terminally-ill patients out of the their pain and suffering. They see it as a way for a person to die with dignity after suffering from a painful disease. Others think it is beyond morally wrong for a doctor to intentionally end a patient’s life. They feel that a doctor should not have unnecessary deaths riding, on their shoulders the rest of their career. Assisted suicide goes way beyond the beliefs of medicine and is morally wrong in so many ways.

To fully understand the issue at hand, one must understand the various forms of euthanasia. The Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: Tenth Edition defines euthanasia as “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals…in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.” Euthanasia can be either passive or active. Passive euthanasia occurs when a patient is relieved of medical treatment and is allowed to die naturally. Active euthanasia occurs when either a physician or a family member actively takes the life of the patient, perhaps through lethal injection, and eliminates a natural death process. Many people commonly use the word “euthanasia” to refer to assisted suicide. Essentially, assisted suicide is a form of active euthanasia in that a person, usually a physician, aids in the suicide of a patient.

The process of assisted suicide, or physician-assisted death, is a hotly debated topic that still remains at the forefront of many national discussions today. Assisted suicide can be described as the suicide of patient by a physician-prescribed dose of legal drugs. The reason that this topic is so widely debated is that it infringes on several moral and religious values that many people in the United States have. But, regardless of the way that people feel, a person’s right to live is guaranteed to them in the United States Constitution, and this should extend to the right to end their own life as well. The reasons that assisted suicide should be legalized in all states is because it can ease not only the suffering of the individual, but the financial burden on the family that is supporting him/her. Regardless of opposing claims, assisted suicide should be an option for all terminally ill patients.

In conclusion, assisted suicide is supported by the right of people to make decision about their life provided the patient is in the right mental state to do it.

Physician assisted suicide is immoral in the case of people who are alive and desire to terminate their life. However, there are extreme cases when hastening the dying process is justified in the circumstances of individuals who are in intense physical impairment.

First off, physician assisted death should be legalized because it should only be the doctors and patient’s decision. However, I do believe assisted death should be legal but only if a doctor agrees that the extent of illness is not curable and that the person is in a strong

Assisted Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. There are many ethical dilemmas surrounding assisted suicide. Although there is no way to truly say whether assisted suicide is a good or bad thing. I can say that it would be ethically wrong to legalize it. How, it can open the floodgates for anyone to medically end their life, we are not meant to “pay God”, and it can jeopardize the ethical and moral duties of healthcare professionals. When someone thinks of the word “suicide” most think of a person killing him or herself to escape their problems, except assisted suicide isn’t quite the same. According to Batten “Assisted suicide is the means by which an individual choose to end his or her life via the help of another person, who may offer medical assistance” (Batten 398). Death isn’t something a health care professional should be allowed to assist with but rather guide the patient back to a healthier state.

Assisted suicide, whose life is it? In reality it is the person’s life, and if they are suffering from a terminal illness they should get to choose whether or not they want to suffer. One very aggressive form of a terminal illness is the Glioblastoma Multiforme. This type of brain tumor is more common than a person may think it is also very deadly (Markert). Who is to say a person can’t end their terminal illness, pain, and suffering? They are just like every other human being who wants to die with dignity.

     Assisted Suicide/ Euthanasia may also be seen as being unethical. The individual?s who lobby against assisted suicide always use the doctor?s oath that they have to preserve life as their first argument. While this may be true, they often leave out the part where they have a duty to act in the best interest of their patient. The activists also use individuals on Medicare, such as the elderly or poor as an argument. They feel that they may be pushed into assisted suicide because caring for them in a hospital would be too expensive and would just eat up government funds.

The term euthanasia is used differently by most people. Personally, I use it to include all forms of assisted suicide. The question for most people is whether euthanasia can be morally justified. Many people consider this practice to be against all ethics. This is despite whether compassion was the motive or otherwise. There are many dynamics that are involved when a person requires it to alleviate extreme pain or a condition that is considered to be torture towards the person experiencing it. There is need for the act of assisted suicide to be morally justifiable to make it ethical. However, the major question is to whom the act is meant to justify morality to. Every case that requires euthanasia should be considered differently with its own tenets. The use of euthanasia is morally justifiable and is therefore ethically acceptable since the use requires the opinion of medical practitioners.