The Rights Of Assisted Suicide

Now that I’ve demonstrated that my ethical theory can be used to make educated decisions in situations that we can potentially face daily, how does my ethical theory fit with issues of life or death? My ethical theory focuses more on issues that an individual will face in their everyday life. It does not directly deal with issues of life and death; however you can still go through the core concepts to make a decision. For instance, let's take a look at assisted suicide.

The promotion of physician assisted suicide has sparked a debate throughout the world. From my point of view, assisted suicide is doctors assist patients who could not endure the pain of diseases and are voluntarily given lethal amount of substances resulting in death. However, physician assisted suicide might be considered to be deviant in many countries currently due to the religions, laws and the negative image. Also, the physicians who assist their patients to suicide might be labelled as "killers". For instance, Jack Kevorkian, who was known for successfully assisting more than 130 patients to end their lives, was charged with second degree murder and was

Brittany Maynard was given six months to live after being diagnosed with the deadliest form of brain cancer; she had recently just turned 29. To make matters worse, doctors had told her she would suffer from the tumor in a slow and painful manner before succumbing to death. Maynard decided she would die on November 1, a few days after her husband’s birthday under physician-assisted suicide. Unfortunately, she had to relocate from California, where her friends and family lived, to Oregon in order to fall under the “Die With Dignity” act. According to euthanasia.procon.org, only four states in the whole country have legalized assisted suicide. Unfortunately, there are many like Maynard, who have to relocate and leave their home or go through a long and strenuous court battle to receive this treatment plant. This is due to the disapproval of physician-assisted suicide.

In making their ruling, which reversed the Ninth Circuit’s holding, the Court focused on two arguments, namely whether there was a fundamental right to assist another in attempting suicide, and whether Washington State has a legitimate interest in prohibiting assisted suicides. On the first question, after surveying the history, customs, and legal traditions of the nation, the Court found that there has never been a right to assist another in attempting suicide. To the contrary, the Court that not only was there no finding of a protection for assisted suicide, suicide itself has been broadly and extensively prohibited. The prohibition has occurred historically and have continued up until the present as illustrated by the number of state law prohibitions as well as recent federal rules prohibiting federal funds from being used to assist in suicides. Accordingly, under the Court’s analysis, there is no fundamental right to assisted suicide. Even without being a fundamental right, the Washington law might still be unconstitutional if it did not relate to a rational interest of the state. In the Court’s judgment, however, Washington had a rational interest in prohibiting assisted suicides as its allowance could lead to a wide range of negative conditions and circumstances, such as the state’s duty to

You’re visiting the hospice for the twenty-third day in a row; the soft squeaking of the linoleum and the gentle buzz of the fluorescents in the waiting room greet you as you walk in. You’re visiting your Grandmother, whose lung cancer has entered metastasis, and has been slowly spreading throughout her body; she has already lost movement in her arms. She is a hollow shell of the woman she once was; her once bright eyes have been fading steadily every day, and her bubbly demeanor has become crushed and gravelly, and every day before you leave, she will only say, “Kill me.” What would you do in this situation? Would you break the law in order to respect your elder’s wishes? It is a cruel reality we live in when ability to choose the time

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld court decisions in Washington and New York states that criminalized physician-assisted suicide on July 26, 1997.12 They found that the Constitution did not provide any “right to die,” however, they allowed individual states to govern whether or not they would prohibit or permit physician-assisted suicide. Without much intervention from the states individuals have used their right to refuse medical treatment resulting in controversial passive forms of euthanasia being used by patients to die with dignity such as choosing not to be resuscitated, stopping medication, drinking, or eating, or turning off respirators.9

id you know, from “1998 to 2003, 171 patients died using AS” according to The Oregon Department of Human Services (Ersek, 50). AS stands for Assisted Suicide and Physician Assisted Suicide is the practice of providing a terminally ill patient with a prescription for medication to use with the main intention of ending his or her own life. “These actions included delivering the prescription for a lethal drug dose to the patient’s home, helping the patient take the lethal dose by crushing a medication and adding it to ice cream or pudding, placing the medication in the patient’s mouth, or instilling the medication into an enteric tube” (Ersek 51). The right to assisted suicide is an important topic that alarms people all over the US. The controversies

As a human first with Christian beliefs, physician assisted suicide would be a moral issue for me. It is

In the 21th century, human understanding for life and death reaches a new level. With great advance in medical technique and quality of life, people not only attach importance to the sanctity of life, but also think highly of value and quality of life. Based on such shift in people 's concept and comprehension, in recent years there arises a series of physician assisted suicide cases throughout the world. Assisted suicide means the deliberate hastening of death by a terminally ill patient with assistance from a doctor, family member or another individual. In contemporary world, there has been a continuingly heated debate on this highly controversial issue, especially whether or not for legislative bans. So far doctor-assisted suicide is still illegal in most countries. Later in 2000, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize euthanasia. However, to local government 's shock, their country became the destination of suicide-committing tourists. Assisted suicide involves our rights about living and death, involves the dignity of life, at the same time, it associates with unclear relationship between medicine and law. Generally, assisted suicide should not be legalized. Anyway, it is a murder or suicide, which is always irrational behavior, thus our society should in no case encourage its occurrence.

One of the truly combative issues that is being deliberated today, both morally and legally is assisted suicide, occasionally well-known as active euthanasia. Assisted suicide is the action of directly overriding in order to end the life of a terminally ill patient. Euthanasia", comes from Latin "eu" for "good" and "Thanatos" for "death" (OCRT 1). “As John Cooper has noted (Cooper 1989, 10), neither ancient Greek nor Latin had a single word that aptly translates our ‘suicide,’ even though most of the ancient city-states criminalized self-killing”. Countless people in this country are surviving in a living death, be in pain on a day to day basis. The Declaration of Independence provides Americans with three rights: Life, Liberty,

Aaron discusses the effects that a mercy killing can make in our society contradicting some

Before reading this book I felt almost oblivious to how mentally ill someone can be without others knowing. The Best parts of the book were also the worst. The amount of detail that was displayed in the killer's point of view was exceedingly chilling. By the end of the book, I had very mixed feelings about everything. I just couldn't understand why the perpetrator waited that long to attempt to kill Lincoln off. He has had so many opportunities why now? I did feel that the whole assisted suicide was a tad bit overplayed throughout the book. Lincoln did suffer from depression, but the way they portrayed it, in the end, did throw me off. I would definitely recommend this book to other people. Though it does have scenes that are a bit harsh for

When we are born we are told that we have "free will", either by some form of higher power, or some other greater force. As such, it appears reasonable that one would have some preconceived right to choose whether or not they seek death in the case of a terminal illness. This choice to hasten our death for much of the world is not truly ours to make, with adversaries of assisted-suicide opposing the legalization of such acts, we are forcing beliefs onto others who prefer to pass at a time of their own choosing, and not be faced with the undignified process of dying caused by their illness. Who our “we” to make choices and hold the same standards for everyone, shouldn’t there be a

I would without a shadow of a doubt lend my support after viewing the video, in the event that one of my relatives had a terminal condition and wanted to end his or her life by assisted suicide. Likewise, I would support them in light of the fact that, I love them and if this is what they want to do to end their pain and suffering then I will support them any way I can. My constraints in permitting this activity would be to advise them to seek medical assistance, but I would not support them if they decided to shoot themselves in the head. Furthermore, I am totally against using firearms because I feel that it is not right under any circumstances unless you are defending yourself.

Do people have the right to die? Is there, in fact, a right to die? Assisted suicide is a controversial topic in the public eye today. Individuals choose their side of the controversy based on a number of variables ranging from their religious views and moral standings to political factors. Several aspects of this issue have been examined in books, TV shows, movies, magazine articles, and other means of bringing the subject to the attention of the public. However, perhaps the best way to look at this issue in the hopes of understanding the motives behind those involved is from the perspective of those concerned: the terminally ill and the disabled.