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Physician Assisted Suicide Argumentative Essay

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Assisted Suicide

Physician assisted suicide is a highly discussed topic in the medical world. Whether it should be legal or not is debated among medical professionals. There are multiple reasons someone may consider PAS (physician assisted suicide), but very few are actually granted the right to end their life with the help of a doctor. Physician assisted suicide, a well concerning and serious topic, is drastically debated in a vast amount of countries worldwide.

The history behind PAS is extensive. Judaism looked at suicide as “’an affront to God that demonstrated contempt for the gift of life.’” (Smith) In the west, suicide was seen as an act against God and community. Suicide was known as self-murder until 1642, when the word suicide was adopted. Self-murder was universally viewed as wicked, therefore the bodies of suicide victims were dragged …show more content…

There are five states that have passed the law: Oregon in 1994, Washington in 2008, Vermont in 2013, California in 2015, and Colorado in 2016. Also, The District of Columbia permitted PAS in 2016. Currently, there are seventeen other states considering the “’death with dignity’” laws. (Sullivan) Only a fraction of the United States have actively followed through with allowing physician assisted suicide to be legalized for those suffering with a terminal illness.

There are many issues regarding physician assisted suicide, but there are multiple ways to improve them. Some was are as follows: better understanding of pain management, improvement of narcotic laws for pain control, training for health care providers to treat and diagnose depression, and increase funding of hospice and palliative medicine. The main issue with the debate about PAS is overtreatment of patients and making suffering longer for those who are in the process of dying. (Sullivan) The effort put toward correcting these issues will make a world of difference in bettering the bad

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