Death is not a topic that many people are comfortable with, some people believe it is outrageous for others to play God and decide when to end their lives. While this is true for people with normal pains, there are those who feel they have the right to choose their own fate because they cannot bear their pain and suffering anymore. These are people that are terminally ill, people who were diagnosed with a deadly disease without a cure and feel that death is the only way to relieve that pain. These people has gone through many treatments that are slowly becoming less and less effective. Even though the treatment isn’t working, the patients still have to live through the pain from the treatments. Terminally ill
Life is a delicate subject to address, especially when it comes to the end thereof. Oftentimes, talking about death is a sensitive and therefore controversial subject. In America, citizens are allowed to hold and express their personal ideologies and beliefs, which has created a lot of discussion about whether or not it should be legal for doctors to help terminally ill patients peacefully end their lives. This is commonly referred to as Aid-In-Dying. The human experience is filled with many difficulties and sufferings. In the dreadful circumstance that someone is diagnosed as terminally ill, why would anyone want him or her to continue to suffer? When a human being is dying and experiencing excruciating pain, they absolutely should have
Thinking about death and dying is a very difficult subject to approach. There are movies, television shows, songs, books, and real life situations that basically force us to think about death and dying daily in one way or another. When we consider real life situations either involving our loved ones or ourselves, we must think about the ways in which we may be treated and how this treatment may affect our understanding of death and our role in the process. I am going to address this as well as how the ways in which people treat those who were dying many years ago compared to in our modern time is significantly different. There is also a phrase that is commonly being used in the United States known as the “medicalization of death”. I am going
Dr. Jack Kevorkian more commonly known as Dr. Death is greatly known for his opinion that euthanasia should be legalized and his work with patients seeking help. He was very important in showing euthanasia and voicing his opinion on the subject so the public could not ignore the importance of the matter. Dr. Kevorkian was said to have been involved with 130 suicides by patients who wanted to end their own lives (Nicol and Wylie 17). He had two machines he used to help the patients, one an injection and the other a mask, however both machines were operated by the patient and although Dr. Kevorkian was taken to court many times for these he was not convicted because the patient was in control. He was very careful as to not actually commit the act himself until he was contacted by Thomas Youk, a young with Lou Gheric’s disease; Lou Gheric’s disease is when the muscle stop working and eventually the patient chokes to death. Tom’s condition prevented him from actually operating the machines and therefore Dr. Kevorkian decided that he would operate the machine himself because he cared greatly about all his patients and could not let Tom live in his constant fear (Nicol and Wylie 11). Dr. Kevorkian taped Tom’s wishes and then himself hooking up the machine and pushing the button to inject the drugs. He then proceed to
When we get older and when we deal with someone else who is nearing death we misunderstand what happens and how to understand the death process, we do not know what to expect and how to handle the process.
Plus there are people that have a terminal illness that does not want to suffer eve though they know they will die a painful and agonizing death. Plus people will commit suicide anyway and they will suffer instead of having loved ones around and not dying in pain
A patients suffering cant be relieved all the time despite flawless palliative care, continuing to live causes misery that can only end with death.
When a patient is laying in a hospital bed in pain and the medication no longer helps, the doctors and nurses can no longer help except to try and make the patient as comfortable as possible; why not let them choose to end their life. When the patient is forced to endure agonizing pain even though they want to die, some decided to end their lives on their own ending in a more traumatic and messy outcome then a humane injection or pill that will take away their pain and let them slip away easily. In my opinion there is no reason to suffer endlessly waiting on their imminent death, why not let a physician who knows what he/she is doing help the patient to end their lives on their own terms.
Suffering at the end of life stems from multiple sources, including unyielding pain, depression, loss of personal identity, loss of control and dignity, fear of death, and/or fear of being a burden on others (AAHPM, 2007). The overwhelming symptoms lead many terminally ill patients to ask their doctors to help them die (Gorman, 2015). According to Dr. R. Sean Morrison, professor of geriatrics and palliative care medicine at Mt. Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine in New York, “their choice shouldn’t be an assisted death or living with intractable suffering” (as cited in Gorman, 2015). The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) (2007) strongly recommends that medical practitioners
Their cries of desperation are often undermined by the rallies of hope surrounding curable patients. These patients whose degenerating conditions cannot be fixed are forced to live each day in excruciating pain with no glimpse of hope in their future. As citizens of the United States, it is the duty of the people to respect the choices of the patients and relieve their distress. The citizens of the United States live on the basis of freedom, but how can there be freedom to live if there is no freedom to die? People should respect the wishes of those who are simply exercising their freedom to die, rather than arguing that society has an obligation to protect all life (Andre). But who is society to condemn some to life while condemning others to death? With the death penalty enact, the justice department kills guilty parties who have committed the worst crimes. But often, these guilty inmates are not willing to die. Yet there are immobile, unable, and deteriorating lives who are ready to give up their battle, yet they are clinging onto life through numerous machines in a hospice center. These patients, also known as “vegetables” by the healthy part of society, have committed no crime but are basically being punished by serving the rest of their lives in sheer agony. These “vegetables” don’t wish to end their lives because they of depression, but because they want to die in a dignified way. As Antonin Artaud put it, “If I commit suicide, it will
“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
Jack Kevorkian was a doctor who assisted terminally ill patients to commit suicide. He believed that they had the right to die in an appropriate way; to die with dignity. He therefore invented a machine (called thanatron—a Greek word for death machine) which could take away his patients’ lives painlessly and efficiently, all they had to do was to push a button and their lives would be ended by either deadly injection or carbon monoxide poisoning. There had been at least one hundred patients who tried and died in this method. Dr. Kevorkian was charged several times with murder in these deaths. Lucky for him, a judge dismissed one of his charges because there was no evidence of murder. Jury did not find him guilty either. Nevertheless, he
In 1990, physician-assisted suicide became well known around the United States when Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist, assisted a 54-year-old Alzheimer’s patient end her life. He would go on to willfully help dozens of terminally ill people end their lives. He spent eight years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in the death of 130 ailing patients whose lives he helped end (Kevorkian, 2011). Many consider him a hero, setting a platform for reform. In 1997 Oregon lawmakers approved a statue, Death with Dignity, making it legal for doctors to prescribe lethal doses of a medication to help terminally ill patients end
Dr. Jack Kervorkian was a well-known medical pathologist who willfully helped people who were ill, end their lives. Most of his cases took place in the 1990’s which started drama all across the nation concerning assisted suicide. He quickly rose to becoming an exemplar in regards to being a euthanasia proponent and an American pathologist. His main focus was to assist ill people end their lives peacefully and without any pain if they were willing to. This caused a lot of contrary across the nation for many years and is still questioned today.
Physician-assisted suicide is defined as the patient’s willingness to end his or her own life with the help of a clinician. The clinician may participate by relaying detailed information on the best way to commit the suicide or by prescribing pills that are of lethal doses. He or she may also be physically of help when the patient commits the act by assisting the patient in setting up medical procedures that cause euthanasia. This form of death became widely popular when the media caught wind of Dr. Kevorkian’s different methods of participation. He helped more than “130 terminally ill patients commit suicide between the years of 1990 and 1998” (McLellan, 2011). When his actions caught