Death With Dignity Act Persuasive Speech Outline

I do support Death with Dignity Act, similar to the one in Oregon, to be implemented in other states. Death with Dignity allows a terminally ill patient, who has zero possibility of recovering with any kind medical treatment, to rest in peace at will. These are voluntary unlike Euthanasia. An eligible person, which would be a terminally ill patient in this case, can request the prescription and can choose if and when to take it. The case of Brittany Maynard clearly shows that patients who are sick and whose sufferings cannot be relieved , should have a choice to put an end to the pain and have a peaceful death with near and dear ones by their side. Dying with excruciating pain and suffering, within four walls of hospital with restlessness and

Throughout our lives, we face many situations that pose different ethical issues. Whether these situations are personal, or world wide, they are always here. A certain issue that has caught the public’s attention is The Death with Dignity Act. Death with Dignity involved a woman, named Brittany Maynard. Regarding all ethical issues, people may support things, while some people may not. Brittany’s decision was ethical and changed her life forever. From this, I determined that this decision was through rights - based ethics.

In “ How Doctor Die,” Ken Murry explains the choice of doctors when they have a terminal illness. From the beginning, Ken gives an example of an orthopedist who was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He quit his job and spent the rest of his day with his family. A doctor is a person who treats disease and saves patients; however, when they have an illness, they are also like other patients. They meet difficult situations with their patients but also feel for them. They tend to be fair because they know about medicine and its limits. They do not want to die. Surely, each doctor has the preparation for death, and they want to find a way to die in peace. On the other hand, some patients try to find a method to overcome their illness although they have to bear pain. What I take from Murray’s essay is that patients have a right to chose how they die . Every one dies, eventually, but I agree with Murray that the choice needs to be an informed decision.

A. The problem here is that people are already burdened with an illness and on top of that, it is a long and painful process that they must endure.

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Within the past few years physician assisted suicide has been a major topic of debate. Assisted suicide is termed as suicide committed with aid from another individual, including a doctor. With the suicide term raising much concern, many people interchangeably use other terms. A few terms are death with dignity, physician assisted death or compassionate dying. Physician assisted death is implemented for those that are terminally ill and mentally capable adults that would prefer to shorten their dying process. The option of being able to get medical aid in dying only apply to certain states, and must pass through an election for that specific state. The first state to vote on the subject was Oregon and eventually passed in 1994 as the Death with Dignity Act (Jackson, 2008). There are now six states in the United States that has passed this act. The states that are allowing physician assisted death are District of Columbia, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California and recently Colorado.

In PAS, the patient must self-administer the medications; the “assisted” portion attributes to a physician providing the medications, but the patient decides whether and when to ingest the lethal medication. Euthanasia occurs when a third party administers medication or acts directly to end the patient’s life. Euthanasia is illegal in every state, including Washington. (CNN).

Legalized physician assisted suicide. California, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have made it legal by legislation, and Maine has made it legal by a court ruling. The remaining 45 states

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.

It has been argued that for people on life support systems and people with long standing diseases causing much pain and distress, euthanasia is a better choice. It helps in relieving them from pain and misery. In cases like terminal cancers when the patient is in much pain and when people associated with them also are put through a lot of pain and misery, it is much more practical and humane to grant the person his/her wish to end his/her own life in a relatively painless and merciful way.

According to research, 66% of adults here in the United States believe that a doctor should allow a patient to die under certain circumstances. Physician assisted death is currently legal in Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Other states such as Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are considering legislation to allow physician assisted deaths for people with terminal illnesses. (Gordon, Serena). Physician assisted death needs to be legal because of how much it has evolved over time; it has many advantages, and the obligations that doctors are responsible

These states include Vermont, Washington, New Mexico, Montana, and Oregon. Euthanasia is similar to the practice of physician assisted suicide, except instead of the physician ending the patients life, as preformed in euthanasia, the patient does it on his or her own. At the patients request, a certified physician may help a patient end their life pain free and peacefully. This process however can only be requested by a patient if they are in extreme pain and suffering, and especially if they have a terminal illness. While gathering and reviewing research I discovered an interesting statistic. According to the website Edlink an informational site about issues related to PAS which is hosted by Northwestern University, “57% of physicians practicing today have received a request for physician assisted suicide in some form or another” (Physician-Assisted Suicide - Introduction). Thats over half of all physicians. I as a liberal, believe everyone should have the right to physician assisted suicide.

In America, terminally-ill patients in most states have only two options: receive treatments (some experimental) or wait for a natural death. California recently passed the End of Life Option Act, thereby joining Oregon, Washington, and Vermont when it comes to legalizing physician assisted suicide (PAS) via legislation. When comparing the legislations between those four states, they are all very similar to one another. The fundamental requirements consist of the dying patient being at least eighteen years old, a resident of their respective state, capable of self-administering the drugs (so no euthanasia), possess a sound mind to make and communicate health care decisions (not coerced), and be diagnosed with a terminal disease with less than six months to live . Netherlands on the other hand, has a very different take when it comes to tackling the issue of aid-in-dying. Possessing the longest legal model when it comes to the issue of aid-in-dying, this paper will examine Netherland’s approach and compare it to America’s equivalent counterpart (represented by the four states).

Should medicine intervene in the delay of a person dying when they have a terminal disease, or have experience major traumatic injury to their body? How physicians participate at times in prolonging the natural course of dying while trying to fix what cannot be fixed. “The simple view is that medicine exists to fight death and disease, and that is, of course, its most basic task. Death is the enemy.”(Gawande, 2014) The truth is death is not the enemy, it is the fear of death that perpetuates the many of the treatments that done. The author did not ignore the fact that some physicians do not really engage with their patients. If a physician truly engaged with the patient, as Dr. Benzel did with the author’s father, they would recognize fear, in the patient and it may avert some treatments; and provide palliative care instead.

Transition: Let me show states where euthanasia is legal. According to Talha Khan Burki article, “Attitudes and practices towards legal euthanasia” in August 2016, shows states where euthanasia is legal: Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Netherlands, India, Japan. Five US states also legalized euthanasia: California,