Physician Assisted Suicide: A Case Study

According to Paul J. van der Wal et al. in ¨Euthanasia, Physician-Assisted Suicide, and Other Medical Practices Involving the End of Life in the Netherlands, 1990–1995¨, he addresses that assisted suicide should be legal and regulated. The authors’ purpose of writing this journal article is to make reliable estimates of euthanasia; to describe patients and physicians, and to evaluate changes between 1990 and 1995. Even though assisted suicide is a growing taboo, it is being practiced more each and every day. Paul J. van der Wal et al. chose to conduct two studies to answer their hypotheses.

1. (problem – PAS): In today’s society, Physician Assisted Suicide is one of the most questionable and debatable issues. Many people feel that it is wrong for people to ask their doctor to help them end their life; while others feel it is their right to choose between the right to life and the right to death. “Suffering has always been a part of human existence.” (PAS) “Physicians have no similar duty to provide actions, such as assistance in suicide, simply because they have been requested by patients. In deciding how to respond to patients ' requests, physicians should use their judgment about the medical appropriateness of the request.” (Bernat, JL) Physician Assisted Suicide differs from withholding or discontinuing medical treatment, it consists of doctors providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication to aid in the use to end their life.

Since 1994, Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) has been legal in the state of Oregon. The law allows patients diagnosed as having less than six months to live to decide when they will die. Sadly, death is a fact of life. Losing a loved one to debilitating disease or terminal illness is an experience to which an increasing number of Americans can relate. Every day new cases of cancer, ALS, and other painful, potentially fatal diseases are diagnosed in the US. The American Cancer Society estimates that over 22,000 new cancer cases will be reported in 2015 in Oregon alone, with roughly 8,000 subsequently dying. Faced with such overwhelming diagnoses, many patients choose to fight; other patients opt to spend their remaining time with their families,

The topic I chose to write about is Physician-assisted suicide. My position on the topic is that I agree with physician-assisted suicide because it helps terminal ill people end their suffering faster than if they waited until the illness took their life away. Also, the terminal ill person decides that he/she wants to end his or hers life with a clear conscious knowing what is going to happen to them taking the physician-assisted suicide route to end their suffering. By the terminal ill person deciding that they want to end their life with physician-assisted suicide they are helping out their family. They help their family by reducing their pain that they feel and also by helping them financially because it is cheaper to end their life with

Physician-assisted suicide is one of the most controversial topics in the United States and other parts of the world today. Assisted death allows mentally proficient, terminally-ill adult patients to request access to life-ending medication from their physician. This type of assisted death is promoted by organizations such as the Death with Dignity National Center, who advocate for countrywide advances in end-of-life care and extended options for individuals near death. Although there are various arguments that state it is both immoral and unethical, physician-assisted suicide is a viable and honorable method to provide end-of-life options to the terminally-ill and to provide better support, relief, and comfort to dying patients. This topic

After a distressing conflict with her family many years ago, Kerewin Holmes decides to dramatically change her lifestyle by isolating herself in a tower from every social force that occurs outside of her walls. While living alone in her tower, she forgets how necessary it is to be with company, but is determined to shield herself even after a boy enters her fortress. The father of the boy, Joe, describes Kerewin after meeting with her on several occurrences by saying she “…[is] covered with flames like knives. And a fierce hidden flame inside it, that sometimes dimmed taking all of the over-lights with it” (Hulme 90). Kerewin realizes how harmful relationships (as symbolized by the flames) can be since they are related to knives. Knives alone

Physician assisted suicide has been discussed on various occasions. You will find a lot of controversy with this topic because it 's not only a matter of what the patient wants, but a matter of what 's correct among the groups. Right off the bat you see that the US, Oregon, Washington and Montana have legalized the practice of physician assisted suicide. (HRF 2014) In 2013 Vermont declared suicide with prescribed medication was a legal medical treatment.

According to an article from CNN.com, there are currently five states in the U.S. where physician-assisted suicide is currently legal. In order to be eligible legally for PAS the patient must have six months or less to live. In the states of Oregon, California, Vermont, Washington and Montana a physician can prescribe medications to move along the death without being prosecuted for murder.

The life of Joan was anything far from normal. Weighing less than 100 pounds for more than five years, she has found herself suffering from something far worse than the tribulations of a typical middle-aged woman. Starting at a young age, Joan strove for perfection in order to please her parents, but there were a number of things that prevented her from completely doing so, including being overweight. Joan also suffered a huge loss when her brother’s life was taken by a car incident that happened under her supervision. This led her parents to be overprotective and probably led to an unhealthy relationship between Joan and them. Eventually, Joan got married and became pregnant, gaining 80 pounds in the process. Due to relational apathy and discord, her and her husband opted for a divorce, which drove her and her son back to living with her parents. Months later, Joan and her son were involved in a

Admitted through the Emergency Room at 4 PM to a semi-private room is Maggie P., a 78-year-old retired Registered Nurse with end-stage Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Her temperature is 98.7, B/P 130/92, heart rate 124 and respirations are labored and irregular at 37 per minute. She appears frail and weighs 89 pounds. She is pale with a bluish hue to her lips and nail beds. Oxygen at 3 liters per minute is applied via nasal cannula. She is alert and oriented to time, place, and person. She coughs intermittently, expectorating copious amount of thick gray, blood-tinged sputum. She complains of back and rib pain and 5mg of Morphine Sulfate in administered intramuscularly. On assessment the nurse lists, between

According Fink (1992), in 1939, the former London Asylum opened a Metrazol clinic. Metrazol was first used in clinical experiments by Hungarian physician, Ladislaus von Meduna in 1933 (Fink, 1992). The Hungarian physician explained that inducing epileptic convulsions with insulin may "cure" schizophrenia. His results came from his observations of individuals who had both schizophrenia and epilepsy. Meduna examined patients who had epileptic seizures that would experience a remission of their symptoms of both diseases (Fink, 1992). Metrazol is one of many drugs that can induce seizures artificially. The Asylum began to phase out its use in 1943, turning instead to electroconvulsive therapy (Fink, 1992).

Physician-assisted suicide, the practice that allows physicians to prescribe medications to terminally ill people, is illegal in forty five states and DC. Oregon, in contrast, is one of the five states that have legalized this procedure. One of the most recent and publicized cases of euthanasia happened there, in 2014. The patient used to be a California resident which led to a bill that was signed into law by the California governor, just yesterday- October 5, 2015. Assisted-suicide is also permitted in Washington, Vermont and Montana.

Physician-assisted suicide is the direct or indirect assistance of the doctor for termination of patient’s life. It is one of the most debatable, controversial and ethical topic of today. Life sometimes unleashes such gruesome realities that we never think of amid the hectic and eventful course of the dwelling. However, when any calamity strikes, we are stranded on the cross road, oblivious of the leading ways as every path leads to the narrow alley with the close end. Likewise; diseases, accidents, and traumas induce one of our beloved’s soul in a condition that he/ she becomes mental or physical paralyzed and left at the mercy of others. If the condition persists for the inordinate period of time, it

The advance directive also allows individuals to designate an agent to make health related decisions. The decisions might include “Resuscitation, Mechanical ventilation, Tube feeding, Dialysis, Antibiotics or antiviral medications, Comfort care (palliative care), Organ and tissue donations, and body donation for a scientific study.” (Mayo Clinic Consumer Health, 2015). Thus, an advance directive plays an important legal role in the end of life issues.

Ethics has been a topic of much debate recently. Unlike laws, ethics is based on personal opinion and what a person has been taught. As we have seen in the news lately, ethical issues are never black and white, ethics is more of a fine line: a grey area where no politician likes to speak. This is not confined to any country, issues like abortion or euthanization are causing disputes that are not easily resolved.