The Death With Dignity Law

Yellowing of the skin, hollowed in eyes, hair loss, and habitual wheezing or shortness of breath is only an insubstantial glimpse of the rancid face of leukemia. It is estimated that around 1 million people in the United States are living with a terminal illness (Pan 2). Some people may feel hopeless, like their life is now meaningless due to their circumstance, and the hand they have been dealt. When something of this magnitude occurs in ones life, doctor assisted suicide should never be an option, or even a thought on their mind. Human euthanasia is ethically, and morally wrong. It violates the principles of medical ethics that doctors take, it costs less to keep a person alive, rather than die, and if this medication falls into the wrong hands, a murder could come about from it.

Brittany Maynard is a women who recommend to people to take assisted suicide because she does not want to see people suffer from pain. However, the author do not agree with her idea. She said that Maynard’s reasoning has a huge flaw. She suggested that people do not choose suicide lack dignity in order to people even take palliative medication but they still suffer pain, personality changes, and verbal, cognitive loss.

left alone by their doctors when the suffering becomes unbearable and use of the law is requested. “The most significant impact of the death with dignity law in Oregon has been to improve the care for all dying patients, by increasing awareness among doctors, allowing an open and honest conversation, improving pain management and palliative care, and providing patients with a sense of control and peace of mind.” Doctors are being aware of the causes and the good tis law really is, it is highly improving so many things dealing with life and health. A patient who is suffering intolerably needs the assistance from someone who will be there to help them in their end of life decision.

Euthanasia is the practice of purposefully ending someone’s life in order to relieve their pain and/or suffering. Euthanasia is legal in many countries including Belgium, France, India, Japan, and few states

According to Merriam-Webster euthanasia can be defined as “the act or practice of killing hopelessly sick or injured individuals […] in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy”. Don’t allow yourself to confuse euthanasia with Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS), there is in fact a slight difference. Physician-Assisted Suicide is

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

The Death With Dignity Act (DWDA) was passed in the state of Oregon on November 8, 1994, and allowed competent, terminally ill patients 18 years old or older and were also state residents to acquire a prescription of barbiturates from a doctor to end their own life when their anguish became intolerable.6 208 individuals died under the DWDA. 36% of patients who received the lethal prescription never took them.2 This insinuates that patients dealing with immense suffering from a terminal illness at least sought control over the situation.

First, Connecticut pro-choice supporters attempted to legalize the Death with Dignity Act three times since 2013, as they believe competent, terminally ill individuals in Connecticut should have the legal right to choose medically assisted death. Unfortunately, this legislation has not come to a vote in Connecticut; however, each time more people are supportive of the bill. The last Quinnipiac University Poll, completed in March 2015, has shown that by more than a 2-1 margin (63% vs. 31%), Connecticut voters support “allowing doctors to legally prescribe lethal drugs to help terminally ill patients end their lives” (C&C, Oregon, 2016). The “Death with Dignity Act” originated in Oregon, in 1997 with enough support to be the first state to pass the new law. Washington passed a similar law eleven years later, in 2008. Additionally, Colorado has been the most recent state to have this law passed on November 8, 2016. All the states have modeled after Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. Specifically, the law states that the person must be terminally ill with less than six months to live, also be at least eighteen

That mother’s world stopped turning in those moments as she felt her heart start beating uncontrollably. Her daughter who she quickly hugged that morning thinking there would be hundreds more was gone. Without a doubt that mother wishes she could have had a chance to hold her babies hand and say goodbye rather than her going in seconds. Thankfully, the Death with Dignity law gives families a cushion to lean on when it comes to saying goodbye. It does not have to be unexpected. This law allows families and friends to prepare themselves for the journey ahead of them instead of picking up the phone to heavyhearted news. In the past, patients have planned where their death will take place in order for them to experience it in the atmosphere they desire. “I will die upstairs in my bedroom that I share with my husband, with my mother and my husband by my side, and pass peacefully with some music that I like in the background” (PBS, 2014, para. 9). The woman who said these significant words is Brittany Maynard. She was 29 years old and had terminal brain tumor. This law is causing people to uproot their families and travel somewhere they have the type of freedom that remarkably all states should be providing to their people. Maynard packed up her life and moved her family from California to Oregon in order to take back control instead of the tumor deciding on her future, according to PBS news hour. Equally important, being comfortable while passing is one of the many benefits that comes with Death with Dignity law. It gives people a chance to carefully plan out the time they have left, make the best of situation up until the planned day, and cherish every moment to the fullest. “The 29-year-old has terminal brain cancer, and, last spring, doctors gave her six months to live. Instead she decided to die on her own time, November 1” (PBS, 2014, para. 7). This law is allowing

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.

Even though people think it is a way of getting rid of pain, it is considered suicide. Euthanasia is accepting and promoting suicide. If we allow to take somebody's life because of the pain the person has, people would take a life lightly and would be eased to think that suicide is the way of escaping from the problem. Every life is important and valuable so that we should not let anybody choose to die themselves by the choice of the

He was released on parole on June 1, 2007; on the condition that he would not offer suicide advice to any other person. “I will admit, like Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and some other philosophers, that there are instances where the death penalty would seem appropriate.” (Kevorkian)

The Greek word eu, which means good or well, and thanatosis, which means death, form the term euthanasia; therefore, it can be interpreted as “Good Death, Gentle and Easy Death, and acknowledge as mercy killing.” (A General History) People have suffered through the ages; in all times there has been mentally and physically ill persons, children and adults with disabilities, and incurable diseases. To relieve these patients from the burden of existence, euthanasia was practiced as a way to protect society from unnecessary burdens. Today, the suffering of an individual could be relieved if euthanasia was legalized. People have the right to die by their own will if they are in agony from an incurable disease.

Euthanasia is also known as mercy killing. Euthanasia is defined as an intentional action or lack of action causing the merciful death of someone suffering from a terminal illness or incurable condition. Mercy Killings most often happen from relatives of the victim. A man was convicted of mercy killing when he assisted in the death of his wife by giving his wife an additional amount of morphine who was on hospice suffering from cancer. She begged for him to help her pass peacefully. He thought he was doing well by his wife’s wishes. The man was sentenced to jail for the crime of Euthanasia. In some mercy killing cases the dependent were prosecuted and sentenced to jail while others were sentenced to probation. Is it ok to allow someone to suffer or help them pass peacefully? Unfortunately I don’t think that question will ever get answered. Euthanasia is very difficult for society and the courts to determine an outcome because each case is different and unique.

According to the Collins Canadian English Dictionary euthanasia is defined as “the act of killing someone painlessly, especially to relieve his or her suffering” (2004). Not everyone agrees with this definition. I have always believed that euthanasia was the human choice of ending another person's life because of the excruciating pain they are suffering due to an incurable disease. Some disciplines think that euthanasia should never be an option no matter what the situation. While other disciplines question the validity of the actions of the person helping with the actual euthanasia. Still others support euthanasia in all forms as long as it is performed for the sake of the patient who is suffering.