Physician Assisted Suicide Literature Review

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

Advances in medical treatments have raised the average life expectancy of people in Canada. However, it fails to guarantee a perfectly healthy life for people who experience incurable diseases. The rising interest in Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Canada, is an outcome of the desire of people to have a greater control over their lives in terms of their capacity to determine death when the patients are terminally ill.

There has been a lot of talk over euthanasia. Some people are unaware of the difference of passive and active euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. This study will inform the readers of the differences and what is better for a patient and doctor to do. I believe that physician assisted suicide is the best moral option to go through in a case of a terminal illness.

Nonetheless, no more than 2 percent of physicians would help in partaking in administering euthanasia, while 15.6 would perform physician-assisted suicide for their patients. Unfortunately, voluntary euthanasia appears to have a negative stance by physicians, society, and the law. On the other hand, according to the, “Attitudes and Practices of U.S Oncologists regarding Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide,” the requests for voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is expected to decrease as training in end-of-life care improves and the ability of physicians to provide care to their patients is enhanced. The research shows that all U.S physicians are more likely to approve assisted suicide for male patients, but not for female patients. The male percentage ranged from 60 to 80 percent, while women ranged from 13 to 33 percent. Surgical oncologists showed the highest approval for assisted suicide, but is that because of their type of profession? Pediatric oncologists showed the lowest approval for assisted suicide, but this may be because pediatric oncologists work primarily with children. Other religions, not including Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, had the lowest percentage of assisted

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

After asking about any nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea L.J.H stated, “At this moment I do not have any problems with nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea, but when I first arrived at the hospital I did feel sick which lead to me vomiting. I think it was because of my abdominal pain.” When asked what L.G.H’s typical diet would be she stated, “In the morning I will usually have eggs, toast and milk with some hot water. For lunch I usually eat leftovers from the night before or just make myself and sandwich. I don’t really each a lot of snacks. For dinner I usually have something with protein or starch with a side of veggies. I am usually good at eating what is okay for me. I have a lot of allergies so I don’t like to change up what I eat a lot.” After asking about alcohol or caffeine use L.J.H stated, “I never drank alcohol and I avoid caffeine.” When asked about the use of stool softeners at home L.J.H stated, “No I do not use stool softeners.”

First of all, terminally ill patients have the right to decide what happens with their life. Of recent suicide and attempted suicide have been their bodies are shutting down. Their organs stop working and they cant do everyday actitities without seviere pain. According to the federal constitution, every citizen is entitled to life liberty are the persuit of happieness. Due to court case Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, the Supreme Court established that the due process clause protects a patient's liberty to refuse medical treatment. According to that statement, this means a patient can refuse medical attention and ultimately die (Is There a Constitutional..). Not alowing a patient this right would be unconstitutional. What

In this study, “euthanasia was defined as an action in which a ‘medical doctor gives an overdose of medication to purposely end a patient’s life,’” and “physician assisted suicide was defined as an action in which ‘a medical doctor provides drugs and advice, so that a patient could commit suicide’” (Wilson et al., 2000). Seventy-three percent of the patients interviewed believed that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS)

In Oregon and the Netherlands where PAS is considered a legal practice, data regarding patient conditions display that more than 70% of the population that uses PAS have cancer (Emanuel 527). In addition, “98% of patients receiving a prescription were estimated to have less than six months to live. 96% of patients receiving a lethal injection were estimated to have less than a week to live” (Meier 1197). From these percentages, policy-makers can ascertain that the population that would be affected by legislation regarding PAS and euthanasia would largely be those who are seriously ill rather than those experiencing less severe ailments. The most frequent reasons that patients give for requesting assistance in ending their lives appear to be:

Lying in a hospital bed feeling, sick, scared and helpless, the only comforting thought is supposed to be knowing that when you need something, a nurse is there to help you. You ring the call bell for assistance in going to the restroom and no one comes. You ring the bell again, and still no one comes. You ring it for the third time and a voice comes over the speaker, "I will be back in a few minutes, I have some things I have to finish up". You need to get out of bed right now, and you can’t do it alone. Now, on top of everything else, you’re feeling alone and frustrated. If someone doesn’t appear soon you will have to deal with embarrassment and shame. On top of being sick, look how many other things a patient may have to go through just

Patient requested euthanasia is a controversial issue in today's society. As of now, four states have legalized Euthanasia. These states are, Washington, Oregon, California, and Vermont. Furthermore, once euthanasia was legalized in Oregon patient requests rose by 230 percent. Of course, there are complications with euthanasia that make it inconsistent. For example, a man named David Prueitt took the prescribed amount of a lethal drug, but awoke 65 hours later. Moreover, the system of distributing the lethal drugs is flawed. Personally, I believe in a patient’s right to request euthanasia, if done correctly and with overwhelming approval.

Over the past century, there has been a rise in assisted death cases throughout the world. The two main methods of assisted death are voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (Singer, 1993). Whereas voluntary euthanasia involves the active role of a physician in taking one’s life, physician-assisted suicide involves making lethal measures available to an individual so that they can take their own life. In reality, most people believe that voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are the same thing because of their similar natures. While this is a common thought, it is far from the

Margaret P. Battin’s “Euthanasia: The Way We Do It, the Way They Do It” discusses the occurrence and practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide in three first-world, industrialized, developed nations: The Netherlands, Germany, and the United States. All three of these countries have one important factor in common that makes them ideal for studying euthanasia: aging populations who primarily die of degenerative diseases, rather than parasitic or infectious diseases (Battin 579). In the United States, outright euthanasia is illegal. Rather, the accepted form of

Euthanasia is a controversial issue. Many different opinions have been formed. From doctors and nurses to family members dealing with loved ones in the hospital, all of them have different ideas for the way they wish to die. However, there are many different issues affecting the legislation and beliefs of legalizing euthanasia. Taking the following aspects into mind, many may get a different understanding as to why legalization of euthanasia is necessary. Some of these include: misunderstanding of what euthanasia really is, doctors and nurses code of ethics, legal cases and laws, religious and personal beliefs, and economics in end-of-life care.

In the Netherlands, prior to enactment of the 2001 law, physicians were assured that they would not be prosecuted for euthanasia or assisted suicide as long as they followed guidelines and filed a report after the patient's death. However, official surveys of Dutch doctors, in which physicians were granted both immunity and anonymity, revealed that only 41% of euthanasia and assisted suicide deaths were reported.(Van) Cases which failed to meet practice guidelines were most likely to go unreported.(Id. 1710)