Exemplification Essay: Doctor Assisted Suicide Epidemic

“Let me die”, are the words Jennifer Cowart, age thirty-two, mother of two young children, mumbled to rescue personnel as she lay on the asphalt alert, but in unimaginable pain. Her body covered in 3rd to 4th degree burns that she sustained from a go-kart accident. The go-kart she was driving hit a guardrail causing it to catch fire and burst into flames. She was buckled in and trapped until the fire burned through her seat-belt allowing her to fall to the ground. There was no medical way to assist with her pain without complete sedation, however, permanent sedation would ultimately cause death. With her children in mind, permanent

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has published a fact sheet of statistics on suicide in the United States. In 2007, it is reported that suicide was the tenth leading cause of death. Furthermore, for every suicide committed, eleven were attempted. A total of 34,598 deaths occurred from suicide with an overall rate of 11.3 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. (NIMH, 2010). Risk factors were also noted on this report and listed “depression and other mental disorders, or a substance abuse disorder (often in combination with other mental disorders). More than ninety percent of people who die by suicide have these risk factors (NIMH, 2010).”

Often, the main cause of suicide is that people believe they have nothing to live for. In a society where people don’t have a desire to live, life is not valued. People are not scared of death and don’t understand the importance of

Overall the suicide rate is extremely high. It is not the most sought after death, but it is the most efficient. I have known many people over my short 16 years of life who have wanted to kill themselves. I’ve been in the position to end my life many times, had best friends die, and watched them die. It is a horrible tragedy; suicide is a sorrowful disaster that needs to be addressed.

Suicide is one person’s personal decision; physician-assisted suicide is a patient who is not capable of carrying the task out themselves asking a physician for access to lethal medication. What people may fail to see however is that the physician is not the only healthcare personnel involved; it may include, but is not limited to, a physician, nurse, and pharmacist. This may conflict with the healthcare worker’s own morals and there are cases in which the patient suffers from depression, or the patient is not receiving proper palliative care. Allowing physician-assisted suicide causes the physician to become entangled in an ethical and moral discrepancy and has too many other issues surrounding it for it to be legal.

In a Netherlands report it tells, “Many physicians who had practiced euthanasia [form of assisted suicide] mentioned that they would be most reluctant to do so again” (Stevens 189). Everyday these physicians are faced with decisions of how to best save their patient. Now they also, have to determine if they can come to terms with ending their lives. The impact on these physicians is tremendous. Kenneth R. Stevens the Vice President of Physicians for Compassionate Care concludes, “Doctors who have participated in euthanasia and/or PAS [Physician-Assisted Suicide] are adversely affected emotionally and psychologically by their experiences” (187). Physicians, who have made the decision to help, face the consequences of their actions. They have helped someone take a life, even if it their own. Death always leaves an impression. Imagine what it must be like to be directly involved with a death. Those men and women in time will have to come to terms with their participation in Physician-Assisted Suicide.

Have you ever thought about how you are going to die? It might be from a heart attack fast and relatively painless or maybe it’ll be suffering slowly from cancer in a hospital bed. Physician-assisted suicide should be legal across America because it is a basic right of all American’s.

Physician assisted suicide/dying (PAD) is it good or bad? PAD is referred to when physician provides patients who are terminally ill with prescriptions of a lethal dose of medication, upon the patient’s request, which the patient intends to use to end their own life (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2011); another option that is close to physician assisted suicide is Euthanasia. Euthanasia is the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2011).

1. A request for assisted Suicide is typically a cry for help. It is in reality a call for counseling, assistance, and positive alternatives as solutions for very real problems.

People deserve to decide how they die if they are to face the miserable fact that they will meet a premature and terrible demise. PAS affords patients with terminal illnesses the option to choose a peaceful, stress-free death with the aid of a medical professional (Acker, 2015).

“Suicide affects us all. Every year, millions of Americans are directly affected by more than 37,000 suicides and hundreds of thousands of suicide attempts made by friends or loved ones. Yet, suicide is preventable” (Prevention Lifeline). “Suicide results in an estimated $34.6 billion in combined medical and work loss costs” (Suicide, 2012). In 2010, suicide was at the top of the list for the cause of death in the United States. In a 2010 survey, “12.8% of students reported that they made a plan about how they would attempt suicide during the 12 months preceding the survey; 7.8% of students reported that they had attempted suicide one or more times during the 12 months preceding the survey; and 2.4% of students reported that they had made a suicide attempt that resulted in an injury, poisoning, or an overdose that required medical attention. As for gender disparities, suicide among males is four times higher than among females and represents 79% of all U.S. suicides. Females are more likely than males to have had suicidal thoughts. Firearms are the most commonly used method of

2. State Info: (characteristics, size, culture, political culture, industries, features, etc. to explain state support of policy)

According to AFSP.org; on average 44,193 Americans die from suicide each year and for every suicide there are 25 attempts and is also the 10th leading cause of death each year in the United States; with firearm more likely to be the cause of death in a suicide than any other form of suicide. These are the rates of every person who has

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States and approximately forty thousand Americans commit suicide annually (CDC, 2013). Globally, there are 14.5 suicides per 100,000 people (Hawton & van Heeringen, 2009). Suicide is the act of purposefully causing one’s own demise and is complex; it could be due to a wide variety of risk factors and social determinants. Many people that have committed suicide have a mental disorder that could have been treated, thus suicide could have been prevented. Suicidal ideation, which is thoughts of hurting or killing oneself, can also lead to suicide if help is not sought (Bridge, Goldstein & Brent, 2006). As many resources as there are available to prevent suicide, people are

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, is what many say. How ever there is no single explanation for taking one's own life as the conflicts are what branches out to many possibilities. This topic is a taboo among today's society, it's seen as something shamed to talk about however from ignoring this topic it lets the opportunity of knowledge for young people to understand that there is a way to get help and that they're not alone.