The Controversy Of Physical Assisted Suicide

Physician assisted suicide was brought to mainstream attention in the 1990’s due to Dr. Kevorkian’s “suicide machine," who claims to have assisted over 100 suicide deaths of terminally ill patients with Alzheimer’s disease (Dickinson, p. 8). In the early 1990’s, for the first time in United States history the issue was brought to the voting polls in California, Washington, and Oregon (Dickinson, p. 9). The bill was passed in Oregon; legally allowing physicians to facilitate death of the terminally ill, but voters fails to pass the bill in Washington and California (Dickinson, p. 9). In 2008 voters in Washington State passed the Washington Death with Dignity Act (Dickinson, p. 277). Today

Did you know, about 57% of physicians today have received a request for physician assisted suicide due to suffering from a terminally ill patient. Suffering has always been a part of human existence, and these requests have been occurring since medicine has been around. Moreover, there are two principles that all organized medicine agree upon. The first one is physicians have a responsibility to relieve pain and suffering of dying patients in their care. The second one is physicians must respect patients’ competent decisions to decline life-sustaining treatment. Basically, these principles state the patients over the age of 18 that are mentally stable have the right to choose to end their life if they are suffering from pain. As of right

of life. Death is inevitable. Why should each of us not have the right to

The Death with Dignity policy, Oregon state law Statute No. 127.865 is a law that allows people who have six months or less to live to end their lives in the comfort of their home and surrounded by loved ones in the most humanly way possible. A group of Oregonians, in the early-1990s, came together to cultivate a law sanctioning terminally ill patients to control their own end-of-life care. The group was comprised of residents, intellectuals and legal and medical experts, many of whom today serve on the board of directors (127.865, N.D.). Individuals must be confirmed by the patient's physician, or be an employee of a health care facility caring for the patient. The patient must orally request to take advantage of the

The Death with Dignity Act was first put into use in Oregon in 1997, and was used to insure terminally ill patients had the right to decide how much suffering they endure; not the government. Since then there have been similar acts passed in California, Vermont, and Washington. Death with Dignity laws allow terminally-ill patients, who are mentally competent, choose to take medication that quickens their death. Euthanasia, or physician assisted suicide, is a very uncomfortable and very controversial topic, but it is one that needs to be discussed. The rights of the American people should include the discussion of dignity and what is considered torture or the infringement of basic human rights.

Today, assisted suicide also known as the Death with Dignity Act has become legal in nearly four U.S. States, the act has legalized the ability for terminally ill patients to determine the time of their death. Since the act becoming legal the amount of patients that participated in it grew 65 percent. The act does come with it’s flaws, but it does ensure major things such as; patients can put an end to pain and suffering when they no longer have hope to of recovering, they can arrange for final good-byes with loved ones, and the act prevents in humane suicides.

There is so much controversy about physician assisted suicide. There is even controversy about the wording itself. Some call it physician assisted suicide, while others refuse to use the word suicide at all, in correlation to the meaning of this subject, which I will discuss later. There are a few different ways to say it, but all mean basically the exact same thing; death with dignity, end of life option, aid in dying, and the right to die. No one wants to die. But the harsh reality is that when a person is diagnosed with a terminal illness, it is a life changing diagnosis, literally. No one likes the idea of dying, no matter how it is phrased, maybe the reason it is so terrifying is none of us have ever died before to talk about it,

The choice for the patient to choose should be left up to their decision, and some states have embraced this practice. Oregon instituted the Death with Dignity Act in 1994 which gave adult patients with a terminally ill diagnosis a choice to obtain a prescription to end their life (Death with Dignity, 2017). Since the onset of this ground breaking law, the concept of physician assisted suicide has soften and the general consensus has slowly began to shift.

During the first year the death with dignity act went into effect in Oregon, just fifteen people ended their life through the process of euthanasia. In 1997, a group of people rallied to undermine the death with dignity act with a statute called measure fifty-one but the citizens of Oregon rejected the measure proving that the men and women of Oregon demand this right and want the death with dignity act to stay in place ("Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Timeline"). Sixty-one physicians wrote prescriptions for lethal doses of medication in Oregon in the year 2012 for the purpose of euthanasia, displaying the willingness of experienced medical professionals to assist patients in dying with dignity ("Prescription for Suicide" 1). Washington became the second state to legalize assisted suicide in November of 2008, and Montana followed suit on January second, 2010. Finally, Vermont legalized assisted suicide in May of 2013, becoming the fourth and final state to emulate support for death with dignity. The precise reason that more states do not make dying with dignity a legal option is complicated, but one factor that does contribute to the rejection of assisted suicide legislation is the concerns about the safety and ethicality of euthanasia ("Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Timeline"). The reality of these concerns is that the regulations regarding assisted suicide are proving to work impeccably as noted by the Canada Compassion and Choices

The Death With Dignity Law was passed in Oregon on November 8th, 1994. The Death With Dignity Law gives terminal patients a chance to die on their own terms. It gives patients aid in dying if the suffering becomes unbearable. Since Oregon was the only state that had the Death With Dignity Act in effect at the time, it has caused American citizens, like Brittany Maynard, to move to Oregon to receive the treatment. As a result of Oregon’s law, other states have given thought to passing the law. Washington, for example,

In Oregon, as of 2014, the three most frequently mentioned end-of-life concerns were: loss of autonomy (91.4%), decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (86.7%), and loss of dignity (71.4%) (Oregon Health Authority). Physician-assisted suicide is a controversial topic that continues to divide federal and state governments and citizens everywhere around the country and world. In what’s known as “Death With Dignity Laws” that have already been passed in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and likely California, doctors are able to write prescriptions to patients, who fall within strict guidelines, who wish to end their lives. These laws follow strict guidelines including; a terminal diagnoses with less than six

This article talks about the death with dignity act which was passed by the state of Oregon in 1994. With 51.3% of voters being in favor of the act, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician assisted suicide in the united states. The approval of this act has been regarded as one of the most controversial ballots in the history of Oregon. Many adversaries to the bill have challenged the bill's impact on patients as they feared that many patients would go to end their lives even if their illness isn't really severe and that many would abuse life and health insurance policies. The legality of this act has been challenged many times with some of them including when former congress and US attorney general John Ashcroft from 1997 to 2003

In today’s society, suicide, and more controversially, physician assisted suicide, is a hotly debated topic amongst both every day citizens and members of the medical community. The controversial nature of the subject opens up the conversation to scrutinizing the ethics involved. Who can draw the line between morality and immorality on such a delicate subject, between lessening the suffering of a loved one and murder? Is there a moral dissimilarity between letting someone die under your care and killing them? Assuming that PAS suicide is legal under certain circumstances, how stringent need be these circumstances? The patient must be terminally ill to qualify for voluntary physician-assisted suicide, but in the eyes of the non-terminal patients with no physical means to end their life, the ending of their pain through PAS may be worth their death; at what point is the medical staff disregarding a patient’s autonomy? Due to the variability of answers to these questions, the debate over physician-assisted suicide is far from over. However, real life occurrences happen every day outside the realm of debate and rhetoric, and decisions need to be made.

42% of Americans have had a “friend” or “relative” suffer from a fatal, terminal illness or coma in the last “five years.” More than half of these patients and 23% of the “general public” could not obtain a life-sustaining treatment so, 84% of people approve that a terminally ill patient should be able to choose how and when they die, (NHDD). Assisted suicide - this is defined as the attempt to take one’s life with the intentional assistance of another person, usually a physician, (Duhaime). In five U.S states, physician-assisted suicide is legal, (ProCon). There are certain criteria that terminally ill patients must obtain in order to have the assisted suicide approved. For example, you must be eighteen or older, diagnosed with a terminal disease that will end your life within six months maximum, etc, (Physician Assisted Suicide). There are many benefits from assisted suicide, and it should be legalized in more states.

In 1994, Oregon voters passed the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which exempted, “from civil or criminal liability physicians who, in compliance with specific safeguards, dispense or prescribe (but not administer) a lethal dose of drugs upon the request of the terminally ill patient.” Oregon, to this day, remains the only state within the Union to allow physician-assisted suicide. In 1997, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a landmark case that, although there was no constitutionally protected right to physician-assisted suicide, states have permitted to pass laws allowing it. Thus, the issue of euthanasia remains widely open to philosophical, political, legal, and ethical challenges.