Assisted Suicide Essay - 1507 Words

Assisted Suicide (Euthanasia) There probably isn’t one person that can say that they haven’t watched somebody they love in some way suffer from and ultimately die from some sort of unfortunate disease. Assisted suicide is a very controversial topic in the United States. Physician assisted suicide is defined as suicide committed by a terminally ill person with help from another person. This subject causes many controversies of ethical and moral issues. Some of these issues are that it violates the doctors Hippocratic Oath, suicide is ruled wrong in many religions, and some even say it degrades the value of human life. However, physician assisted suicide should be legalized because it offers terminally ill people an opportunity for a†¦show more content†¦The two drugs offered for physician assisted suicide are secobarbital and pentobarbital. Secobarbital is the most commonly prescribed of the two forms. The medication typically come in 9 g of secobarbital in capsules or 10 g of pentobarbit al liquid, to be consumed at one time (Fass and Fass). Most everyone sees assisted suicide as morally wrong due to religious beliefs and changing their mind could be an impossible task. Others find it shouldn’t be legalized because too many people will see it as an easy way out, and people who could be cured or don’t even have a medical condition will be wanting to get a physician to give them a lethal dose of medicine too. In this regard, it is possible to suggest introducing legal changes, which could ban the application of assisted suicide without the consent of a patient and his/her relatives. On the other hand, there should be an opportunity for patients and their families to have the option of assisted suicide. At this point, the legislation should admit assisted suicide only in cases, when the further physical life of patients is pointless, for instance, when patients’ life is maintained by special medical equipment and there is no hope of recovery. In fa ct, such situations are cases, where patients would be dead if it were not for medical machines keeping them alive. It is argued that assisted suicide goes against the Hippocratic Oath of doctorsShow MoreRelatedA Brief Note On Assisted Suicide And Suicide1062 Words   |  5 PagesAfter researching assisted suicide I have more questions than when I started. The definition of assisted suicide is very factual: suicide facilitated by another person, especially a physician, who organized the logistics of the suicide, as by providing the necessary quantities of a poison (The definition of assisted suicide 2016). After much research I have learned that assisted suicide is an option one has to make depending on their moral standards, will to live, and how they want to die ratherRead More Euthanasia Essay - Assisted Suicide1579 Words   |  7 PagesAssisted Suicide/Euthanasia      Ã‚   Remarkably, few have noticed that frail, elderly and terminally ill people oppose assisted suicide more than other Americans. The assisted-suicide agenda is moving forward chiefly with vocal support from the young, the able-bodied and the affluent, who may even think that their parents and grandparents share their enthusiasm. They are wrong.    Thus the assisted suicide agenda appears as a victory not for freedom, but for discrimination. At its heartRead MoreDoctor Assisted Suicide And Suicide1585 Words   |  7 PagesDoctor assisted suicide is a topic that has recently become a much larger debated issue than before. A timeline put together by Michael Manning and Ian Dowbigging shows that prior to Christianity, doctor assisted suicide was something that was tolerated, and was not heavily questioned (2). Yet, in the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas had made a statement about suicide as well as doctor assisted suicide, and his words shaped the Catholic teaching on suicide into what they teach today. Beginning in theRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide Should Be Legal1578 Words   |  7 PagesOne of the alternative options is Physician-Assisted Suicide; defined as the voluntary termination of one’s own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician (â€Å"Physician-assi sted†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). In layman’s terms it means that a physician administers medications to the patients to use on their own terms, and it’s entirely up to the patient whether or not to ingest the medication. I know Physician-Assisted Suicide is a practical solution to terminally ill patients’Read MoreEssay Problems with Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide1262 Words   |  6 PagesEuthanasia Problems      Ã‚  Doctors do err on cancer patients survival times, so how can they say when the time is ripe for assisted suicide. A study in the July 1 issue of Cancer, the journal of the American Cancer Society, finds that doctors are often wrong in predicting how long terminally ill cancer patients will live. After studying the accuracy of doctors predictions regarding 233 patients with end-of-life cancer, the researchers found most doctors had a tendency to overestimate survivalRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide Essay1214 Words   |  5 Pagesrelentless pain and agony through physician assisted death? Physician-Assisted Suicide PAS is highly contentious because it induces conflict of several moral and ethical questions such as who is the true director of our lives. Is suicide an individual choice and should the highest priority to humans be alleviating pain or do we suffer for a purpose? Is suicide a purely individual choice? Having analyzed and even experience the effects of physician assisted suicide, I promote and fully support its legalityRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide Thesis Statement1679 Words   |  7 Pagesrequests for physician-assisted suicide are now a viable possibility. Knowing the pathways to answering to those patients, as their requests for assisted death persist, is upmost importance. As of June, 9th 2016 California became the fifth state to allow physician-assisted suicide. The California’s End of Life Option Act authorizes any individual 18 years of age or older, who has been diagnosed as terminally ill and fits specific criteria, to solicit administration of assisted dying drugs at the handsRead MorePhysician’s Assisted Suicide1063 Words   |  5 Pagesthe question may arise as to whether or not third parties should be allowed to intentionally end the life of the patient or help the patient commit suicide. Physician’s assisted suicide should be a legal option for terminally ill patients all throughout the United States. Currently in the US there are three states that have physician assisted suicide laws in place. Oregon was the first state to pass a law allowing physicians to help end the lives of the terminally ill. This law was called the 1997Read MoreThe Legalization of Assisted Suicide1291 Words   |  5 PagesAssisted Suicide has through out history caused controversy among our society. There are two sides to this issue, one that passionately supports it, and those who religiously disagree. I believe that assisted suicide should become legal for several reasons. Assisted suicide gives individuals the right to end their suffering when they personally feel that their time has come to die. Assisted suicide should become legal because if one can decide to put an animal out of its misery, why shouldn’t thatRead MoreThe Choice Of Assisted Suicide1314 Words   |  6 Pag esthe law so patients are allowed to lawfully receive assistance to peacefully pass away. The acceptability to acquire â€Å"assisted suicide† has been designed into five factors. It is the combination of a patient’s age, curability of illness, degree of suffering, mental status, and extent of patients requests for the procedure. Moreover, no discussion on assisted suicide is complete without looking into the experience of Oregon, which was the first state in the U.S. to pass the Death with Dignity