Terminal Suicide

P3:2 “Assisted Suicide: Make Assisted Suicide Legal for the Terminally Ill In America,” a document written in English 1010 addresses legal and ethical issues of legalizing assisted suicide for terminally ill patients and posits the question “assisted suicide mercy or murder.” Terminally ill patients should have the right to choose how and when they die. There are three reasons patients should have the right to choose death; the first, some patients experience uncontrollable pain; the second, loss of quality of life; the third, palliative care requires the direct intervention of a physician, but assisted suicide allows a physician to write a prescription and the patient chooses when they die. Although some patients have positive results with

The word suicide gives many people negative feelings and is a socially taboo subject. However, suicide might be beneficial to terminally ill patients. Physician- assisted suicide has been one of the most controversial modern topics. Many wonder if it is morally correct to put a terminally ill patient out of their misery. Physicians should be able to meet the requests of their terminally ill patients. Unfortunately, a physician can be doing more harm by keeping someone alive instead of letting them die peacefully. For example, an assisted suicide can bring comfort to patients. These patients are in excruciating pain and will eventually perish. The government should not be involved in such a personal decision. A physician- assisted suicide comes with many benefits for the patient. If a person is terminally ill and wants a physician assisted suicide, then they should receive one.

Imagine laying in a hospital bed living everyday in extreme pain with no hope of getting better. This scenario explains what many people go through everyday, which is a living with a terminal illness. M. Lee, a science historian, and Alexander Stingl a sociologist, define terminal illness as “an illness from which the patient is not expected to recover even with treatment. As the illness progresses death is inevitable” (1). There are not many options for the terminally ill besides dying a slow and painful death, but assisted suicide could be best option for these patients. Assisted suicide is “any case in which a doctor gives a patient (usually someone with a terminal illness) the means to carry out their own suicide by using a lethal dose of medication” (Lee and Stingl 1). Some feel that assisted suicide is unnecessary because it is too great of a controversy and will only cause problems in society. However, assisted suicide should be legal in the United States as long as there are strict regulations to accompany it.

In homes across the world, millions of victims are suffering from fatal and terminal illnesses.With death knocking on their door, should these people have to endure pain and misery knowing what is to come? The answers to these questions are very controversial. Furthermore, there is a greater question to be answered—should these people have the right and option to end the relentless pain and agony through physician assisted death? Physician-Assisted Suicide PAS is highly contentious because it induces conflict of several moral and ethical questions such as who is the true director of our lives. Is suicide an individual choice and should the highest priority to humans be alleviating pain or do we suffer for a purpose? Is suicide a purely

By using this article, it will provide reasons why a patient seeks assisted suicide when facing a terminal diagnosis, with 6 months or less to live. It offers the physician perspective on assisting terminal patients at the end of their life span. An explanation of the Death with Dignity Act provides an example of legislature in the United States addressing this controversial subject.

Every individual has to make choices in life; life can be seen as a plethora of crossroads veering off into different directions with every which way. Choices that can create or destroy life; in the blink of an eye a life could end, but in the same moment a new life could be brought into existence. The choice of physician-assisted suicide provides control, familiarity, and closure to the terminally ill patients. The patient is able to choose where he or she will be, when the time is right, and the ability to be surrounded around loved-ones and gain closure by saying goodbye in a timely-manner.

If a patient can come to a decision when it is time to stop treatment for their terminal illness, then they should also be allowed to choose when to bring death. End of life care has become just as important of an issue to physicians as well as the patients. If physician-assisted deaths were permitted in all 50 states, physicians could openly discuss end of life wishes with their patients. The term “Terminally ill”, Is a terminal condition that is a disease or process that will result eventually in a patient's death, no matter what treatment is given. Of course, this could

Choosing to die with the assistance of a physician is a much debated controversial issue in the states. Assisted suicide is where a patient with a terminal disease choose to take their life to relieve their suffering, sometimes with the aid of a physician, and is legal in only five states. Assisted suicide is “legal in Washington, Oregon, California, Vermont and Bernalillo County,New Mexico(Death with).” This option should be available to patients in all states, because terminally ill patients should have the choice to end their suffering if their pain becomes unbearable. Terminal patients should be able to die on their own terms.

Thesis: When it comes to the topic of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), some experts believe that an individual should have the option of ending their life in the event that they have been given six months to live with a terminal illness or when the quality of their life has been vastly changed. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question whether physician-assisted suicide is medically ethical, would be overly abused to the point where doctors might start killing patients without their consent. Whereas some experts are convinced that just improving palliative care would decrease the need for someone to want to end their life before it happened naturally.

Another aspect of physician assisted suicide is this procedure devalues the lives of those who are disabled. A family may feel that it would ease their financial burden if their loved one committed suicide and desired to aid them in the process. However, if those are not the true wishes of the individual, how can we put a price on a person's life, the only chance we will ever have to partake in this experience? For a medical doctor, there is a sense of obligation to the individual to ease their suffering. The conflicting problem is that the assisted suicides cannot be effectively and properly regulated; the lines are too fuzzy as to where we can draw the limitations.

Along with pain and suffering, money is another aspect that needs to be taken into consideration when the discussion of Physician Assisted Suicide comes up, in an unfortunate conversation. Every year more and more people are diagnosed with terminal illnesses, and the financial toll of the medical bills that are increasing rapidly and the burden falls mainly on the loved ones of the patient. These high medical costs must be borne by the patient, the patient’s family, or the society to prolong life.

The suffering of terminally and chronically ill patients is also affecting person’s immediate family. The costs for end of life care for terminally ill patients is often too much for the family. The patients are generally aware of this, and with every day that she or he is kept alive, even though they would want to take use of physician assisted death or euthanasia, the medical costs increase rapidly. According to Dworkin, the costs for medically maintaining a terminally ill person near the end of their life can range from two thousand to ten thousand dollars a month (187). Not many people can afford the high costs of end of life care. For the ones who are not able to pay for their medical care at the end of their life will leave the costs

Such a controversial topic as euthanasia and physician assisted suicide obviously brings about both proponents and opponents. When it comes to the case of a terminally ill person who is fully competent, how can one say no to his desire in having

Discussing the end of someone’s life is often a hard conversation. If the subject is approached in the right way and done at just the right time is can make a big difference. This conversation should take place when the person in still in good health so a well thought out and sound decision made. At that time the person can choose and determine their own plans for the end of their life. By giving an individual control over their final days this will give not only them but their care givers a place of mind. There are a few different paths that can be taken or a few decisions that should be made. A decision has to be made as far as what medicine will or will not be given, if you want to be resuscitate if your heart stops and what point do you just want to be made comfortable and bring hospice care in. This decision can also be looked at in two different ways some people may think it is wrong and think of it as assisted suicide.

How would you feel if you were told you only had six more months to live? How would you feel if you were told that those last couple of months would put you in more pain than you had ever experienced? For people all across the united states, these situations are their reality. They know exactly how long they have to live, and that their death will be long and agonizing . Now, what if you had the choice to end all that suffering and pain? Assisted suicide is when patients agree to end their life with the help of their physician and with a lethal drug.This is a method that many Americans consider to help free their loved ones from discomfort . Some may see euthanasia as inhuman, or homicide. Although, most people refer to the term when discussing animals. While that is true, it can also be used as a method of peaceful death with humans, and “allowing a person suffering from an incurable disease or condition to die by withholding extreme medical measures” (Lone Star College). One must come to the conclusion that a terminally ill individual should have the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, withhold the right to their own fate, and spare the costs of hospital aid on their families. Currently the option of assisted suicide is legal in 5 out of the 50 states, however, the US should make it available in all 50 states, allowing terminally ill patients to choose if they’d like to end their