Introduction The topic of legalizing Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) has long been a controversial issue in Canada and has recently received increased attention. In 1993, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the provisions of the Criminal Code prohibiting assisted suicide. Two decades later, the Supreme Court of Canada began to deliberate whether to uphold or strike down the law prohibiting doctor-assisted suicide. On October 15th (What is the year), the nine justices of the Supreme Court heard impassioned…

lives. Legalizing physician-assisted suicide can give the dying individual comfort in knowing that they have options. Physicians presently are allowed to relieve the dying of their pain and suffering by administering lethal doses of pain medications. Terminally ill patients should be able to access lethal doses of medicine voluntarily through their physician to allow them the choice of death. Strong morals and ethics surrounding this issue have split society on whether or not physician-assisted suicide…

Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide Across the United States Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) has grown into quite a contentious topic over the years. According to Breitbart and Rosenfeld (1), physician-assisted suicide can be defined as “a physician providing medications or advice to enable the patient to end his or her own life.” One may find many articles that are written by physicians, pharmacists, patients, and family of patients who receive PAS; from there, it is possible to gain a better…

allows terminally ill patients to end their lives with the assistance of a physician. According to the legislature, patients who seek assisted-death must only have six months to live and are required to submit a written request as well as two oral requests at least 15 days apart. (Reilly). While Gov. Jerry Brown still has yet to approve this new law, the act has shed light on the topic of euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide. With the pending status of the law, the question remains on whether or not…

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines “physician assisted suicide as a suicide by a patient facilitated by means or information (as a drug prescription or indication of the lethal dosage) provided by a physician who is aware of how the patient intends to use such means or information.” The physician provides necessary information about drugs and patient performs the act of suicide. Letting someone die requires justification and involves personal as well as social concerns. The federal government…

Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide in Australia First, it is essential to define euthanasia in order to resolve any misconceptions. Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma (Oxford dictionaries, 2014). It can be either passive or active however this essay will focus specifically on active euthanasia. Euthanasia is currently illegal in Australia, although it was briefly legal in the northern territory. This essay…

For hundreds of years we have developed a system where human beings establish and revise rules and regulations that help protect individual lives in our society. However this protection ends when it is time to die. Legalizing physician assisted suicide is “It’s my life!” an expression that is commonly used at one point in most everyone’s life. Is it my life? Do I get to make all the choices that involve my life? More importantly, who is in charge of my body? Ultimately human beings believe…

Physician-assisted suicide should be a legal option, if requested, for terminally ill patients. For decades the question has been asked and a clear answer has yet to surface. It was formed out of a profound commitment to the idea that personal end-of-life decisions should be made solely between a patient and a physician. Can someone's life be put into an answer? Shouldn't someone's decision in life be just that; their decision? When someone has suffered from a car accident, or battled long enough…

Fatal Differences The civil argument in the U.S. over whether or not to authorize physician-assisted suicide and active euthanasia has reached new levels of vehemence. Oregon, California, Vermont, and Washington (and Montana, via court ruling) have become the first states to legalize physician-assisted suicide. There has, too, been campaigning, ballot measures, bills, and litigation in other states in attempts to legalize one or both practices. Supporters increasingly urge either absolute legalization…

subject most people wouldn’t touch at all. Any argument on this subject usually evolves into a series of complex, abstract questions about freedom of choice, morality and so on. There are many reasons to considering legalization of euthanasia/assisted-suicide, reasons that involve hard statistics, evidence and lived experience. Many will argue against euthanasia saying that it is irreversible. Arguing that once a person is gone that we’ll never know if they might have gone on to lead long and happy…