Persuasive Essay On Assisted Dying

Doctors are whom people delegate their lives to when there is something wrong with their health. Death is perhaps the most personal, intimate event of any time. One may believe suffering towards the end of death should be avoided with Euthanasia. Various sources disapprove of the legalization of euthanasia. I believe that all people deserve the right to die in natural timing.

Who dictates how you live your life? How does one define life and when that life should end? If you become terminally ill, would you like the choice to choose how your life ends? In the United States, assisted suicide, is a highly-debated issue. On one side, there are many in support of allowing a person the right to end their life with dignity at the time of their choosing. While others believe, it is a moral right to sustain life and leave a person’s exit from this world to a higher power. The two opposing viewpoints have both compassionate reasons and disadvantages; nevertheless, a person’s human rights as an individual are the most important aspect to uphold.

The right to die has been a topic of many debates. People are either strongly opposed to the act, saying things like “In no situation is suicide the right thing to do,” while others argue the exact opposite. No compromises are made as an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, but this is life or death. The answer cannot be as simple as yes or no. We all go through difficulties in our lives, some even struggle with depression at times, but unlike those who are depressed or going through a rough patch, there are those who are doomed to deal with physical pain the rest of their lives. How could we deprive them the choice of a painless death, when letting them die slowly on a hospital bed is the only other option? Physician assisted suicide for those who are terminally ill should be legalized in America, because physician assisted suicide saves those who are hurting from living the rest of their lives in agony.

Humans are given the right to life which states that “nobody should be arbitrarily deprived of their life.” Imagine being given your lifespan at birth, and a person that does not personally know you or your family told you how to spend those years. This is essentially what the government is doing by withholding and criminalizing patients of the resources with which to end their lives. If people have the right to life, that right should also include the right to control their quality of life; the right to life should not entail the life that has been chosen for the individual, but rather the life that the individual choses. Over 91 percent of patients said that losing autonomy was the reason that they chose physician assisted suicide, and 71 percent said that they wanted to die with dignity. The desire to increase autonomy among terminally ill individuals is one that is shared by Dr. Timothy Quill M.D., a palliative care specialist from the University of Rochester Medical Center: “Patients with serious illness wish to have control over their own bodies, their own lives, and concern about future physical and psychosocial distress. Some view potential access to physician-assisted death as the best option to address these concerns.” If we aim to promote freedom and autonomy of oneself, why then, should we deny people the right to choose when, and on what terms, they die? Supreme Court Justice William Brennan states that: "An ignoble end steeped in decay is abhorrent. A quiet, proud death, bodily integrity intact, is a matter of extreme

In the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, it is stated that we all have the right to life, but does that also mean we also have the right to die? Under the Death with Dignity Act (assisted suicide), this is possible. assisted suicide is a process in which, if a terminally ill adult chooses, a doctor will legally prescribe a lethal dose of barbiturates to end its life. Unfortunately, because of morality issues, the terminally ill only have the right to assisted suicides in a few U.S. states. The U.S. government should allow terminally ill adults the right to choose assisted suicides in all 50 states because the right to choose should be our own.

“The value of the patient’s life does not depend on the patient’s subjective appreciation of it” (Social Conservatives). The debate over legalizing physician-assisted suicide in the United Sates has never been a simple one. Legalizing this practice diminishes compassionate treatment of pain because while palliative care is still available, assisted suicide encourages the elimination of patients themselves rather than of their suffering (Social Conservatives). Do not give one person the liberty to take the life of another (Procon.org). Although some advocates for assisted suicide argue that patients should be allowed a death with dignity, assisted suicide should not be legalized because all lives are valuable and legalizing this act will create

Imagine being diagnosed with an incurable disease and told that you have less than six months to live. For the past few decades the united states has been debating whether physician assisted death should be legalized or remain illegal. Assisted deaths are legal in the states of Oregon, washington, vermont, california, and montana but remains illegal in 37 states. Would you want to be given the option or take on a natural death? Ultimately, assisted suicide is gaining importance in our society today.

“Americans are not entirely averse to suicide in cases of terminal illness. Currently six in ten Americans believe that a person has a right to end his or her own life if that person has an incurable disease” (Benson 267). It is obvious that most Americans can agree that assisted suicide is the final decision of the terminally ill patient. When it comes down to it, many terminal patients cannot make this decision, because they may live within a state where assisted suicide is illegal. So far, only seven states have made assisted suicide legal and one state has legal physician suicide by court ruling, while the rest still considers assisted suicide illegal. Even though some people do not approve of assisted suicide because of moral or ethical

Every day on TV, in movies, and in music there is a phrase that has been asked a lot, “Who wants to live forever?” This is such a common question and many people say “no,” these people want to live out a shorter life than eternity. Some may ask “why?” Well here is the reason. When someone gets terminally ill and death is unavoidable, but allows a short duration life in suffering, they don’t want to sit there suffering they want to move onward to their eternity. When someone is no longer feeling fit to live we should allow them to leave this world.

In 1939 Adolf Hitler initiated a program called “Aktion 4”, the first step towards genocide. The purpose of this program was to eliminate “life unworthy of life”. At first, only sick and disabled children under the age of 3 were a subject to be euthanized. Eventually, it was used as a tool to get rid of “undesirables”: those who did not posses German citizenship or were not of a “master race”, including Jews, Negroes, and Gypsies. What started as a “mercy killing”, ended 3 years later with the extermination camps of the Holocaust. Almost six million innocent people resulted from what was considered a humane act. Only five decades later, new euthanasia movements emerged in Europe. In the Netherlands, euthanasia has been at the center of public debate since the early 1970s. Today, euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is legal in the Netherlands and several other countries, including Belgium and Switzerland. Does history not teach us at all? Some may say that comparing Hitler’s genocide practices to modern euthanasia is too radical. However, according to a study, 30% of all cases in the Netherlands are done without a patient’s consent. In 70% of which this decision is not discussed with a patient.

Brittany Marynard, at the age of twenty-nine, is diagnosed with brain cancer and is told she has six months to live. She considers receiving treatment, but learns the side effects would be extremely harsh. After considering passing away in hospice care she quickly changes her mind to seeking assistance in ending her life (Maynard). Brittany is just one out of many individuals seeking medical assistance to end their lives. Many people want assistance in ending their lives because they want to die with dignity. Assisted suicide should be legalized in all states because it shows no evidence of a slippery slope, frees an individual from suffering, and potentially saves on healthcare costs.

Moving away from the criminals, another form of killing would be euthanasia which happens a lot in hospitals and medical institutions. This is what people commonly call as mercy killing as they regard it as something merciful to extend to someone whose life depends only on the machines they are hooked on to. On my end, it will never be right to just abandon your loved ones and give up on them in their last few moments in life. Assisted suicide or mercy killing is still a form of killing no matter what reasons the person has.

Euthanasia: the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. Euthanasia allows patients who are slowly suffering and dying in the hospital to end their own lives. This is a common debate whether or not people believe that euthanasia should be a choice to these patients. Some people believe that it is their own life the patient should be able to choose whether or not they want to stick it through the pain or to choose to end their suffering, while others believe that euthanasia doesn’t end suffering it just passes it along to that patient's loved ones.

The debate over the use of euthanasia is ever growing. This is due to the fact of constant increases in medical advances. Medical advances are growing the number of medicines one can be given before palliative care is an option. The main concern of the debate is whether trying new treatments and medicines are necessary before palliative care is given. Two articles will be analyzed using the Aristotelian method. Both articles are valid, but the New York Times article written by Haider Javed Warraich offers a complete perspective using all three persuasive appeals compared to the article written by Terry Pratchett for The Guardian, which the majority is written on emotion.

Did you know that out of 196 countries in the world, only nine countries have legalized euthanasia? (http://www.storypick.com/euthanasia-facts/), that is only 4.6% Euthanasia is a term for peacefully ending somebody’s life with the deliberate intention of doing it. This topic has been debated over for many, many years, whether it should be legal or not. Numerous people believe you should have the choice to decide whether you would like to end your life or not, provided that there is an appropriate reason. (http://www.ves.org.nz/) Others think that it is unnatural, that it is not God’s intention and that your time will come to an end at the right point. There are multiple reasons why people choose euthanasia, the downhearted effects on their family and the several types of euthanasia. This essay will argue that euthanasia should be illegal and that you should not be able to choose your death date.