Euthanasia Essay : Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide

Secondly, the patient should be capable of making and communicating health care decisions for him or herself. Thirdly, the patient must be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months.  Interested patients must also provide the request for termination in writing to the physician. In addition, physicians are expected to inform patients to alternative means of care including hospice care and other medications. Only after precautions evaluation, the laws then permit patients to make the ultimate life ending decision.

Have you ever been forced to watch someone that you love dearly fall victim to a terminal illness that diminishes their quality of life a bit more with each day that passes? The illness not only wreaks havoc on the person who is suffering from it, but it also destroys the life of the caregiver. As cruel as it may sound, sometimes the best option is the termination of the poor life that is withering away.

When it comes to death the typical person is not that knowledgeable about or understanding of death. People are very scared when the topic of death arises. We all want to live forever with no fear of having to explore the aspect of us dying and having to plan a funeral or their own funeral. Death is never an openly discussed topic. With death and dealing with it we are lucky to have the book Final Gifts by Callanan and Kelley. They have provided a ton of information to help us to grow strong and at ease with the area of death. I will tell my feelings on the book and how it has impacted me.

The treatments, the side effects are to the point that are not worth fighting for any longer and are just exhausted. They would much rather be healthy again. The patient should be able to proceed with physician-assisted suicide.

Imagine an individual that only has a few more months to live, and wants to regain control of their life. They can no longer go to the bathroom alone, and are constantly being monitored. They no longer wish to live, and they want to die in a dignified way. This person, in the status quo, has the options I

Dr. Ira Byock’s latest book, The Best Care Possible: A Physician’s Quest to transform Care Through the End of Life, is a remarkable book written from a personal perspective as one of the foremost palliative-care physicians in the country. Dr. Byock shares stories of his experience with patients in his clinical experience to illustrate how end-of-life care affects each person. He explains what palliative care really is and how to make humane choices in a world obsessed with conquering death. Byock presents an agenda for end-of-life care that stresses compassion, dignity, and each patient being viewed as a unique case with the opportunity to partake in shared decisions amongst a team of professionals and family members. Dr. Byock is an advocate of dying well in a society marked by a fear of death; his highly personal account provides thought-provoking vignettes of how people struggle to make the right decisions in the winter of their lives. Byock urges society to embrace the reality of death and transform the medical community into an environment that will allow patients to live the last of their days in comfort with dignity and peace. This book is a vitally important piece of literature for everyone to devour with fervor. Everyone needs to understand the inevitability of death and the environment end-of-life care can present in what will be the final moments of life.

Individuals with a terminal illness will typically go through the seven emotional stages of while coming to terms with their condition; shock, denial, bargaining, guilt, anger, depression, and acceptance. Acceptance varies by the individual and has many different meanings. Some individuals try to make the time they have left last as long as possible while others focus on completing goals previously set in their life time. Some will seek forgiveness whether it be from their god(s) or from family and friends. But for a select few, acceptance means that they will try to take control of when they will pass away. To take control of something so trivial, they may look to family, friends, or even their physician. The act of voluntary termination of one’s life with the assistance of a medical care personal is referred to as physician assisted suicide, physician assisted death, or euthanasia. Physician assisted suicide allows patients to take control of what happens before and after death. It allows the patient to enjoy the dwindling life they have left and can be regulated by the government.

"Life is but a dream for the dead", - Gerard Way. There is a set routine that all living things that exist on earth and everywhere else in the known universe must abide by. That in life we are born, we will live, and eventually we will die. Life itself is a miracle in its own sense. None the less, all good things must eventually come to an end. More so, to live means it is inevitable to die. That is the cost of living. However, death is not a stranger to the human race and although many have attempted, none have escaped its grasp. Death is not always quick and painless, nor is it ever suddenly expected. But for the few people who receive a terminal diagnoses, it unfortunately is. Death can then actually become a desired means to a peaceful

Death is a sad process that each one of us goes through at some point. Sometimes death can be sudden; but, for those who know about how long they have left, death can bring add a lot of stress to an already stressful situation.

As patients come closer to the end of their lives, certain organs stop performing as well as they use to. People are unable to do simple tasks like putting on clothes, going to the restroom without assistance, eat on our own, and sometimes even breathe without the help of a machine. Needing to depend on someone for everything suddenly brings feelings of helplessness much like an infant feels. It is easy to see why some patients with terminal illnesses would seek any type of relief from this hardship, even if that relief is suicide. Euthanasia or assisted suicide is where a physician would give a patient an aid in dying. “Assisted suicide is a controversial medical and ethical issue based on the question of whether, in certain situations,

Our society finds it difficult to talk about dying and euphemisms are the norm. It is typical for both doctors and patients to be hesitant to initiate a discussion on dying. Focus instead is often more often placed on interventions and actions for managing symptoms. This avoidance can leave patients and their families unprepared for the inevitable death. (Schapira, 2010) It also often results in requests for therapies which may be excessive, costly and even painful in the hopes for a cure. One study demonstrates that when patients are aware that they are terminally ill, the majority are able to reach a state of peacefulness and also exhibit lower levels of distress. (Ray, Block, Friedlander, Zhang, Maciejewski & Prigerson, 2006) It is also important that family members are willing to discuss end-of-life options with their loved ones. According to elderly patients, they are most often the ones who initiate these conversations with their

When we think of death, we think and describe it in many different ways. It is perceived in many different ways when we read about it as well. Everyone who has experienced it though can say that it is not a delightful thing to experience. Whether it is a family member, a friend, a co-worker or even a pet, there is something to be said about how death can be described.

For the extreme majority of these terminally ill patients, the resolution to their suffering remains to be quality palliative care, in which I actively support. There is a slight but substantial marginal of these terminally ill patients that for whom the quality of palliative care is not their answer, and those that suffer offensively until they eventually die. But some of these individuals would like to end their suffering by taking their lives, and they would like to have the assistance to do so, in a way that this would permit them to convey their own lives and end it with dignity at the time and place they would choose, in which this would customarily be at home encircled by family and loved ones.

Death is never convenient. No matter if your loved one was dying for quite some time before they passed away or if it happened unexpectedly - the acceptance of death is certainly a hard pill to swallow.

End of life can be completely difficult to cope with, but is a part of everyday life. End of