The Death Of A Patient Die

Death is one of the most significant life events people experience. Most people want to die a peaceful death and desire the same outcome for their family and friends. Medical advancements have resulted in people living longer lives with chronic illnesses. Despite the advancements in medicine and the available treatments of today, sometimes the patient is still unable to escape intolerable suffering; the patient’s quality of life diminishes.

The Declaration of Independence stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This shows that all Americans are secured with indisputable rights which must include the right to live life as well as end it if need be. Even though Physician Assisted Death is not listed in the Constitution, the Tenth Amendment states that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” However, in forty-four states, terminally-ill patients do not have the right to die. Physician Assisted Death is when a terminally-ill patient undergoes counseling before a trusted doctor can prescribe a lethal dose of drugs for the patient to terminate his life peacefully. Having Physician Assisted Death available as an option to terminally-ill will allow patients to exercise their inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness, relieve them from unbearable pain, and lessen the agony of the patient’s family.

A woman is thrashing in bed and crying from the pain her illness is causing her to feel. Her family rushes to find a nurse nearby to administer pain relieving medication. A nurse comes by to give palliative care to the woman that’s in agony. However, the strongest medication that’s at hand cannot relieve the pain without overdosing the patient. The terminally ill patient now has to live with intractable pain for the remaining days of her life. Physician Assisted Death is sometimes necessary in case state-of-the-art palliative care no longer works on the cancer patient. Terminal patients should have the option to control the circumstances surrounding their inevitable deaths with Physician Assisted Death to treat the pain.

Physicians should respect the patients decision to abandon life continuing treatment, deliberately causing death is morally impermissible.

As with religious groups many believe that it is morally wrong to commit such acts and that an individual would be in purgatory. Many other groups such as the Not Dead Yet believe that abuse would follow if such laws were allowed. Thus, more insurance companies would deny claims for treatment that would prolong life, due to the cost. Physicians would begin pushing for the “easy way out” because of ease of use and cost containment (Golden & Zoanni, 2010). Additionally, many believe that abuse of the system would occur in regards to the elderly or disabled, relieving the burden off families. Physicians and Pharmacists committed to an oath of do no harm and PAS would be in direct conflict. Lastly, Psychologists must also decide on whether it is ethical to evaluate an individual to determine if they are competent enough to decide to die. Unfortunately, some diseases as they progress take on the symptoms of depression, which would exclude an individual from receiving assistance from their physician (Johnson, Cramer, Conroy & Gardner, 2014). The exclusion itself would be an ethical concern because it would require the psychologist to attempt to separate physical illness from mental

Death is not a topic that many people are comfortable with, some people believe it is outrageous for others to play God and decide when to end their lives. While this is true for people with normal pains, there are those who feel they have the right to choose their own fate because they cannot bear their pain and suffering anymore. These are people that are terminally ill, people who were diagnosed with a deadly disease without a cure and feel that death is the only way to relieve that pain. These people has gone through many treatments that are slowly becoming less and less effective. Even though the treatment isn’t working, the patients still have to live through the pain from the treatments. Terminally ill

Suffering is a constant companion of humans today; people experience it every day, whether it be emotional or physical, internal or external. Living with a terminal illness is also living with suffering, both because of the physical pain that is felt, and also the emotional blows the patient experiences every day. A terminally ill patient has a monumental part of their life taken from them. Few aspects of life still remain in their control, because of doctors, family members, and the illness itself. However, there is a practice that places a final decision, the right to choose the circumstances of death, with the patient. Physician-assisted suicide (PAS), or physician

There are occasions when medicine is not your friend and the effects of the treatment will only prolong the suffering of the patient. Healthcare professionals must be objective and ask will the end result be changed. We must know when it is appropriate to discuss end of life options and when it is not. According to Adams (2015), most desire to die at home, but less than half are allowed to do so (p. 13). Our responsibility is to allow the client to make an educated decision about all the available service and treatments.

“A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running” Groucho Marx. The argument that physician-assisted suicide would dampen the value of life can go both ways. How is life valued when a patient doesn’t have much life to live? For a patient to be eligible, as stated earlier, they must be diagnosed with a terminal illness and six or less months to live. So though assisting these patients’ results in dying a premature death, the question is how much value is there in these last months of their lives? Every patient is different, and some use their last 6 months to go and do the things they’ve always wanted to do. Unfortunately, not every terminally ill patient is mobile or capable of taking care of himself or herself. It should be the right of the patient to die with dignity rather than being forced to live in a withered away body. The question is what’s more important: quality or quantity? For some of these patients it’s much more comforting knowing they have the option not to suffer, they can live their last little bit full of life before losing control of their bodies.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, “There are currently more than 1.3 million terminally ill patients in the United States waiting for the day that they will succumb to death.” Some are bed ridden, some are constantly consumed with systemic pain, some have no strength or desire to get out of bed and so they wait. They wait because they live in a state that says they do not have the right to die. Those who are healthy argue that it is immoral, ungodly and unethical for a medical doctor to practice physician assisted death. Government should not prohibit when and how terminally ill patients end their lives, they should regulate it.

Andrea Nakaya accurately describes the feelings of people with this fear: “To avoid the possible situation of being in a coma, with other people making decisions about their treatment, some people state their end-of-life wishes in legal documents. Then, if they somehow become unconscious or incompetent, doctors will still know how they wish to be treated” (Nakaya 8). People do not want to have to be dependent on others especially when they do not have a say-so in what the other person decides for them. When author Kevin Drum refers to this fear, he uses a true story of a man who desired assisted suicide for this reason: “He was afraid if he delayed any linger he’d become physically unable to remain in control of his own destiny. . . Since Harry lived in California, where assisted suicide was illegal, he had to be able to take his life without help” (Drum). Harry’s family was devastated to find him. He could not tell anyone his plans because they would send him to a mental hospital. Without legal assisted suicide, suicide hurts much more for loved ones because they won’t have a form of closure. Not to mention, to keep someone alive while they are miserable is inhumane, but regular suicide is also

Medical advances in developed countries has saved the lives of more individuals than ever before. Developments in the field of medicine have benefited terminal patients by reducing their pain and suffering. Medical advances can however prolong the death of a patient when they are in the final stages of dying. Many argue that this has resulted in patients not being able to end their life with dignity, particularly individuals who understand they are terminally ill. Terminally ill patients can live

Nowadays, with the rapid and dramatic development in medicine and technology physicians has the ability to save more lives than was possible back in the day. Unfortunately, cure for certain diseases has not been able to develop. Those patients in this condition has no other option than to wait for their death. Many patients in this condition seek self-suicide to stop the pain. It’s a delicate process not every state in the united State allow this procedure to happen. California is one of the state that support this initiative called “Assisted suicide”. It allows Physician to end the life of a terminally ill patient only if it’s requested by the patient. The rules for the consent of the aid-dying drug, varies from each states, but it mainly involves a prescription from a licensed physician approved by the state in which patient reside. For example in California, the patient shall submit two oral requests to a minimum of fifteen days apart, and a written request directly to it attending physician. (CNN, October 6, 2015)

Medical technology is far more advanced today then years of past. With the new and rapid expansions in knowledge and drug pharmacology the power of life and death lays in closer proximity than ever. With this comes the medical means to treat and diminish the anguish of people afflicted with sicknesses that were once incurable or agonizing. However, we are also in a time where medical technology has given us the power to sustain lives or prolong the death of patients whose physical and mental capabilities that cannot be restored. Patients, whose deteriorating conditions that cannot be overturned or even treated now have to suffer in pain that cannot be eliminated, only controlled. As medical professional fight to yank

1) Patients have the right to make their own informed decisions about if and how they die. When a chronically ill patient decides life is no longer worth living because of the insurmountable pain they are in, who are we to tell them differently? There are cases where attempts to cure are doing more harm than good, not only mentally and physically to the patient, but emotionally to his family and loved ones as well.