The Controversial Issue Of Death With Dignity

The selection I chose to read is entitled, “Death on Demand is Not Death with Dignity.” The author of this essay is Debra J. Saunders. This story is printed in San Francisco Chronicle, on pages 483-485. It is about assisted suicide is illegal in California however it is not legal in Organ.

You've sat in your hospital bed for at least three months now, and the pain and boredom is starting to become even more torturous than you could have imagined. The pain that you are experiencing on a day-to-day basis is excruciating; a normal, everyday procedure like using the restroom or getting something to eat is a long, drawn out, and painful ordeal. All of the doctors that you've talked to agree that you are going to die soon from the disease that has infested your body, but even six months sounds like an excruciatingly long amount of time, especially when all you have to occupy your time is lie in a bed painfully, waiting it out. Your family and friends are already distraught by the news; they already know that you are on the brink

In the case study, Death, Duty, and Dignity, there are several central characters ' experiences to consider including Theresa, Ted, Peter and Faith, as well as Mary. Theresa went to conferences and wrote papers around 1994 when Oregon was having a debate on whether or not to pass a Death with Dignity Act. At the time, Theresa spoke against physician-assisted suicide because she felt that this form of help is allowing people to do what they want when it is time to die. This is not anything that Catholics view. Eventually her father, Ted, utilized physician-assisted suicide. He contacted her saying that he had grade IV glioblastoma multiforme, a deadly form of brain cancer. Ted had brain surgery to remove the tumor and had radiotherapy to increase his chance of survival. Well, unfortunately he began to have severe headaches and doctors told him that he had six months or less to live. Ted wanted their family physician to assist him in speeding up the process of his death because he did not want to go through the pain and forget who his family was. Theresa has a duty to support her father Shortly after this, Theresa was asked to present on this issue of physican assisted suicide at the conference of Death, Duty, and Dignity.

One famous case involving death with dignity was the death of Brittany Maynard. Brittany Maynard was a 29-year-old woman who was married and everything seemed to be going good until she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She was diagnosed with grade 2 Astrocytoma, a brain cancer. She was hoping to have a chance to overcome this illness, but the cancer returned, only much worse than before. The diagnosis was grade 4 astrocytoma. Only given a few months to live, she and her family decided that death with dignity was the best option. Living in California, assisted suicide was not an option. So she moved to Oregon because death with dignity is legal there. She ended her life on November 1, 2014, next to family. This case was famous because

Some terminally ill patients are left with no choice but to suffer through their illness until their body eventually succumbs to the illness, whatever it may be. In these cases, an organization called Death with Dignity will try to step in and help the patient in need if they are legally allotted to. Death with Dignity is an organization that administers lethal injections, commonly referred to as physician assisted suicide to patients that ask for this.

In 1983 twenty-five-year old Nancy Cruzan was driving when her car careened off the road and flipped over. She was thrown out of her car into a ditched and was left lying there unconscious. Her body was victim to its surroundings and to fate. When she was found by paramedics, she was unconscious and not breathing. They concluded that she had not been breathing for at least fifteen minutes, but through the miracles of modern technology she was revived into a vegetative state (Gumm). This began a long crusade for Nancy Cruzan and her family and only added to the enduring debate about euthanasia. Should a person be able to control when to end his life? I believe that a person should control when life ends while facing a terminal illness or

Decisions are made every day. Essential decisions, reckless decisions, and “spur of the moment” decisions. All over the world people are making life changing decisions right now. Granted, a large number of people would not decide to end their own life if they knew they had a future of accomplishments and intriguing events ahead of them. On the other hand, what if that person knew they had no hope, they knew in a matter of months they would no longer have a pulse, and every futuristic aspiration was no longer in sight. Terminally ill patients have no chance of survival due to their conditions or diseases that are untreatable. That person has a limited time left on this earth and is empty of optimism. Having a life ending illness does not make

“Death with Dignity” is a phrase referring to the process of assisting terminally ill patients that have no chance of recovery to die earlier than they would have under natural circumstances by having physicians prescribe medication that would hasten the patients’ death. It is often perceived as a move to relieve the ill of the scorching pain and suffering that they could be undergoing. Family members and, in a few occasions, close friends are tasked with deciding when to assist a loved one die in case the patient is incapacitated. However, the patient is often the one to make the decision about whether or not to be kept alive, assuming that they are of sound mind. Death with dignity only happens when a patient with a sound mind makes the decision that he or she should be put out of their misery. One of the commonly used synonyms for death with dignity is assisted suicide, being as though the patient is being assisted to end their life.

At a young age, Brittany Maynard was 29 years of age when she decided to end her life with the aid of medication. She loved to travel and go on adventures, got married in 2012 wishing to carry out her lifelong dream of having a family and continue to indulge in her love of traveling. Janurary 1st, 2014 was a life changing day for her as it was the day she was diagnosed with a grade 2 astrocytoma which is a form of brain cancer. She acted immediately and had surgery done to solve the problem. Unluckily a few months later she was diagnosed again and it came back as a grade 4 astrocytoma which is also known as a glioblastoma. Brittany Maynard was under a prognosis od only six months to live. With this prognosis on her life she decided to move to Oregon which is one of five states where the Death with Dignity law is passed for terminally ill and mentally ill competent adults.

Brittany Maynard was a twenty-nine year old woman from California who suffered from brain cancer. The side effects involved with this terminal illness ranged from seizures, painful headaches and overall weakness. Brittany was presumed to have six months to live and decided to move to Oregon. There, with the help of a physician, Brittany could end her life as she chose to and not let cancer do it for her.

Yes I do agree with Brittany Maynard's decision to do the “Death with dignity”. The reason that I believe this that she had this terminal illness which was slowly just eating away at her even though she tried her best. She got some of her temporal lobe cut out which I believe is really brave as doing that could change other things. But she did try to live but the tumor reappeared, and they told her she only had a certain amount of time to live. She even looked at other treatment options but there were none that would get rid of it, and wouldn’t allow her to live her moments being happy. She was willing to go through the difficulties of moving somewhere else, and doing everything needed for the option of dying with dignity. She choose to do

Euthanasia is a broad term that describes the acceleration of a client’s death, with or without consent (Berman and Snyder, 2012). Berman and Snyder (2012), differentiate that active euthanasia hastens the client’s death by direct action such as lethal doses of medication, while passive euthanasia is the withdrawal of treatments necessary to sustain life such as ventilation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or nutrition. Physician assisted suicide (PAS) involves a consenting client who acquires the resources necessary to terminate their own life through a physician (Berman and Snyder, 2012). PAS is legal in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and California under the Death with Dignity Act (DWDA), which gives physicians the legal ability, under strict guidelines, to prescribe a lethal medication to a terminally ill patient for self-administration to induce their death (Oregon DWDA, 1994).

Often people who have not appropriately considered this issue claim that human dignity should be preserved and protected because no one has the right to kill another, and death is will of God. Their opinion sound very plausible. However, the assisted suicide, sometimes called the “right to die,” should be legalized in certain cases. Patients who are terminally ill should be allowed to

Premise 1: It’s never morally right to die, but each of us has the right to choose what state we die in.

Dying with dignity helps a person end their traumatic life filled with pain when there is no hope for relieving their pain. Self-determination is a legal way to choose death. (Torrey, 2016)