Physician Assisted Suicide Should Be Legal

Throughout the twentieth century, major scientific and medical advances have greatly enhanced the life expectancy of the average person. However, there are many instances where doctors can preserve life artificially. When society ponders over the idea of physician-assisted suicide, they most likely feel that the act itself would compare to murdering someone. Who really has the authority to say what is right or wrong when a loved one wants to end their life because of a terminal illness or a severe physical disability? Should Physician-assisted suicide be Legal in California to make it a euthanasia state like Oregon ? In the article titled “Nicest Lawmaker Touts Assisted Suicide,” by Clea Benson published The Bakersfield Californian in 2006, the author presents a Republican lawmaker Patty Berg, who is groom pushing a bill allowing assisted suicide be legal in California. Physician assisted suicide should be allowed to those who are terminally ill with a limited amount of time left to live, and shouldn’t be eligible for people who are young, healthy, or have plenty of time to live.

Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) has grown into quite a contentious topic over the years. According to Breitbart and Rosenfeld (1), physician-assisted suicide can be defined as “a physician providing medications or advice to enable the patient to end his or her own life.” One may find many articles that are written by physicians, pharmacists, patients, and family of patients who receive PAS; from there, it is possible to gain a better understanding of what PAS is and how it has become a rising issue in the United States. For readers who have not heard about PAS and what it entails, it is important to understand that this is a debatable topic that should be approached lightly and non-aggressively in the United States when factors such as offering terminally ill patients the right to end their suffering, the likelihood of overall healthcare cost to decrease, and the comparison of palliative care to physician-assisted suicide are examined.

In almost every case of a terminal disease, pain is intolerable and seeing someone in such agony is heartbreaking. For example, Brittany Maynard, a 29 year old brain cancer patient who had to move to Oregon so she can avail of the Death with Dignity act. “Maynard knew that her form of brain cancer would be excruciating. She would endure swelling of the brain that would very likely cause seizures, painful headaches and the gradual loss of bodily function. Doctors know that for about 5 percent of the population, no amount of morphine can block the agonizing pain the terminally ill endure” (EDITORIAL: Dying with dignity). Palliative care can often be provided for the dying patients and alleviating pain to provide comfort for the dying has always been the priority. “Palliative care focuses on relieving the symptoms, particularly the pain, of incurable illness.” (Palliative Care) But, in relieving pain through the prescribed medications there are also side effects that are caused by the prescribed pain suppressors and two examples will be lethargy and it compromises breathing. In most cases the effectivity of the pain medication may no longer alleviate the pain. If a patient will be in such agony for the remaining days or weeks the quality of life is no longer present. The agony of pain prevents a patient from performing even just the bodily functions.

When society ponders over the idea of physician-assisted suicide, they most likely feel that the act itself would compare to murdering someone. Who really has the authority to say what is right or wrong when a loved one wants to end their life because of a terminal illness or a severe physical disability? President Clinton signed the Federal Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction in 1997, which prohibits the use of federal funding for physician-assisted suicides (The Gale Group, 2002). However, also in 1997, the state of

A lot of controversy revolves around the topic of Physician Assisted Death (PAD) in America today. Should it be legalized throughout the whole United States? Should it be left in the hands of the states individually to decide? Or should the idea of Physician-Assisted Death be completely abolished? Everyone has their own opinions and can be very passionate about this topic without fully knowing what Physician Assisted Death is. The name may cause people to feel uncomfortable and disagree with it, but there are valid reasons and statistics behind the topic explaining why it would be logical to legalize PAD. Terminally ill patients, in consultation with their families, should have control over end of life medical decisions which is

Most people have seen at least one person in their life suffering in unbearable pain up to their death, and it’s never something people find joy in. There is nothing pleasing about being in pain or watching someone be in pain. For those people whose pain does not respond to methods of modern medicine, there should be the option of physician-assisted suicide. “Physician-assisted suicide refers to the practice of a physician prescribing or regulating, upon a patient’s informed request, a lethal dose of medication for the purpose of ending that patient’s life” (Lerner). The lethal drugs that are given to the patient by the doctor are administered by the patient themself, not by the doctor, so

The purpose of this paper is examine the use of Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) in certain patients in a bid to support its legalization in all states. In this paper I will argue that the use of PAS in patients who are terminally ill, in non-terminally ill patients who undergo intolerable pain, or in patients who are terminally or non-terminally ill who fear a loss of dignity and control over their body in the end stages of life is permissible. I will first define PAS and VAE and attempt to characterize suicide. I will then concentrate on the different historical views of PAS over

A total of five states: Montana, California, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, allow for their residents to have a relatively simple way to die before naturally suffering to death with a terminally ill condition. Physician-assisted death is “providing terminally ill patients with a potentially lethal prescription that they could ingest on their own to relieve otherwise intractable suffering by directly hastening death” (“Existing ‘Last Resorts’”). Although physician-assisted suicide should be a last option and require great amounts of counseling, courts should properly recognize this practice as a legitimate legal action in order to prevent things like unsafe suicides and excruciating pain.

After the initial shock wore off, he began to scour the Internet in search of information on his rare form of caner. The more that he read the stories and looked at the statistics, the more this disease ate at him. From that day forth he vowed to never go searching for information again. He asked his doctors never to tell him what stage he had, how long they estimated he would live, or what percentage chance he had to beat cancer. Stuart wanted to continue to live his life the way he has always done. He was going to give 110% effort to beat this disease, just like he did with everything else. There were tons of inspiring quotes in this book but this was one of my favorites, Platt (2015). “When you die, it does not mean you lose to caner, you beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the matter in which you live” (p.261).

One of those patients is Kelly, an extremely proud father and grandfather. Kelly had been hospitalized after contracting the norovirus, but even though he felt horrible, he thought he was healthy and would recover after some rest. He was, after all, only 44. You can imagine his shock when a tumor on his liver was discovered by accident through a routine x-ray. Kelly was referred to Virginia Mason’s Cancer Institute, which provides patients with

Physician assisted suicide should be morally permissible. Patients who are in constant suffering and pain have the right to end their misery at their own discretion. This paper will explore my thesis, open the floor to counter arguments, explain my objections to the counter arguments, and finally end with my conclusion. I agree with Brock when he states that the two ethical values, self-determination and individual well-being, are the focal points for the argument of the ethical permissibility of voluntary active euthanasia (or physician assisted suicide). These two values are what drives the acceptability of physician assisted suicide because it is the patients who choose their treatment options and how they want to be medically treated. Patients are physically and emotionally aware when they are dying and in severe pain, therefore they can make the decision to end the suffering through the option of physician assisted suicide.

This was the diagnosis of stage four cancers that affected my mom and there was nothing that the doctors could do. The next question my dad had was, “How long?” The doctor said, “Less than ninety days,” due to the fact that the cancer had eaten its way through mom’s bladder. This is the most serious illness that I have had to deal with was truly hard on me and a lot more so on my dad; since he and mom would have been married more than thirty years.

After finding out about her disease, Kirby prayed and asked everyone she knew to check and see if they were a match. In one month times over 15 family members and friends had checked to see if they were a match however, every one of the reports came back negative. Over two month’s had past and still no match had been found, they spread Kirby’s story on social media, they even put posters out around town to find a match but no match was found. Finally, after five months in the hospital and multiple dialysis treatments Roger Gardner, a classmate that

Fortunately, I have never suffered from an illness resulting in severe medical treatment. Unfortunately, my grandfather has, thus I will be writing about my experience regarding his cancer journey. As I was sunbathing along the Dominican beaches I had gotten a phone call from my mother. As I saw her name ringing on my phone I immediately began to worry since we only communicated through wifi and called solely for emergencies. She expressed that my grandfather was diagnosed with stage four cancer and only had a couple of weeks left to live.

When my dad was diagnosed the very first time with cancer it was cancer of the larynx. It was a disheartening diagnosis but not an insurmountable one. As the family gathered to hear the information, I don’t remember that anyone perceived it as a death sentence. Mom and dad told us the bad news in a straight forward, factual manner. I remember they answered our questions to the best of their ability. The tumor would be removed and after a several weeks of radiation therapy all would be new again. I think my dad looked at this illness and healing process as a job, a challenge and a goal he was given that would have to be completed for the sake of his family. The family prayed, said the rosary, made special offerings at Mass and lit