The Argumentative Essay: The Option Of Assisted Suicide

"You have stage IV lung cancer that has metastasized to your lymph nodes and bones. Your prognosis is poor; you may have another 18 months left [to live]." The oncologist’s words marked the beginning of my ex-husband’s physical and emotional suffering until his untimely death in January 2017. Witnessing his unrelenting pain and watching him suffer from lung cancer and the horrible side effects of chemotherapy, I wondered why the doctors did not offer him any other alternatives other than living in progressive pain. Why would they let him suffer for the next 18 months with ineffective pain management treatment when his prognosis was so poor? This option should have been available to him, but due to state laws and

How does one know when a practice is morally sound or not? Is it the information that follows it? Is it the ethics involved in the situation? Is it the persons involved happiness or their autonomy? Constantly this question is being asked about every single medical decision out there. One of the most debated topics right now is physician assisted suicide. This is the idea that a doctor can prescribe medication to patients so they can pass away on their own terms. In the rest of the essay one will find what physician assisted suicide or death is and how it came to be. One will be able to learn a real life example of how it works in America right now and why it should be implemented all over the rest of the country. One will also

Too feeble to stand up himself, a grown man sits in the arms of hospice care day in and day out, just waiting to be picked up out of bed, given a little relief. All that crosses his mind is the thought of death. This man suffers through the pain of his condition everyday, until he sluggishly deteriorates. His body hangs on longer than his mind, until he dies exactly the opposite of how he wanted to, not of a sound mind. Death with Dignity states that 70% of people in the U.S. have joined the fight to legalize a practice in which people can chose to die at the end of their life in specific conditions. Voluntary assisted suicide should be legalized in Wisconsin because there are strict laws that will make sure that this process is done correctly,

Brittany Maynard, a woman known for her advocacy in the controversial topic of assisted suicide, officially ended her life this fall after learning of her fatal brain tumor. After complaining of horrible headaches, she decided to see a doctor where they gave her this traumatic news. She had two corrective surgeries to try and stop the growth of her large tumor, but they were unsuccessful. Her doctor then suggested full brain radiation, but after months of researching this option, along with many other, she knew her quality of what short life she had left would quickly deteriorate. With the help of her family, friends, and newly-wed husband, she made the decision to move with her loved ones from her California home to Oregon, where death with

Physician assisted suicide, or the so-called right-to-die, is a highly controversial issue that has appeared before many state and federal legislators but, has failed to pass in many states due to the huge opposition from groups such as the Catholic Church and disabled-rights organizations. However, physician assisted suicide is when a life ending medication is prescribed by a doctor for the patient, most commonly with a terminal illness, to take on their own. This medication merely accelerates the rate at which the person dies; therefore, it can not be considered suicide because they are only accelerating the rate at which the patient dies (Drum 29-31). In order for a patient to qualify

In the fourth century B.C. doctors followed the Hippocratic Oath, which was an oath that said the rules of the medical industry and the doctor’s policy. Those who took the oath were mostly incoming doctors or people who were in the medical industry. The Hippocratic Oath states “I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.” (End of Life: Ethical Considerations paragraph 32) This directly states that the doctors back then were not allowed to perform assisted suicide at any cost. Although, in modern times the Hippocratic Oath now states “Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be

In certain places such as of the U.S. it is legal to prescribe a lethal dosage of pentobarbital or secobarbital to allow those who are terminally ill to die with dignity. Patients are released from an endless painful death and put to rest with their dignity in their hands leaving them in some kind of control of their illness. The medical records behind assisted suicide show that

Is life worth living when death is upon a human being? Assisted suicide allows a patient to answer that question for themselves but only in five states. The legality of the assisted suicide is so rare because of the undermining of human dignity. The controversy has been going on for years and will continue to be on going.

Assisted suicide is a topic that has ignited a severe debate due to the controversy that surrounds its implementation. Assisted suicide occurs when a patients expresses their intention to die and request a physician to assist them in the process. Some countries like Oregon, Canada, and Belgium have legalized the process terming it as an alternative to prolonged suffering for patients who are bound to die. Unlike euthanasia where a physician administers the process, assisted suicide requires that the patient voluntarily initiates and executes the process. Although there exists concession such a process is important to assist patients die without much suffering, there has emerged criticism on its risk of abuse and as an expression of medical

It is the twenty-third visit to the hospital. White walls, white floors, and the smell of bleach follows you when you go to visit your dying relative. They do not have much time, you know it, and so do they. And so they plead for you to let them end their suffering, and with the help of assisted suicide, they can do that. One of the most controversial topics that is being debated today, both morally and legally, is assisted suicide, sometimes known as active euthanasia. Assisted suicide is the act of directly intervening in order to end the life of a terminally ill patient. Arguments against assisted suicide say that the patients are not in their best mental state, that it gives the doctor too much power, and that it goes against different

To begin with, in my own opinion, yes I do believe suicide is justifiable if the person is dealing with a horrible debilitating illness that there is no hope of recovery and that they suffer horribly on a daily even hourly basis from. I believe assisted suicide for these same types of illness at the right time should be allowed as well. I’ve watched close relatives and am watching one now, die slowly from cancer with excruciating pain, nausea, weigh lose to nothing but skin and bones, lesions, sores, etc… I love & loved these people and never want to lose them but when there is no way back, and it is medically proven, why can they not have a peaceful ending to the agony? I honestly would want it assisted so it is painless yet if the law, here in Tennessee and most states, stops medical physicians and hospice from assisting, then yes if the victim can find a safe, for sure method, why not. We can put our animals down that are in pain and suffering but not our realities, even if they want this themselves, the law stops this and it should not. Keep in mind this is my opinion, from my observations only. With this said, I would want to point out that assisted suicide is legal, with the strictest of guidelines medically, in the states of Oregon and Washington (Humphrey & Schmalleger, 2012).

First of all, many support assisted suicide because they believe that it is a humane, free choice that every patient desire. A person have the right to end their life allows them death with dignity. It’s a free will because no patients should have the righteous to suffer dying without lethal dose from seeking freedom and authority. Let’s assume a person is being placed on life support, he or she feels have a unconscious mind. Which an individual cannot say or do anything and disabled if they’re in a vegetative state. In a way that it allows physician to grant medication whether he or she want to be euthanized. This statement insists that assisted suicide is a way of life, not a threat:

When a child scrapes a knee the parents do all they can to heal the injury, the same concept should be applied with doctors and terminally ill, right? Doctors do all they can to heal patients, that is there job, but what happens when the patient can not be saved, what should be done if it is certain that the patient will die. With all these terminally ill people suffering a slow, and agonizing death, one should rethink, are we as a society saving lives, or are we just prolonging their suffering? Assisted suicide and euthanasia should be a choice that the terminally ill should have, because humans should have the choice to suffer and die.

Physician assisted suicide is requested by the terminally ill, typically when the pain from the illness is too much to handle and is not manageable through treatments or other medications. Assisted suicide is more of a broad term for helping someone die a good death, physician assisted suicide is where a medical doctor provides information and medication and the patient then administers the medications themselves. Euthanasia is also another term that is commonly heard, this refers to a medical doctor that voluntarily administers the lethal dose of medication to the patient when the patient requests it, due to not physically being able to do it themselves (Humphry, 2006). There pros and cons with this topic throughout the world, but is one of the biggest debated things here in the United States of America and to this day there are only five states that have legalized physician-assisted suicide (ProCon.org, 2015). The government should allow patients that are terminally ill the right to choose physician assisted suicide, why should they have to suffer when there is a way out.

“Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.”