Assisted Suicide Media

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.

Assisted suicide is defined as a physician providing a patient the means to take his or her own life, usually through medicine. Washington, Vermont, Montana, and New Mexico has passed the laws to have the right to die with dignity. Those states based their decision on the fact that it minimizes the pressure to cut health costs. It has been stated assisted suicide is the cheapest thing that a person with an illness can do. These states claim that this law will help to prevent abuse. The bill allows physicians to prescribe medication to terminally ill patients who want to speed up the process to dying.

A patient must meet the requirements in order to qualify for physician assisted suicide. The patient must be “diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months” (Fass, and Fass 846). Being a legal resident of a state that has legalized the procedure and being eighteen years old are also requirements. Another qualification is being able to make and communicate health care decisions. Along with those requirements, there are certain guidelines that must be followed during the process of physician assisted suicide. First, the patient must make two oral requests for physician assisted suicide at least fifteen days apart. A written request that has to be signed in front of two witnesses must also be provided to the physician. The patient then has to be referred to a consulting physician, so that he can confirm the diagnosis and prognosis and approve that the patient is capable of making decisions related to health care. “The prescribing physician must notify the patient of alternatives to suicide, including comfort care, hospice care, and pain management” (Fass, and Fass 846). It is expected of the physician to encourage the patient to tell their family. The physician has to follow rules to dispense the medication after these steps. One rule is to be registered as a dispensing practitioner and maintaining a current Drug Enforcement Administration certificate in order

4. The physician must fully understand the patient’s struggles and should have established “a meaningful relationship” with the patient (Dixon). Also, alternative treatments should be provided by the doctor anytime during assisted suicide if the patient changes his/her mind.

There are currently three states that have adopted legislation supporting “Death with Dignity”, also known as physician-assisted suicide. Oregon, Washington, and Vermont have each enacted laws that enable a terminally ill, mentally competent, adult to decide and dictate end of life decisions up to and including the time of their death. Oregon was the first United States (U.S.) to enact legislation and other states in the union have followed suit.

“Dr. Death and his suicide machine”. Jack Kevorkian, also known as Dr. Death, was an American pathologist who was also a painter, a composer, an author, and an instrumentalist. He is best known for publicly championing the belief that it is morally correct to put terminally ill patients out of their misery through a practice called euthanasia. Dr. Kevorkian assisted around 130 patients to suicide and went to jail because of what he believed in. In 1999 Dr. Kevorkian was charged with second-degree murder, he was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison but he only did a time of 8 years. Even after he went to jail for this practice he continued to believe in it. Euthanasia isn’t acceptable unless it’s in extreme circumstances. Usually a doctor has to do

Having the option to die with dignity requires many laws that need to be followed in order to go through with it. It is illegal for a physician to assist a patient with suicide without meeting all required criteria; if done, it could result in severe consequences. According to the Death with Dignity National Center, the patient must me 18 years or older, currently a resident or in the process of becoming one, capable of making and communicating health care decisions for themselves, and diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months (2015). If those criteria are met, the process cannot start right away and there is more that needs to be done. The patient needs to verbally request to the physician two times with a 15-day waiting period in between. A written request to the physician is then required and needs to be witnessed by two individuals who are not family members or primary caregivers, usually two other physicians. The patient is able to abrogate their requests at any time and must be able to self-administer their own medication (Death and Dignity National Center, 2015). These laws ensure that there is no chance that the patient is forced to hasten their death. If at any time in the process that the

It was in 1990’s when the topic of assisted suicide reached an all-time high. It was the work of Doctor Jack Kevorkian that began in 1960 that sparked the topic of “right to die” legislative action. Doctor Kevorkian was a Michigan doctor responsible for the deaths some 44 suicides for terminally ill patients. Doctor Kevorkian along with many accredited doctors such as Marcia Angell, agree on one main point; terminally-ill patients should have the right to determine how they should end their life. Marcia Angell, states in her article The Supreme Court and Physician-Assisted Suicide-The Ultimate Right that “Although others may consider

Laws vary differently across the U.S. and one in particular is only available in Washington state, Physician-Assisted Suicide Law. The law allows people that have been diagnosed as terminally ill to have the option of medical assisted suicide. It allows the patient to go through a process of requests to be prescribed a lethal dose of medication to die peacefully and without pain. The law protects doctors from being criminally prosecuted by the family for abiding the ill family member with the requested drug. The law can be used across the whole country because I do believe that death shouldn’t have to be painful, as long as the estate is ready and the person is of sound mind, it can be an option should be available to those individuals. The

There are very strict guidelines to the Death with Dignity Act that must be followed before the request for physician-assisted deaths is granted. The patient must be at least 18 years old, reside in a state the it is legalized in, and be mentally competent. The individual’s diagnosis must be terminal with a prognosis of 6 months or less. Two oral and at least one written request for a prescription are required; the oral request must be separated by a minimum of 15 days and the written request must be signed by the patient in the present of two witnesses. Having these strict guidelines in place assures only the terminally ill patients are granted permission. (Pulliam, 2009)

The choice for the patient to choose should be left up to their decision, and some states have embraced this practice. Oregon instituted the Death with Dignity Act in 1994 which gave adult patients with a terminally ill diagnosis a choice to obtain a prescription to end their life (Death with Dignity, 2017). Since the onset of this ground breaking law, the concept of physician assisted suicide has soften and the general consensus has slowly began to shift.

During the first year the death with dignity act went into effect in Oregon, just fifteen people ended their life through the process of euthanasia. In 1997, a group of people rallied to undermine the death with dignity act with a statute called measure fifty-one but the citizens of Oregon rejected the measure proving that the men and women of Oregon demand this right and want the death with dignity act to stay in place ("Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Timeline"). Sixty-one physicians wrote prescriptions for lethal doses of medication in Oregon in the year 2012 for the purpose of euthanasia, displaying the willingness of experienced medical professionals to assist patients in dying with dignity ("Prescription for Suicide" 1). Washington became the second state to legalize assisted suicide in November of 2008, and Montana followed suit on January second, 2010. Finally, Vermont legalized assisted suicide in May of 2013, becoming the fourth and final state to emulate support for death with dignity. The precise reason that more states do not make dying with dignity a legal option is complicated, but one factor that does contribute to the rejection of assisted suicide legislation is the concerns about the safety and ethicality of euthanasia ("Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Timeline"). The reality of these concerns is that the regulations regarding assisted suicide are proving to work impeccably as noted by the Canada Compassion and Choices

Instead of calling physician-assisted suicide what it actually is, its supporters would rather call it “Death with Dignity.” Such an act can be found in five states including Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, and Montana. The difference between Montana and the other four states is that it is only legally allowed on a case-by-case basis (Death with Dignity). The first time the Death with Dignity Act took effect was in

The Death with Dignity Act of Oregon, Washington, and Montana has harsh patient eligibility criteria that limit access to competent, legal residents of over age 18, with terminal illness that were given an estimated life expectancy of 6 months or less which is to be confirmed by two independent physicians. There is also a requirement for two oral requests with a 15-day waiting period in between, as well as a written request that must be witnessed. The prescriptions may be written by the physician not less than 48 hours after the receipt of the written request. Patients must be mentally and physically be able to

Is the role of a medical professional to ensure the health and comfort of their patients, or to help them end their lives? Since Dr. Kevorkian assisted in the suicide of Janet Adkins in 1990, physician-assisted suicide (PAS) has been one of the most controversial issues in the medical field today. While some view it as an individual right, others view it as an unethical issue that goes against medical ethics and religious values. Mr. H. M. is an elderly man who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and no chance of improvement. After excruciating pain and suffering, he has decided to request physician-assisted death in his home state of Oregon. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act (DDA) states that terminally ill patients are allowed to use