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Assisted Suicide Argumentative Essay

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On November 1, 2014, Brittany Maynard plans to take her life through a pill given to her by her physician. Maynard, a young, vibrant woman was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer a year after she got married. Brittany was only given six months to live with an illness that had no cure. Since only five states in the United States legalized physician- assisted suicide; Brittany family moved from California to Oregon. Brittany states, “The freedom is in the choice”, making certain that the world understands physician-assisted suicide should be at the discretion of the person. Now, Brittany is an advocate for legalizing physician-assisted suicide in all fifty states through Compassion & Choices. Physician-assisted suicide is when a doctor assists a patient who has the intention on ending their life because of a terminal illness. The patient request to receive a medication that will end their pain from their physician, the patient self-administers the medication. Therefore, the patient is in control of his or her own death date, ending their life painfully and peacefully. If society allows for …show more content…
In a study of patients specifically identified as terminally ill, 17-28% reported spending 10% or more of their income in health care costs outside of insurance premiums. (Donely and Danis, 184)
Patients start to feel like a burden to their caregivers because insurance companies only cover a certain amount of their bills. Economically taking care of a terminal ill person is very costly. According to Greer Donley and Marion Danis “ One study noted that 10-16% of terminally ill patients and/or their families had to take out a loan or mortgage, spend their savings, or obtain an additional job to cover medical care costs” (184). Some terminal ill patients fill guilty for having their family pay medical bills, instead of spending the money on other expenses to take care of the

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