...the term "physician assisted suicide" meant the provision by a physician of the means of which a suffering, terminally ill patient could initiate his or her death. The "euthanasia" means the killing of a terminally ill person to end his or her suffering. Now, by practice, the term "physician assisted suicide" has been expanded in meaning to include the administration of a lethal substance by a physician to a suffering patient-a form of euthanasia. Thus, physician assisted suicide can now be defined as any action taken by a physician to provide death to a patient. Many people argue that the decision to kill oneself is a private choice which society has no right to be concerned about. This position assumes that suicide results from competent people making autonomous, rational decision to die, and then claims that society has no business "interfering" with a freely chosen life or death decision that harms no one other the suicidal individual. However, according to experts, who have studied several cases on suicide, the basic assumption is wrong. It is very unlikely that someone with serious disability commits suicide. Rather, as society view seriously disabled and terminally ill individuals as burdens with unacceptable quality of life, these persons may feel an obligation to commit suicide. A careful 1974 British study, which involved extensive interviews and examination of medical records, found that 93% of those studied who committed suicide were mentally ill at...
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...Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide debate Mary Gundersen HCA 322 November 18, 2013 Linda Hoppe Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide debate Euthanaisa and assisted suicide are heated battle, in which lines have been drawn between warning social, religious, and political groups. Several individuals want this controversial institution erased from the volumes of lawful medicine, but others say that should be able to choose our fates in extreme cases. Either the law makers, neither the country, nor the citizens could find a solution to this debate without causing an intense opposition and the possibility for an end to this war of ethics seems very far in the distance. The definition of euthanasia is a painless killing, especially to end a painful and incurable disease; mercy killing. This intentional termination of life by another is at the request of the person who dies because like so many other religious, social, and political terms, euthanasia has various meanings. The passive euthanaisa is defines the hastening of death of a person by withdrawing several types of support and letting nature take it is course, instance of his are, removing life support systems, stopping medical procedures, stopping food, and water, not delivering CPR and letting the patient’s heart stop. The several common form of passive euthanaisa is to give a person large doses of morphine to control pain despite the likely hood that the pain killer would suppress respiration, thus causing death earlier than normal...
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...truth to the parents and or coach. Although not as controversial as assisted suicide it poses significant risks and eyebrow raises in the sports world. Doctors, nurses, and various medical personal have a harder role. They wager people’s lives and future and decide in some countries whether or not to permit such an act. In this essay we will explore the facts on Euthanasia: Assisted Suicide, my view, the world view and its progress. Before I begin, however, let me note what I will not try to do. I will not try to show you that Physician Assisted Suicide is a fully justifiable course of action what I will do is give you facts and statistics of this rapidly growing controversial issue.. What I will show you is the compatibility to the commitment to good end-of-life care. One of the most important public policy debates today surrounds the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The outcome of that debate to whether or not it should be made available will profoundly affect family relationships, interaction between doctors and patients, and concepts of basic ethical behavior. Although not accepted widespread, the thought and ease of relocation to a place where it is available is an option many people are considering. By definition Physician-Assisted Suicide is defined as a physician providing medications or other interventions to a patient with understanding that the patient intends to use them to commit suicide. In contrast to Euthanasia defined as, intentionally administering...
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...Physician-Assisted Suicide Suffering has always been a part of human existence. Request to end suffering by means of death through both physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia have occurred since the beginning of medicine. By definition, assisted suicide is a type of active euthanasia in which a physician facilitates a patient’s death by providing the necessary means of death to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act. Usually by prescribing a lethal dose of drugs but the patient is responsible for performing the final act (Codes of Ethics). Even though physician- assisted suicide is illegal, many people and doctors believe that it should be legal to help terminally ill people at the end of their life while others believe it is against their beliefs and religion to commit any type of suicide. This paper is going to show why doctor assisted suicide should be legalized because at the end of their lives, most people do not want to suffer. Only a terminal ill patient is really aware of what it is like to experience intractable suffering; even with pain relievers. Those who have not experiences it cannot fully appreciate what effect it has on quality of life. Apart from physical pain, overcoming the emotional pain of losing independence is an additional factor that only the patient comprehends fully. In medicine prolongation of living may sometimes turn into prolongation of dying. Why should be a patient be forced experience a slow death? Many families don’t want to see...
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...My Thoughts on Euthanasia HCA322 Instructor Thomas April Steinberg May 3, 2010 Any discussion of euthanasia obliges a person to confront humanity’s greatest fear—death (Pozgar, 2010). There are numerous debates about the legality of assisted suicide, some people argue that physician assisted suicide is immoral, they have religious objections to assisted suicide, whilst others believe that they should be able to end their suffering in a manner and time which suits them and die with dignity. In this paper, I will discuss my thoughts and feelings about the subject, my opinion regarding its impact on “special populations”, as well as to briefly mention the laws governing euthanasia in the state of Ohio. I feel that I deserve the right to live, and by the same token, to die the same way I lived, with the ability to make my own choices, and to die with dignity. Other peoples need to believe in a higher power, however has stripped my right to die with dignity away from me. These religious fanatics believe that for me to have a physician assist me in dying that I am in turn “playing God”. If that is the case then what if a person is bleeding to death from an accidental cut, should we not just watch and let death occur? To intervene would challenge God's prerogative to determine the time and place of death, would it not? For some reason, however religious people do not believe that to be the case. Sounds to me like a case of contradiction, but that is for another discussion...
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...Should Physician-assisted suicide be legalized in Canada? Introduction The topic of legalizing Physician-assisted suicide has long been a controversial issue in Canada and has recently received increased attention. In 1993, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the provisions of the Criminal Code prohibiting assisted suicide. Two decades later, the Supreme Court of Canada began to deliberate whether to uphold or strike down the law prohibiting doctor-assisted suicide. Last month, the nine justices of the Supreme Court heard impassioned pleas for overturning Canada’s absolute prohibition against assisted suicide, with proponents arguing laws that consider the act equivalent to murder are a violation of personal autonomy and infringe the Charter of Rights and Freedom that provides for “life, liberty and security of the person” (Connor, 2014). The hearing sparked fresh debates across the country. Opponents argue that legalizing physician-assisted suicide would lead society down a dangerous "Slippery Slope" that leads to involuntary euthanasia and the killing of people who are thought undesirable. In addition, opponents argue that legalizing physician-assisted suicide gives too much power to doctors and it may reduce the availability of palliative care. The aim of this paper is to make a comprehensive argument in favor of physician-assisted suicide. Physician-Assisted suicide & Euthanasia Physician-assisted suicide occurs for any situation where doctors use drugs or other methods...
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...Assisted Suicide Yusuf J. Shalah HSA 515 Dr. James Coon 1. Explain how the Patient Bill of Rights applies to the situation. With regards to this situation, the Patient’s Bill of Rights was established to contribute to more effective patient care, and to ensure that care is considerate and respectful, and more importantly, to ensure a health care ethic that extends that respect to a patient’s role in decision-making about treatment choices and other aspects of their care. “These rights can be exercised on the patient’s behalf by a designated surrogate or proxy decision maker if the patient if the patient lacks decision making capacity, is legally incompetent or is a minor.”(Aha, 1993) Mrs. Jones, in our scenario, is a patient evidently suffering from a terminal illness possibly in its latter stages, or possibly a fresh diagnosis. In either situation, from the information provided Mrs. Jones has made no declaration, or request, agreement to receiving an extra dose of a narcotic which could potentially end her life. Thus, Nancy nurses’ decision to administer this extra dose is not only capable of killing her, but is also premeditated. There is no consideration to her wishes, those of her family, and a blatant disregard of any other health professionals involved. If you are to be justified in helping someone to die (assisted suicide), the person you are going to ‘help’ must have made it clear that they want to be killed. “A unilateral decision that is...
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...A Good Death ENG 155 Advanced Composition For the terminally ill, death in advanced modern societies can often be described as undignified. Terminally ill patients are frequently connected to machines, tubes, and a variety of other life-support equipment. They experience intolerable pain that would be inconceivable to a healthy individual. The terminally ill patient is often left with no option other than to die in an impersonal medical institution. They are unable to get out of bed, feed themselves or even go to the bathroom without assistance. As reported recently in a survey issued by the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, “Many of the 550,000 American patients who die of cancer each year spend their last days in distress, suffering from pain, nausea, fatigue and depression” (Toufexis). In such circumstances there is no means for a terminally ill patient to sustain their dignity in the dying process. Unfortunately, much of the misery suffered by the terminally ill is done so needlessly. Surveys indicate that along with the loss of a patient’s dignity and quality of life is the fear of facing death in uncontrollable pain. A recent survey by the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine And National Research Council indicated that, nine million Americans are now living with cancer and about...
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...Legalizing the Right to Your Own Life The term assisted suicide refers to the practice of a physician giving a patient, per their request, a prescription for a lethal drug which the patient would consume as a means of ending their own life. Assisted suicide should be legalized for any and all people who seek this out in order to put an end to their life. People deserve to have a right to their own bodies and lives, so if they choose to put an end to it, they should not be restricted in their access to a way of doing so. Much of the debate over whether assisted suicides should be legalized has to do with whether people have the right to die along with the right to live, whether or not people should have to suffer, the Hippocratic Oath that physicians have to abide by, and religious standpoints. Many of these arguments have an ethical grounding, and deal with the morality of the action of a suicide. Originally, assisted suicide was known as, or synonymous with euthanasia, which is the killing of a person out of and by a doctor’s mercy for that person. Many people tend to equate euthanasia with physician assisted suicide because both involve having the help of a physician. However, physician assisted suicide differs from euthanasia because it requires the patient’s consent and an evaluation of the patient before the patient is given a prescription for lethal drugs. The practice of an assisted suicide where it is currently legal, involves a patient who is terminally ill, and has...
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...Impact of Voluntary/Assisted Euthanasia Luellen Lawler, Soma Philip, Annamma Anto, and Janice Haddock Team Green, Grand Canyon University Ethical Decision Making in Health Care 437 V Dr. Ann Leslie Claesson September 01, 2012 Analysis of an Ethical Dilemma, Impact of Voluntary/Assisted Euthanasia There are several topics in the field of biomedical ethics that are controversial and by nature require careful examination of one’s own values and viewpoints. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of voluntary or assisted euthanasia and the ethical implications it entails in relation to the profession of nursing. Nurses have the responsibility to act in their patient’s best interests. However, that may become difficult in the event that a patient asks for help in the task of ending his or her own life. There were two case scenarios provided for review concerning the topic of voluntary or assisted euthanasia. The common ethical implication among nurses involved in these particular cases seems to be the ambivalence they experience in relation to their level of involvement. Although nurses worldwide are confronted with euthanasia requests from patients, the views of nurses on their level of involvement in euthanasia remains unclear (Dierkx de Casterle, Verpoort, De Bal, & Gastmans, 2006). It stands to reason that palliative care nurses in particular, would have the highest frequency of experience with patients who are requesting assisted euthanasia. To...
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...End of Life: Assisted Suicide PHI208: Ethics and Moral Reasoning Instructor: Shawn Lorenzen September 29, 2014 Moral and ethical debates attempted to resolves controversial issues but never seem to end with everyone agreeing. Often these ethical and moral debates are complex, involve opinions persuaded by religion or customs, and have legal implications to consider. Physician assisted death is one of these very complex and controversial issues that all people will never agree on. Many questions arise in the debate of physician assisted death such as patients’ rights, physicians controlling the right if someone lives or dies, a patience’s mental state, a family member’s rights, religious beliefs of the parties involved and the law. Philosophers attempt to explain the different theories that people will use to argue their belief systems in terms of logic and reasoning. For example, some people may take the position of a deontologist who would argue that it is our moral duty to support and sustain life therefore assisted suicide should not be allowed. Unfortunately, this very emotional thought provoking debate is not a “black and white issue,” as most ethical arguments are not. In the situation of physician-assisted death, I disagree with the deontologist point of view that it is immoral for a physician to assist a patient in suicide. I believe as some relativist due, that as long as the patient is fully capable of making this decision and the patient is in a constant state...
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...Should Physicians Be Allowed to Assist in Patient Suicide Ethical Issues in the Biomedical Science Jennifer Ricardo PHI 352- PK Barry University Introduction The issue of physician-assisted suicide has come to be one of the most controversial legal issues in recent history. In my opinion I think that the law is designed to lay out guidelines for the social conduct of individuals in society. Yet, within this definition there are extremes on both ends of the spectrum in which the law encompasses. The question of whether or not physicians can legally prescribe and administer lethal doses of medication to mentally competent patients who suffer from the issue of physician-assisted suicide has become a heated topic. Whether or not physicians can legally prescribe and administer lethal doses of medication to mentally competent patients who suffer from untreatable pain is not an easily conclusive issue. Rather, the question of the ethics is the pressing legal matter. Some may argue that life should be ended in its due time and not tampered with, yet I cannot agree with this. I strongly feel that mentally competent adults who are in a constant state of suffering and who know, and have been told that death is inevitable have the right to commit suicide with the aid of a physician. If the person so wishes to end their life it should not lay blame on the physician who assisted in the matter. Medically Ethical Behavior Ethical behavior is defined my moral principals or value...
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...life. However, that same person would be forced to stand by and watch their spouse, parent, or even their child suffer unimaginable pain. The question is, why does our humanity have to go out the window when dealing with human pain and suffering? Modern government intrudes on our lives in such a constant and consistent manner that it even denies us the intensely personal choice of death when faced with a complete loss of quality of life. The reasons behind this horrible reality are centered mostly around the fact that religious beliefs affect social policy in our country to a significant degree. The idea of separation of Church and State seems to have broken down over the years. Politicians even use their religion as a reason why people should vote for them, when it shouldn’t even be allowed to be a factor in an election. In fact, for a candidate to state that he’s for mercy killing guarantees that he’ll be attacked politically by religious right-to-life groups that suggest he’s immoral and unfeeling, when the exact opposite is probably true. However, like abortion, the debate over assisted suicide is an emotionally charged one. It is nearly impossible to discuss causing death of any kind under any circumstances without considering the moral and ethical consequences, especially as they would apply to the medical profession. Even so, to quote Bishop Spong, “I believe that we live in a country which endows its citizens with certain inalienable rights. Among those rights...
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...Our democracy should not legalize active voluntary, active nonvoluntary euthanasia, or physician-assisted suicide, but should be given as a choice to patients in some extreme cases. Euthanasia is defined as the painless killing of a patient suffering from a terminal illness, disability, or coma. Euthanasia has sparked a strong debate in society, and continues to be controversial on whether it should be practiced at all. Euthanasia attacks the basis of many individual’s ethical beliefs and causes many to fear that how individuals view life will deteriorate in life. The debate also disrupts the world of physicians and their morals on if they want to be given the power to take a patient’s life. But the most salient person to make the decision is the patient. The patient has their own beliefs and choices on how they would like to leave this world. However, because of the harm that could be done to the value of human life and the vulnerable of society, the practice of either euthanasia or physician-assisted...
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...The Ethics for Nurses in Medically Assisted Suicide Physician-assisted suicide also known as PAS, is a controversial topic everywhere; some believe if a patient is terminally ill then it should be permissible while others believe it is against their beliefs and religion to commit any type of suicide. Physician-assisted suicide is when a patient requests the help of digesting a lethal drug to quicken their death (United States Physician Assisted Suicide Law Summary and Law Digest par. 1). The most common patients to request assisted suicide are patients with cancer and AIDs. Active euthanasia is sometimes also considered physician-assisted suicide because it results in death from someone purposely doing something to the patient causing them to die; such as being injected with poison. Passive euthanasia is the withholding of a medical treatment for a patient, which is legal, but many come to be disagreed upon. Withholding food and water, turning off machines, and failing to resuscitate are prime examples of passive euthanasia (United States Physician Assisted Suicide Law Summary and Law Digest par. 1). There are currently three states that permit physician-assisted suicide, Washington and Oregon. On October 27, 1997, the Death with Dignity Act was passed in Oregon. The Death with Dignity Act states that an Oregonian that is terminally-ill has the right to voluntarily, self-administrate lethal medications with a prescription from their physician. On March 5, 2009, Washington passed...
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