Physician Assisted Suicide Argumentative Analysis

Brittany Maynard, a woman known for her advocacy in the controversial topic of assisted suicide, officially ended her life this fall after learning of her fatal brain tumor. After complaining of horrible headaches, she decided to see a doctor where they gave her this traumatic news. She had two corrective surgeries to try and stop the growth of her large tumor, but they were unsuccessful. Her doctor then suggested full brain radiation, but after months of researching this option, along with many other, she knew her quality of what short life she had left would quickly deteriorate. With the help of her family, friends, and newly-wed husband, she made the decision to move with her loved ones from her California home to Oregon, where death with

In the video “Brittany Maynard Explains Why She’s Choosing Physician-assisted Suicide at 29”, Brittany Maynard takes a very strong position for assisted suicide. Her video reached a large audience when it was released in 2014, as she was the first person to not only openly support assisted suicide, but also then use it herself when she chose to die at age 29 due to her terminal brain cancer. Her purpose is to show people that choosing assisted suicide doesn’t mean someone is suicidal, but rather that they want to choose to die peacefully rather than in a degrading and painful way, like the one her future with stage four brain cancer would bring her. Maynard states, “There is a difference between a person who is dying and a person who is suicidal. I do not want to do. I am dying.” Maynard takes a significantly more personal and emotional take on the issue, comparable only to Jennifer Medina’s article in the New York Times where she interviews patients who have decided to use physician-assisted suicide to end their lives. However, Maynard shows a much more personal perspective in her explanation of why she chose to move to Oregon to obtain a lethal prescription under Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act, and the struggles she went through in coming to that conclusion, as opposed to

Brittany Maynard was given six months to live after being diagnosed with the deadliest form of brain cancer; she had recently just turned 29. To make matters worse, doctors had told her she would suffer from the tumor in a slow and painful manner before succumbing to death. Maynard decided she would die on November 1, a few days after her husband’s birthday under physician-assisted suicide. Unfortunately, she had to relocate from California, where her friends and family lived, to Oregon in order to fall under the “Die With Dignity” act. According to euthanasia.procon.org, only four states in the whole country have legalized assisted suicide. Unfortunately, there are many like Maynard, who have to relocate and leave their home or go through a long and strenuous court battle to receive this treatment plant. This is due to the disapproval of physician-assisted suicide.

Physician-assisted suicide is the practice of providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication for the patient to use with the primary intention of ending his or her own life. Physician assisted suicide or PAS is different from euthanasia because with euthanasia, someone else’s causes death of the person. PAS the person his or her death. Physician-assisted suicide is the voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician. According to the Death with Dignity National Center, in the 1900s, the first publicized assisted suicide was performed by Dr. Kevorkian in 1990 and again in 1998 when he showed the world a video of this act. He was convicted of murder in 1999. Also in 1990, the U.S Supreme court ruled in the Nancy Cruzan case that the “person has the right to refuse lifesaving medical services”, and her feeding tube was removed which ended her life shortly after. The patient self-determination act was passed which allowed patients to refuse or demand medical treatment.

"You have stage IV lung cancer that has metastasized to your lymph nodes and bones. Your prognosis is poor; you may have another 18 months left [to live]." The oncologist’s words marked the beginning of my ex-husband’s physical and emotional suffering until his untimely death in January 2017. Witnessing his unrelenting pain and watching him suffer from lung cancer and the horrible side effects of chemotherapy, I wondered why the doctors did not offer him any other alternatives other than living in progressive pain. Why would they let him suffer for the next 18 months with ineffective pain management treatment when his prognosis was so poor? This option should have been available to him, but due to state laws and

. The bill was shot down by more than half of the voters. Many have wondered why Michigan voters were so against this bill. In an article written by Yale Kamisar, he stated that, “the reason why the Michigan ballot went so wrong was not due to the terminally ill having the right to die, but people were questioning how it would work in a state where millions didn’t have health insurance, how it would affect family members and their dying loved one’s view on life, and one’s view on the quickness of their approaching death” (Kamisar, 1997). Another event that occurred in the Michigan that rocked voter’s views on the topic of physician-assisted suicide was the case of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Dr. Kevorkian is a well-known figure as he helped put assisted

Since Oregon legalized physician assisted suicide for the terminally in 1977, more than 700 people have taken their lives with prescribed medication, including Brittany Maynard (NPR Staff, 2014). After, months of suffering from debilitating headaches, 29 year old Brittany Maynard learned that she had brain cancer (Maynard, 2014). Because her tumor was so large, doctors prescribed full brain radiation. With this treatment, the hair on her scalp would have been singed off, her scalp would be left covered with first-degree burns, and her quality of life would be gone (Maynard, 2014). Brittany began to research death with dignity, an end-of-life option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live.

The cultural and ethical viewpoint is really a moot point when considering assisted suicide. While it can be agreed by both supporters and proponents that life is valuable and precious, it could be said that everyone has the right to assess the value themselves and consider the quality versus quantity of life. Some people might say that without quality, why does quantity matter? Religious viewpoints overall are equally personal. One could argue most religions see that life should not be tampered with and left to a higher power or their God who is considered the giver of life. This argument can be invalid because in order to consider a religious viewpoint, one must first consider the religion itself to be built on personal faith. If someone

Everyone will eventually die. Some people are living their lives sick, and hoping to die because they can’t stand the pain of living. But, choosing to die peacefully is an option with Assisted Suicide. For instance, most patients want to end their life peacefully, and with the choice of Assisted Suicide they can. Many patients who are ill want to die peacefully, so if they have the choice they could choose Assisted Suicide. Assisted Suicide is when people are severely sick and want to die in a calm matter, so physicians assist them with prescribing them a certain drug to end their life. People have diverse opinions on Assisted Suicide and if it should be legalized or not. Numerous people view this as “murder” and don’t want it, but others don’t.

Medically assisted suicide has been around for years, although it was and is illegal in most places. This practice is suicide done a doctor to end a chronically ill person’s life. Religion plays a big role in whether or not this is allowed on a person. Some religions believe it is okay only if the person is on their dying bed, while other religions believe it is a sin and betraying God. There was once a doctor who did these medically assisted suicides, his name was Jack Kevorkian. People believed he was dangerous and on a killing spree, when in reality he was just granted the wishes of the chronically ill. Also Emile Durkheim had two theories that will be discussed briefly, about suicide. He talks about who commits it and why. Suicide is never the answer, unless someone is on their death bed.

Having to endure an illness is unbearably painful. It is torture what these patients have to endure, so the least they should be given is the choice to end the pain with physician-assisted suicide. According to Victoria Cavaliere, Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old married woman, was suffering from a glioblastoma brain tumor; she decided to end her life using physician-assisted suicide. Maynard was young; before cancer appeared, she had a full life ahead of her with her husband, but the pain cancer would cause her was going to be too much to endure. It is clear that she didn’t choose to die because of depression or any other reasons many like to bring up. Maynard was willing to give up her life in order to avoid reaching the stage where the pain would be too much. Because of Oregon’s assisted suicide law, Maynard was able to choose the last day of her life and was able to say goodbye to her loved ones in

The story of Brittany Maynard is a very tragic one. Brittany was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer at the tender age of 29. No treatment could save her life and the treatments that were available would have greatly affected her physically, emotionally, and mentally. This diagnoses stripped her of starting a future with her newly-married husband and simply experiencing life to the best of her ability. Knowing this, and knowing that her cancer would only get more aggressive with time—taking her sense of self, bit by bit everyday—what was she to do? Through research, she discovered death by dignity, which is an “end of life option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live” (Maynard). After relocating to Oregon (one of the few states that death by dignity is authorized) she received medication to take, in the event that she wanted to die on her own terms. Brittany Maynard died just over a month to the date that her article was published by CNN.

During the last 100 years, medicine has advanced incredibly; humanity has learned to treat diseases which has killed thousands of people throughout centuries. However, there still exist many sicknesses which not only cannot be cured for now, but also cause incredible suffering to people who have them. Patients with such diseases might want to ask for euthanasia, as life can be torture for them. However, societies and laws of different countries prohibit euthanasia as something immoral and illegal – which is not necessarily true. Terminally sick people who are in extreme pain or suffering should be granted the right to euthanasia.

Death is one of the few inevitable events in life; it’s something everybody must face in their lifetime. Many fear it but for some, it’s an opportunity to embrace freedom and tranquility from their suffering. For the terminally-ill, they want to liberate themselves from their illness but modern medicine, sometimes, can only reduce their pain to a certain degree and others want to have the right to die. Doctors trying to salvage their patients’ lives could possibly cause more harm than giving them what the patients’ wants, Death. As medical professionals, they abide to do no harm to their patients, to only reduce their pain and cope with their suffering but it’s damaging them even more. The last option for many terminally-ill patient is to die and allow medical professionals to help them, which is considered Euthanasia. The practice of Euthanasia should be legalized and provided in the United States as a last resort for the terminally-ill.

Euthanasia, known for being the practice of deliberately ending a life, is usually performed to relieve an individual from incurable diseases or suffering (Methods of Euthanasia). Present incurable diseases can make life intolerable, take away the enjoyment of life, and make a life not worth living. Even with modern advances in medicine, there are some cases where pain can only be reduced, and a patient must endure this pain until they pass on. In these extreme conditions there is no reason a patient should be forced to endure that pain, while someone also has to pay their medical bills.