Persuasive Essay On Assisted Suicide

We are culturally ingrained from an early age that life is precious and each day is a gift. Life should not be squandered but preserved.  We are encouraged to live with a purpose, cherish our loved ones and live life to its fullest. But what if life becomes too physically painful to endure, often experienced by many terminally ill patients suffering an incurable disease, or a chronically ill elderly person who lacks the ability to thrive?  For forty-five day’s I watched my chronically ill mother languish away in a hospice care facility. The experience was emotionally and financially draining, and I began questioning whether a person should have the right to choose when and how to end their life. In the United States, assisted dying is a widely debated and passionate issue. Opponents argue preserving life, regardless of how much a person is suffering, is an ethical and moral responsibility, determined only by a higher power.  At the other end of the spectrum are those who support a person’s right to end their life with dignity at a time of their choosing.   Wouldn’t my mother’s suffering been greatly reduced if her doctor was legally and ethically permitted to administer a lethal cocktail of drugs to end her life quickly and painlessly? Wouldn’t the prevailing memory of my mother see her in a better light instead of helplessly watching her undignified death? To deny terminal and chronically ill people the freedom to end their

The word suicide gives many people negative feelings and is a socially taboo subject. However, suicide might be beneficial to terminally ill patients. Physician- assisted suicide has been one of the most controversial modern topics. Many wonder if it is morally correct to put a terminally ill patient out of their misery. Physicians should be able to meet the requests of their terminally ill patients. Unfortunately, a physician can be doing more harm by keeping someone alive instead of letting them die peacefully. For example, an assisted suicide can bring comfort to patients. These patients are in excruciating pain and will eventually perish. The government should not be involved in such a personal decision. A physician- assisted suicide comes with many benefits for the patient. If a person is terminally ill and wants a physician assisted suicide, then they should receive one.

Currently, six states have enacted the death-with-dignity law allowing a terminally ill patient the right to choose how their life ends after obtaining permission from those in authority. In 44 states, state law prohibits assisted suicide and an active participant considered as committing a criminal offence. The U.S. Supreme Court protects a patient’s liberty to refuse medical treatment, but continues to side with the government’s interest in preserving life outweighing a person’s right to assisted-suicide. According to the U.S. Code, “Assisted suicide, euthanasia, and mercy killing have been criminal offenses throughout the United States and, under current law, it would be unlawful to provide services in support of such illegal activities.” (U.S. Code)

Advances in medical technology and processes are a double edged sword in regards to patient Quality of Life. Chronic-disease management has changed such that previously, people who would have died are now being kept alive due to the technological and medical advances dramatically increasing life expectancies over the centuries. With the advent of chemotherapy, surgeries and medications, life expectancy can sometimes be prolonged at the expense of Quality of Life.

Physician assisted suicide is an act of compassion that respects patient’s choice and fulfills an obligation of non-abandonment (Sulmasy & Mueller, 2017). Death is the inevitable end of life of a person or organism. As humans, we live the best way we can and with medicine and technology, humans can live a quality and healthy life-style. However, there is no human who is supernaturally immune from diseases and accidents.

In 1776, our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence, guaranteeing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This brings up the question, if you have the right to life, do you have the right to death? After all, it is your life and no one else’s, right? This is the question at the very center of the controversial debate on the legalization of physician assisted suicide in the United States. Anti-physician assisted suicide groups often argue that no individual truly wants to end their life. However, that statement does not ring true to those who would actually utilize physician assisted suicide- terminally ill patients. Imagine being diagnosed with a terminal disease, followed by months and sometimes years of treatment that brings insufferable side effects due to countless medicines, drugs and surgeries only to be told that you have a minimal chance of survival and will have to undergo treatment for the rest of your life. This is the bleak reality for many who are terminally ill. A compassionate individual would conclude that it is not fair for patients to be forced to live this kind of life or lack thereof, if they do not wish to do so. Physician assisted suicide should be a legal option to competent, terminally ill patients in the United States in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital costs on their loved ones and families and to preserve the individual right of people to determine their

Physician-assisted suicide is a very controversial topic in the medical field. It is a topic that has been debated over for years. Webster’s dictionary defines this terms as, “suicide by a patient facilitated by means (as a drug prescription) or by information (as an indication of a lethal dosage) provided by a physician aware of the patient’s intent” (Merriam-Webster). In other words, it is a way that when a patient is ill, they can commit suicide with the help of a physician. This practice is legal in some states in the United States and in many countries around the world. This topic is so controversial because people disagree on whether it is ethical to help someone end another person’s life. There are many people that advocate this and there are also many people that disagree with helping someone commit suicide.

Places all around the world have legalized assisted suicide and it has proven successful in every place. Canada, Japan, Germany, Switzerland the USA, including California, Washington, Oregon, Vermont, and Montana, all these places have experienced and legalized assisted suicide, and every place has had an overwhelming increase in the happiness and welfare of its overall population. Canadian justices, while explaining their change in heart over assisted suicide said, “What has changed...is that other countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Colombia and Switzerland, plus four American states, have shown that assisted dying can be well regulated” (Last Rights, 2016, para. 4). This in itself expresses that because of the success other countries have already received, the implementation

Physician assisted suicide is a crime almost everywhere, by one statute or another. In countries where assisted suicide is legal, there are guidelines, such as mandatory written request, administration by physicians only, and mandatory reporting of suicide, to prevent any abuse, however, they are often not enforced, or violated. Currently Washington, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, and Montana are the only states in the U.S that have legalized assisted suicide. Those who oppose assisted suicide argue that the legalization of it may have unintended consequences, that are not confined to only those states citizens. A person who is terminally ill, disabled, or elderly, may look to assisted suicide as an only resort, rather than a last resort, which it was initially intended to be. Assisted suicide should be abolished throughout the United States.

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.

If someone wants to end their life peacefully instead of dying painfully at the hands of a deadly disease they should be allowed to do that. Every year thousands of people suffer and die at the crippling hands of extremely painful, deadly diseases. Terminally ill patients should have the right to die with the assistance of a doctor.

The definition of euthanasia from the Oxford Dictionary is: “The painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or is in an incurable coma.” Consider the words “suffering,” “painful,” “irreversible” and “incurable.” These words describe a patients terrible conditions and prospects. Euthanasia is known as “mercy killing” for a reason, it is the most, humane, moral and logical form of treatment available to patients that have no hope in fully recovering. If you had to choose between lying in bed dying a slow and painful death, or dying a quick painless death at the time you choose so that you can be surrounded by all your loved ones, which would you choose? With euthanasia,

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.

Anybody living their last few months or weeks in constant pain should have the right to take part in a physician assisted suicide. While the world has many thoughts and differences about it what should happen is it being a legal choice of anyone who chooses to do so, having an extensive questioning process that leads to the assisted suicide, and some sort of a background check to figure out what may be causing them to do so.

It’s the twelfth time in two weeks you’re walking through sets of automatic doors to visit a loved one in Hospice care. The sounds of beeping machines that are keeping patients alive overtakes the silent, dim hallways. You feel nothing but your heart ache waiting for a magical remedy to keep your close one alive. You’re visiting your uncle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, whose lifeless and can barely get out of bed because he’s tangled in cords attached to the machines. Its starting to hit you when all you see is a colorless figure that screams “kill me” every day. So why is this acceptable to modern day society? Assisted Suicide should be considered when dealing with the patient’s morals, cultural aspects, and the economy.