Physician Assisted Suicide Fast Facts

I. Imagine yourself or a loved one just diagnosed with a terminal debilitating illness. You are given at best six months to live. During those six months your prognosis will turn from bad to worse. You know you will eventually be in an uncontrollable amount of persistent pain. You will eventually lose the ability to feed, dress, or bathe and toilet yourself. Your once very active life will become one

sit in pain due to their sicknesses. Should these people have to go through all

Physician assisted suicide consists of a doctor intentionally providing a patient with the means to commit suicide. It continues to be a controversial issue that is facing our state’s legislatures and is presently legal in only four states including Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and just recently, California. Anna Gorman, an author for Kaiser Health News, published an article in USA Today titled “Disabled Right Advocates Fight Assisted Suicide Legislation.” Gorman’s article explains the dangers of a proposed legislation in California that would legalize prescriptions for terminally ill patients to end their lives. The bill was passed and will be effective for ten years. In her article, Gorman interviews four people who believe that physician

For a terminal patient, life can become very painful and uncomfortable. For the majority of those patients, the end isn’t very bright. Patients with terminal illnesses may resort to Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) as a means to end their their life. In this paper, we will be discussing what PAS is, why patients may use it, and how it affects the human body. We will also look into the history of PAS and how that history translates to the present day. Finally, we will be looking at the legality of PAS in the United States.

It is hard to know the correct statistics on just how many physician assisted suicides happen across the U.S. Since it is illegal in the majority of the states it is not something that is reported because those assisting

life by physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia. One of the reasons why states have concerns and interests in these two forms of suicide is because, “the state has an interest in the preservation of human life, and that far too many lives are lost prematurely” (Wellman, 2003). A great number of people that are elderly and dying will go to hospice. Hospice is where people go to die. It involves not giving food, fluids, or medicine to their patients. However, if their patients are starving and dehydrated then that is a form of suicide by not giving them the proper nutrition. Individuals would have closure with families, friends, and be able to make proper arrangements for their assets, if physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia were

Vicki D Lachman, the president of the V.L. Associates, is a nationally renowned author of hundreds of publications and of over three thousand presentations. The major topics of Dr. Lachman’s work are based on leadership, moral courage, and a strong emphasis on ethics. The 35 years of her career began with a BSN and graduate degree in psychiatric nursing, a doctoral degree in education, and a masters in Bioethics. While deepening her understanding of the health care field she also served as a trustee on the board of the; Chestnut Hill Hospital, Cape Regional Medical Center, and the American Nurses Association Center for Ethics and Human Rights Advisory Board. Before retiring as a Clinical Professor at Drexel University her third book Ethical

In addition, at a medical perspective, the responsibility of physicians is to save people in all circumstances under the Hippocratic Oath – the oldest binding document in human history. That was another reason for those who believe Assisted Suicide is immoral with physicians, but is this Oath fair when applied to incurable patients? To be honest, death is a natural law that every living creature on the Earth will face one day and it is just a matter of time. In most cases, we usually see the death of our loved ones as an unfortunate occurrence or a painful loss rather than a solution to end the pain, especially with terminally ill patients. Based on a recent PEW Research Center study, the author Gary Stein stated that, "62 percent say suicide is morally acceptable for

In today’s society it is taught that life is a precious gift and to cherish every second that is allowed, but what if it is full of endless pain and misery? Starting hundreds of years ago in Ancient Greece up until modern times with Doctor Kevorkian, physician-assisted suicide, and euthanasia are all highly debated topics that cause both legal and moral dilemmas, but provide patients with benefits such as financial and pain relief. Assisted suicide should be legalized in the United States to prevent pain and suffering for the patients and their families.

Physician assisted suicide was legalized in Oregon in 1995, being the first U.S. state to legalize physician assisted suicide (Quill, Timothy & Sussman, Bernard).

The equal protection argument for allowing assisted suicide was a challenge against New York law that only let people who were ill and who decided to sustain from life support were allowed to do so, thus that infringed on the equal protection clause right of people who were also ill and who decided to rush to their death but by the administering of a drug were not allowed to do so. According to equal protection laws the state won’t deny anyone within the jurisdiction equal protection of the laws. The latter’s right of equal protection was infringed upon and by putting the equal protection clause into effect it would allow for assisted suicide.

There have been many debates over time of if suicide is murder, but what about Assisted Suicide? Assisted suicide is when a person helps another person end their life. Helping with the death of someone who wanted to die. Act Utilitarianism sets basis of right or wrong based on if the action causes more pleasure or pain overall. Every person is accounted as equal. This means if an action brings pleasure to one person but harms two people. The action would be deemed as bad because it brings about more pain. This analysis will attempt to answer the lingering questions about Assisted Suicide by using the theory of Act Utilitarianism.

People all around the world die with excruciating pain. There are many different ways people die but some can only be helped with suicide. In the United States we can help by providing Assisted Suicide to be legal. Although Suicide is never justified, Assisted Suicide should be legal in the United States.

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

Should assisted suicide be allowed? Well, before answering, take into consideration the reasons why it shouldn’t be authorized. According to the Suicide Awareness Voices of Education or SAVE article,