Physician Assisted Suicide In You Don 'T Know Jack'

Imagine a cancer patient on a short rode to death. The pain this patient is experiencing is unreal and unimaginable to most. The pain medicine that can be used does little to take the agony away. The doctors can put the patient in an induced coma, but what kind of living is that? It is not living. The patient does not want to go on. Is it so wrong to ask for a way out? With less than six months to live, the patient’s hope is gone. Many argue that euthanasia is not ethical, but is it really ethical to let someone live in constant, horrifying pain and agony? While in some cases having the right to die might result in patients giving up on life, physician-assisted suicide should be legalized in all fifty states for terminally ill patients with worsening or unbearable pain.

Terminally ill patients should be allowed to do whatever they wish, for they are going to die anyway. If they want to cut that string a little earlier than the scheduled and having to deal with that pain, then they should be allowed that medication that will end their life in a painless way. It is selfish to keep someone who is going through so much pain, that they want to die, alive and forcing them to ‘just deal with it’ as if it was nothing. As if they were not already going to die. We, the United States, ‘put down’ 2.4 million healthy cats and dogs every thirteen seconds, so if we can kill so many animals because they have no home or are overpopulated, like we are, then should we not be allowed to ‘put down’ our own life without much of a problem?

In today's society, a very controversial issue is physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Many people feel that it is wrong for people, regardless of their health situation, to ask their doctor or attendant to end their life. Others feel it is their right to be able to choose how and when they die. When a doctor is asked to help a patient to their death, they have certain responsibilities that come along with it. Among these duties, they must prove valid information as to the terminal illness the patient is suffering. They also must educate the patient as to what their final options may be. When they make the decision of whether or not to help the patient into death, and should they

When a patient is laying in a hospital bed in pain and the medication no longer helps, the doctors and nurses can no longer help except to try and make the patient as comfortable as possible; why not let them choose to end their life. When the patient is forced to endure agonizing pain even though they want to die, some decided to end their lives on their own ending in a more traumatic and messy outcome then a humane injection or pill that will take away their pain and let them slip away easily. In my opinion there is no reason to suffer endlessly waiting on their imminent death, why not let a physician who knows what he/she is doing help the patient to end their lives on their own terms.

By having a doctor writing a prescription to a terminally patient, a doctor can allow the patient to end their life in a safe, effective and painless way. A lot of patients, who are suffering from chronic, painful, fatal conditions that would eventually bring death, have a strong belief that the only way to stop the suffering for them and their family watching them is suicide. Before the thoughts of a physician assisted suicide the patients would attempt suicide on their own, an act which was not as painless or successful as the doctors option to helping out. The option of the doctor’s choice would be much more painless and faster than the patient attempting it on their own. As one study shows, “Medical illness was a factor in half the suicides in people ages 50 and older and 70 percent of those ages seven years and older. Increased life expectancy, chronic illness, technology advances, and expanded treatment options have all complicated the process of dying” (Mackelprang 315). There is always a good chance that a suicide attempt could go very wrong and have a worse effect on the patient than before the attempt. Although an unsuccessful suicide attempt is a worse case scenario, it should be noted that many suicide attempts are not painless. For patients removing life support, the process is very slow and painful. The suffocation process is not the humane way for any one to have to die. If the patients who were thinking about attempting suicide on their own

Life is a delicate subject to address, especially when it comes to the end thereof. Oftentimes, talking about death is a sensitive and therefore controversial subject. In America, citizens are allowed to hold and express their personal ideologies and beliefs, which has created a lot of discussion about whether or not it should be legal for doctors to help terminally ill patients peacefully end their lives. This is commonly referred to as Aid-In-Dying. The human experience is filled with many difficulties and sufferings. In the dreadful circumstance that someone is diagnosed as terminally ill, why would anyone want him or her to continue to suffer? When a human being is dying and experiencing excruciating pain, they absolutely should have

The right to die has been a topic of many debates. People are either strongly opposed to the act, saying things like “In no situation is suicide the right thing to do,” while others argue the exact opposite. No compromises are made as an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, but this is life or death. The answer cannot be as simple as yes or no. We all go through difficulties in our lives, some even struggle with depression at times, but unlike those who are depressed or going through a rough patch, there are those who are doomed to deal with physical pain the rest of their lives. How could we deprive them the choice of a painless death, when letting them die slowly on a hospital bed is the only other option? Physician assisted suicide for those who are terminally ill should be legalized in America, because physician assisted suicide saves those who are hurting from living the rest of their lives in agony.

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

Death is not a topic that many people are comfortable with, some people believe it is outrageous for others to play God and decide when to end their lives. While this is true for people with normal pains, there are those who feel they have the right to choose their own fate because they cannot bear their pain and suffering anymore. These are people that are terminally ill, people who were diagnosed with a deadly disease without a cure and feel that death is the only way to relieve that pain. These people has gone through many treatments that are slowly becoming less and less effective. Even though the treatment isn’t working, the patients still have to live through the pain from the treatments. Terminally ill

Mortality requires all of us to eventually face death, although when or in what way we do not know. Let’s say you are given two choices: to choose to die earlier but in a peaceful way, or to prolong your life for an unknown amount of time but endure a painful and slow death. For terminally ill patients, this unfortunately is not a hypothetical situation, but a reality of their life, except the majority of them are denied the first option. Some terminal diseases, such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ASL, or more popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease), brain cancers, or other neural or muscular degenerative diseases often lead their victims down a unimaginable, unrelenting, brutal, road to death. Is it morally right to deny the victims of these diseases the option of an early, but peaceful death upon their request? Should we force a death filled with suffering upon a terminal patient, or allow them the option of how the last days of their life should play out? Euthanasia, or the killing of a sick person out of mercy, is a largely debated topic in present day, but this has not always been so. It gives these sick patients the option of death to avoid imminent suffering in their later death. Throughout history, the taboo of assisted suicide has changed in different eras, largely due to the authority of religion in history, and later from religion to morals. The issue at present is still an issue of morality, but also about rights; not only a right to live, but also a

You Don’t Know Jack, depicts the story of Dr. Kevorkian’s pledge to overall legalize euthanasia and ultimately, the right-to-die legislation. The film begins with Kevorkian explaining that from watching his own mother’s painful death and being incapable of doing anything, he now as a doctor has calling to stop others whom are terminally ill from suffering, if they no longer wish to. His advocacy towards euthanasia leads him to begin advertising physician assisted suicide as a medical service to one whom no longer wishes to live due to their terminal illness; essentially, a service were he himself, would kill one. The news spreads rapidly and Kevorkian receives not only copious amounts of willing patients, but also many pro-life advocates who

It’s hard to see how your love one is lying on a hospitals bed for days dying slowly when you know that there’s nothing else for the doctors to do or to keep on helping the terminally ill patient. Especially when the nurse tells you that the doctor had confirmed that the patient has from two to three days to live; that’s when you feel your heart shattering into thousand pieces, and tears pouring down your face. After what you have already been through with pain and agony for your love one wishing that everything could be different. I believe that all terminally ill patients should have the right to make their own decisions on shortening their lives. All states should have the Right to Die law.

These people, suffering unwillingly from an agonizing and dehumanizing disease, should ultimately have the choice between life and death; this is a basic human right guaranteed to every individual. Every person has control over their life and what they do with it, so, in the end, the choice between living and dying should be in their hands. According to a college professor, Howard Ball, “The right to self-determination is guaranteed by the ‘liberty’ provision in the U.S. Constitution's due process clause. A terminally ill patient has the liberty to choose death...It is an absolute right possessed by an individual; the government cannot abrogate it” (Ball 2015 para. 14). The debate of which this act should become legal or not is obsolete according to the Constitution, however the government still tries to go against

Human beings are born with inalienable rights; rights in which cannot be separated from a person. One is born with the right to liberty, the pursuit of happiness and most importantly life. It is only human nature that with the gift of life comes death. Human beings were born with the right to live; however, they were not born with the right to die. All human beings will die when their time comes, but when exactly will that be? The answer to the age-old question is unknown; coincidentally, in very few countries those who are terminally ill may chose a date and time of their death. This choice is made through human euthanasia otherwise most commonly known in the Untied States as Physician aid-in-dying. The right to die through Physician aid-in-dying has been made legal in five states; unfortunately, one must travel to another state in order to receive the treatment. When one is suffering from a terminal illness and can no longer bear the physical pain, he or she should be able to choose to end suffering through Physician Assisted Suicide.

Society loves choices. But when it comes to one of the most important decisions in a person’s life, the right to live or die, we only have a select few choices and some of them cause more harm than good. The choice here is whether or not a person should have the right to end his or her life in a safe, peaceful manner when the quality of life is no longer the same quality it once was. Currently only a few states give people the right to choose a peaceful way to end their lives. People should have the right to choose to end their pain and suffering when diagnosed with a terminally ill condition by legalizing physician-assisted death in every state.