Physician Assisted Death Research Paper

Physician-assisted suicide should be legal nationwide. As a former hospital employee, I know first-hand that some diseases can cause so much disability and pain that patients want to end their lives because they have had enough. Something dear to me is personal autonomy, a right of all people. If the patient is competent and wants to end their life, and a health care provider is willing to humanely help end that patient's life, then physician-assisted suicide should be legal and be performed, per the individual's wishes.

Did you know, about 57% of physicians today have received a request for physician assisted suicide due to suffering from a terminally ill patient. Suffering has always been a part of human existence, and these requests have been occurring since medicine has been around. Moreover, there are two principles that all organized medicine agree upon. The first one is physicians have a responsibility to relieve pain and suffering of dying patients in their care. The second one is physicians must respect patients’ competent decisions to decline life-sustaining treatment. Basically, these principles state the patients over the age of 18 that are mentally stable have the right to choose to end their life if they are suffering from pain. As of right

A tough issue on the rise in the United States is whether or not Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) should be legal. Physician Assisted Suicide allows a physician to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to a patient to end their life. However, the patient has to take the drugs on their own. PAS would be only offered to those suffering from a terminal illness with less than six months to live. The way these patients go about treating and or living with a terminal illness is a very hard decision to make. This is the first time they have been given the choice of how they wish to die. PAS is an option that allows the sick to avoid the immense pain in their final months. The issue however, is whether this allows them to die with dignity or if it allows them to be taken advantage of.

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

It should be legal for patients suffering painful, incurable diseases to choose to have a physician assisted death. People die every day in the United States of long term illness, often while suffering massive amounts of pain and with extended hospital stays. According to the American Cancer Society in 2015 approximately sixteen hundred people died every day from cancer. Of those sixteen hundred people dying from cancer eighty percent died in the hospital, which can cost up to $10,000.00 to maintain a person in the Intensive Care Unit. Everyone may not opt to have a physician assisted death, but the choice should be there. Basic human rights are reason enough to legalize physician assisted death, however, by far not the only reason.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, “There are currently more than 1.3 million terminally ill patients in the United States waiting for the day that they will succumb to death.” Some are bed ridden, some are constantly consumed with systemic pain, some have no strength or desire to get out of bed and so they wait. They wait because they live in a state that says they do not have the right to die. Those who are healthy argue that it is immoral, ungodly and unethical for a medical doctor to practice physician assisted death. Government should not prohibit when and how terminally ill patients end their lives, they should regulate it.

Should physicians be allowed to help patients determine the timing and circumstances of their death? The “right to die” debate is a very sensitive and complex issue in modern culture. While suicide is a legal act in the United States, assisted suicide is not. Opinions on the subject are shaped by countless factors such as ethical issues, social issues, and primarily religious issues. Many people are opposed to the legalization of physician assisted suicide for “moral” reasons, however, legalization ultimately allows terminally ill people to die with dignity, sustains basic human rights, and supports freedom of religion.

There has long been a debate over the topic of physician assisted suicide as an option for end of life. Several countries and states have passed legislation over the last few years that allows physician assisted suicide to have a form of legality therefore giving these terminal patients more autonomy in deciding what end of life care options they can choose. While it is not up to us as healthcare providers to decide for patients what they should or should not do pertaining to end of life care, it is up to us to take care of them in the best way possible. The decision to die gracefully and without pain should be a personal decision.

In 2013, 122 people had prescriptions written out to them to go through euthanasia, while 71 people actually went through with it and died from the medicine (FIND CITATION). Some people decide not to use the prescription after rethinking the idea. People have been debating for a long time on whether or not physician-assisted suicide should be legal or illegal. Some say that it is morally wrong to participate in any kind of suicide, while others say it is wrong to let terminally-ill people suffer when they have absolutely no chance at beating their disease. This is a very important controversy because people need to know all of their possible options when diagnosed with a terminally-ill disease. Patients are also supposed to make the decision of their care, and they cannot make the right decision if they cannot have all of the options. Physician-assisted suicide ought to be legalized in all states and nations to allow patients to have control of their terminal illness so they can decide whether or not they want to suffer for the rest of their short life or end it in a peaceful way.

If everyone has the right to live, then everyone should also have the right to die. Physicians assisted suicide, also known as Euthanasia, is not only a currently expanding concept around the world, but it is also a concept that is changing the options for terminally ill people and their families immensely. Not only should physician assisted suicide be legal in all states, but it should be promoted and encouraged around the world. People have the right to know their options and be informed of what they can and can't do with their own body.

Autonomy is a fundamental right. Liberty interests of patients while coping with terminal illness, however, unlike autonomy, are protected under the Constitution as fundamental rights. Advancements in medicine are extending the average life expectancy for adults. The aging of the baby boomer generation is also contributing to the increase in the growing number of the elder population. As society ages, not only do individuals battle terminal illness, but they combat the unanticipated demands on their right to die with dignity. The ability to choose the timing of one’s death is limited to a few states in America. Additionally, there are a few countries now allowing physician assisted suicide. Even with this option, a patient must

When deciding the most righteous type of way to appropriately end a life of a love one, many thoughts come through as weather the practice of euthanasia is an ethically correct medical procedure. There are many decisions that must be made regarding how to properly treat a individual who want to end there own life. Controversial views have always been made against those who suggest that terminally ill or incurably suffering people should be allowed to ask for and receive help to die if they so wish. The same set of arguments in opposition toward euthanasia is, that life is sacred and by legalizing physician assisted suicide would lead to abuses by the medical field. A fundamental question concerning hastening the death of a terminally ill patient are, evaluating if this act is a virtue of kindness prompted by a sense of mercy and respect for an individual's wishes? If this is not a act of a moral virtue thought then, it is an act of murder and a violation of the Hippocratic Oath. Some patients who decide that they wish to commit suicide are unable or unwilling to accomplish the act without assistance from their physician. Physician-assisted suicide helps them to die under conditions, and at the time, that they choose. PAS is currently legal only in Oregon, Washington, and Montana. In other states, terminally ill individuals who want to die must continue living until their body eventually collapses or until a family member or friend commits a criminal act by helping them to

Euthanasia, or assisted dying, is the process involving physician intervention to kill a patient in order to end his or her suffering. This term is often brought up when dealing with terminally ill patients with a bleak course for their illness. The argument here is that the patients are irrationally suffering because they are terminally ill, and thus, they should be allowed the choice of euthanasia to end their suffering. Most physicians agree with this argument as it falls within their duty to maintain patient autonomy, which is the patient’s right to make decisions for his or her own interest regarding course of treatment. It is especially important to maintain this autonomy in the 21st century, because dignity, and individuality are

Everyone individual has the right to receive good palliative care as they approach end of life. These individuals are entitled to have a say in the treatments they receive at any stage of their lives. Patients are given amble treatment options such as electing to arrange legally binding advance decisions, electing do no attempt CPR or do not resuscitate, electing palliative sedation, or electing withdrawing life-sustaining treatments. By law, all adults have the right to refuse treatment as long as they have the ability to use and understand information to make a decision. 7 When patients refuse treatments physicians are required to not perform certain procedures or treatments against their wishes. Many have argued that these end-of-life care are no better than physician-assisted suicide. For instance, do not attempt CPR is essentially a form of passive euthanasia where the person is denied treatment that could save his or her life. Palliative sedation, where medication is used to make patients unconscious and unaware of pain bares the risk of shortening patients’ lifespan and can be considered a form of euthanasia.

This article talks about how your death is in your own hands. It is the patients right to refuse medical treatment, even if that treatment is the only thing keeping you alive. Each person is in charge of what happens to their body, everything that happens is their own decision. While the patient can choose to die by refusing treatment, in almost all of the states, it is illegal for your doctor to assist you in doing so. It is illegal for a physician to help a patient to kill themselves, but it is not illegal for a physician to help a patient allowing themselves to die. If the right to live however you want is given, then the right to die how and when you want should be too. Overall, according to Steven, the right to refuse treatment is essentially