...Assisted Suicide Letithia Terry PHI103: Informal Logic Kurt Mosser June 6, 2011 Assisted Suicide Assisted Suicide is when the physician provides the necessary means or information and the patient performs the act. Euthanasia is where the physician performs the intervention defined as the “act of bringing about the death of a hopelessly ill and suffering person in a relatively quick and painless way for reason of mercy (as cited in Mosser 2010). Physician Assisted Suicide has grown to be a controversial issue and one of the major disputes is; can an incurable ill patient be able to choose Physician assisted suicide? This phenomenal dilemma has risen debates on rather to legalize PAS or keep it illegal because of the different issues concerning the different religion, moral and ethical views people have on the topic. In this essay I will discuss issues of why many people and I believe assisted suicide should be legalized. There are different laws around the world concerning physician assisted suicide and only a few states that has legalized the procedure. In 2005, there were only four places in the world that open and legally authorize assistance in dying patients: “Oregon (since l997, physician-assisted suicide only); Switzerland (1941, physician and non-physician assisted suicide only); Belgium (2002, permits 'euthanasia' but does not define the method and the Netherlands (voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide...
Words: 1850 - Pages: 8
...killed swiftly such as pneumonia, cholera, and massive heart attacks, have been replaced by chronic and, often, degenerative diseases such as advanced cancers, diabetes, lung disease, and Alzheimer’s, leading to a slow death for most (Gardner, 2012). This places a great financial burden on the Medicare system as well as patient’s families. Atul Gawande (2010) reports that twenty five percent of all Medicare spending is for the five percent of patients who are in their final year of life, and most of that money goes for care in their last couple of months, which is of little apparent benefit (p. 3). Even more concerning is the suffering that many patients are forced to endure due to the lack of other options. Patients must have the right to make autonomous decisions regarding the end of their lives. They need to be confident that those decisions will be upheld, even if they conflict with the wishes of their families or physicians. However, patient confidence in knowing that their final wishes will be met is complicated by a lack of education and empowerment for those who face these difficult decisions (Frank & Anselmi, 2011). The purpose of this essay is to discuss the benefits to patient autonomy and the Medicare budget, by the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. Legalizing Euthanasia: A Practical Approach Imagine that your beloved pet suffered a stroke and could no longer eat, drink, walk, or care for itself the way it had been able to do...
Words: 2318 - Pages: 10
...Exploratory essay “Physician assisted suicide” Physician assisted suicide (PAS) is the voluntary termination of one's life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician. It is legal in a few countries like the Netherlands. In the United States it is legal in only the state of Oregon. It is a very controversial topic with 3 different opinions groups. The group of people who are for it, those who are opposed to it and there is a third neutral group which is composed of medical associations. The first group is composed of the pro PAS .They argue that there are some patients who experience terrible suffering that can't be relieved by any other of the therapeutic techniques nursing has to offer, and some of those patients desperately seek deliverance. For pro PAS, PAS is not about doctors killing patients , but it is about patients whose pain cannot be relieved. Physicians who consider it merciful to help a patient to die by writing a prescription are not criminals. Supporters of PAS feel It is cruel to leave patients who need such help to find for themselves solutions to end their own lives, solutions that can be traumatic when human assistance can be available. The physicians have obligations, but when a cure is impossible and palliation has failed to achieve its objectives, there is always a remaining obligation to relieve suffering. If the physician has used...
Words: 935 - Pages: 4
...Should Assisted Suicide be Legal? Stefan C Sooter HUM/115 October 12, 2015 Beverly Sessoms Should Assisted Suicide be Legal? As I type this opening paragraph for my essay, I should precursor this by saying that I'm beginning this piece as a non-advocate for assisted suicide. It's not just about my religious views, but also for the fact that I believe that with modern medical miracles, anything can happen. If you tap out of the fight too early, you may never know what could have happened. I understand that the situation can feel hopeless, and one can be in so much pain that one may feel like they can't take anymore, but I've witnessed first-hand desperate situations turn into miracles. My father was diagnosed in 2009 with Stage 3 Esophageal cancer. The chances of him living, especially at 65 years old, were thirty-three percent, at best. Today, he is one hundred percent in remission and living his life as a healthy senior man. That example alone is my reason for not believing in assisted suicide. A publication in the Evening Chronicle states that assisted suicide may be a dangerous law to pass. If legalized, it could set a precedent for those that are disabled or terminally ill to take their lives as to not be a burden to their family or friends (Anonymous, 2010). The author also goes on to discuss how legalizing assisted suicide could, "create pressure, particularly on those who are newly physically challenged, to end their lives. We should be fighting for proper health...
Words: 645 - Pages: 3
...Against Humanity: Euthanasia Tolga Arslan ESL 160-03: Combined Skills VI Professor Roxanne Leach April 24, 2013 Tolga Arslan 4/24/2013 ESL 160-3 Library Report Essay Professor Roxanne Leach Against Humanity: Euthanasia Euthanasia is a serious political, moral, and ethical issue in today’s society. Euthanasia is putting people in a painless death or when terminally ill people choose to end his or her life with a doctor’s help. The word euthanasia comes from Greek “eu”, goodly or well and “thanatos” death, so it is good death. This short definition is a cause of all those debates all over the world. Doctors, politicians, religious leaders, lawyers, and general public argue for euthanasia, whether it should be legalized or not. Euthanasia is a serious topic because it goes against the standards of traditional medicine. First, doctors have to take the Hippocratic Oath to become a real doctor. The Hippocratic Oath says do whatever you can to save people’s life. Euthanasia says just kill them if they want to die. Which doctor can kill their client if they have taken the Hippocratic Oath or if they are real doctors? Second, euthanasia is not always applied to terminally ill patients either. People who have been in serious accidents, or who have debilitating diseases are often consideration for the application of euthanasia. The problem is, these patients are neither in a coma nor senseless. According to http://www.euthanasia.cc, “A pair of identical twins has died after...
Words: 1073 - Pages: 5
... MEDICAL ETHICS: THE TRUTH BEHIND END OF LIFE MATTER 2 Medical Ethics: The truth behind end of life matter When it comes to death and dying, the medical processes of these notions are highly controversial in ethical means. All forms of end of life are illegal in Canada, whether it is voluntary/non-voluntary euthanasia, assisted suicide, and some cases of refusal of treatment. These procedures affect someone who is terminally ill, undergoing a disease, experiencing severe,...
Words: 2775 - Pages: 12
...comes from a Greek phrase meaning “good death”. However, in today’s society it means killing a terminally ill person as a way to end that person’s pain and suffering (Cundiff, 1992 ). In the year 2007, my grandfather the Honorable Leon Davis was dying. This American war hero had made a request to die with dignity. He was dealing with a failed kidney, pneumonia, dementia, hypertension, MRSA foot infection, a broken hip, and terrible living conditions at a nursing home. All these problems left him weak and physically dependent on others. For terminally ill patients like my grandfather, where death was inevitable and would have been less painful than living, euthanasia should be a consideration or an option. Euthanasia is a way of relieving terminally or severely ill people's pain and save them from the agony of their illness. People claim that the right to die is protected by the same constitutional safeguards that promise such rights as marriage, and the refusal or termination of life-saving medical treatment. This essay will discuss why or why not ill people should have the right to end their suffering with a quick, dignified, and merciful death by the means of Euthanasia. Legalizing Euthanasia In the 1970s , a movement that had tried to legalize some form of euthanasia, and it has been referred to as the “Right to Die” Movement (Yount, 2000, p. 12 ). They believe that competent adults with less those six months to live should be legally permitted not only to refuse life-sustaining...
Words: 1093 - Pages: 5
...Knowledge Area Module VI Contemporary Issues and the Ethical Delivery of Health Services Student: Harold Taitt, harold.taitt@waldenu.edu Student ID # A00293212 Program: Ph.D. Health Services Specialization: Health Management and Policy Faculty Mentor: Dr. Robert Hoye, robert.hoye@waldenu.edu Faculty Assessor: Dr. Jim Goes, jim.goes@waldenu.edu Walden University May 10, 2013 Abstract Breadth Component In this age of rapidly evolving technological advances, many of the legal and ethical issues that are challenging the delivery of health care and the health care profession are new. As we confront the legal, moral, and ethical aspects of health care, we are seldom faced with decisions that require or are resolved by simple right or wrong answers (Edge & Kreiger, 1998). In the Breadth component of KAM VI, I focus on several ethical theories and how those theories influence the way ethical issues and concerns are addressed and managed in the allocation and delivery of health care services. I critically assess and evaluate those theories, concepts, and derivative principles as they impact important decisions and the implications of those decisions within the context of social change and with special emphasis on health care management and policy. In addition, I discuss the key assumptions on which the selected theories are constructed, compare and contrast the writers’ interpretations across theories, and conclude by providing a critical commentary on the merits of the selected...
Words: 34918 - Pages: 140
...Death with Dignity If we assume that every human being born into this world has a "right to life," then it logically follows that every human being has a right to end their life (or a "right to die"). Because death is a part of life, a person's right to life logically assumes a right to not have that life. Thus, any law upholding a person's right to life has inherent within that same law a person's right to die, otherwise it would not be a right to life in the true sense of the term. But there is a legal battle going on in America right now over whether or not a person has a right to die. Does the government have the right to prolong your life by artificial means whether you desire it or not? With the passing of this law nationwide, you, as the voter will simply be saying, “It is YOUR choice” (Patashnik, 2004) The issue of “Having a Personal Right to Die,” has been long simmered beneath the surface in legal and political circles: under what circumstances do terminally injured and ill Americans have the right to choose to die? The Supreme Court made a definitive statement in the landmark 1990 case Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Dept. of Health that severely injured patients have a constitutional right to refuse medical treatment and die. But the court also ruled that states can require "clear and convincing" evidence of a patient's intent to forgo medical treatment, a rather high evidentiary standard to meet. History The actual word for “having a right to die” is Euthanasia...
Words: 4441 - Pages: 18
...EDUCATION AND TRAINING LEGAL AND EThICAL IssUEs Of EUThANAsIA: ARGUmENTATIvE EssAy Bilal S. H. Badr Naga Majd T. Mrayyan (1) Bilal S. H. Badr Naga., MSN, RN, Prince Sultan Cardiac Center in Qassim, Saudi Arabia (2) Majd T. Mrayyan., Prof, RN, The Hashemite University, Jordan Correspondence: Bilal S. H. Badr Naga., MSN, RN, Prince Sultan Cardiac Center in Qassim, Saudi Arabia Email: Bilal_badrnaga@yahoo.com Case scenario Abstract Euthanasia is one of the issues that has been the subject of intense debate over time. It has been a pertinent issue in human rights discourse as it also affects ethical and legal issues pertaining to patients and health care providers. This paper discusses the legal and ethical debates concerning both types of euthanasia. It focuses on both the supporter of euthanasia and the opponent of euthanasia. Several statements for the Euthanasia argument arediscussed: a merciful response that alleviates the suffering of patients which is sometimes wrongly perceived to be otherwise unrelievable; the autonomy in which the patient has the right to make his own choices; the regulation and legislation of existing practices of euthanasia to protect health care providers and patients. In this heated debate religious, political, ethical, legal and personal views are also included. Among all these, those who desperately want to end their lives because they simply cannot go on in any way, are the ones who suffer. Every individual or group has a different viewpoint...
Words: 7058 - Pages: 29
...«IS IT AN ARAB SPRING OR BUSINESS AS USUAL? RECENT CHANGES IN THE ARAB WORLD IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT" By Michael B. Bishku* INTRODUCTION What began in Tunisia in December 2010 and continues most violently in Syria today has been labeled by observers of and experts on the Middle East as the "Arab Spring," but is that the correct term? (It should be noted that Lebanon engaged in the Cedar Revolution in 2005 - following the assassination of Sunni Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri by Hezbollah operativeswhich resulted in the withdrawal of Syrian froops after 30 years.) While Tunisia seems to be emulating Turkey as a historically secular country with mildly Islamist politicians exercising the greatest amount of influence in their country's respective foreign and domestic affairs, Egypt, the birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood, appears to be at the center of a struggle between the Islamists and the military, which has dominated politics in that country since the early 1950s, while secularists and the minority Copts feel as if they have been sidelined. Majority Shi'a in Bahrain were quashed in their attempt to have a minority Sunni government recognize their rights, while Yemen's longtime leader was replaced by that country's vice president. Libya toppled an erratic dictator, but has no experience with representative government and like in Yemen the population possesses tribal identities. Syria is now engaged in a brutal civil war in which at least 20,000 people have lost their lives by the...
Words: 8450 - Pages: 34
...Jean Kerr, author of Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, admits that she often finds herself in the kitchen reading soup-can labels—or anything—in order to prolong the moments before taking pen in hand. John C. Calhoun, vice president under Andrew Jackson, insisted he had to plow his fields before he could write, and Joseph Conrad, author of Lord Jim and other novels, is said to have cried on occasion from the sheer dread of sitting down to compose his stories. To spare you as much hand-wringing as possible, this chapter presents some practical suggestions on how to begin writing your short essay. Although all writers must find the methods that work best for them, you may find some of the following ideas helpful. But no matter how you actually begin putting words on paper, it is absolutely essential to maintain two basic ideas concerning your writing task. Before you write a single sentence, you should always remind yourself that 1. You have some valuable ideas to tell your reader, and 2. More than anything, you want to communicate those ideas to your reader. These reminders may seem obvious to you, but without a solid commitment to your own opinions as well as to your reader, your prose will be lifeless and boring. If you don’t care about your subject, you can’t very well expect anyone else to. Have confidence that your ideas are worthwhile and that your reader genuinely...
Words: 234754 - Pages: 940
...fourth EDItION fourth EDItION This clear, learner-friendly text helps today’s students bridge the gap between Its comprehensiveness allows instructors to tailor the material to their individual teaching styles, resulting in an exceptionally versatile text. Highlights of the Fourth Edition: Additional readings and essays in a new Appendix as well as in Chapters 7 and 8 nearly double the number of readings available for critical analysis and classroom discussion. An online chapter, available on the instructor portion of the book’s Web site, addresses critical reading, a vital skill for success in college and beyond. Visit www.mhhe.com/bassham4e for a wealth of additional student and instructor resources. Bassham I Irwin Nardone I Wallace New and updated exercises and examples throughout the text allow students to practice and apply what they learn. MD DALIM #1062017 12/13/09 CYAN MAG YELO BLK Chapter 12 features an expanded and reorganized discussion of evaluating Internet sources. Critical Thinking thinking, using real-world examples and a proven step-by-step approach. A student ' s Introduction A student's Introduction everyday culture and critical thinking. It covers all the basics of critical Critical Thinking Ba ssha m I Irwin I Nardone I Wall ace CRITICAL THINKING A STUDENT’S INTRODUCTION FOURTH EDITION Gregory Bassham William Irwin Henry Nardone James M. Wallace King’s College TM bas07437_fm_i-xvi.indd i 11/24/09 9:53:56 AM TM Published by McGraw-Hill...
Words: 246535 - Pages: 987
...fourth EDItION Critical Thinking A student ' s Introduction Ba ssha m I I rwi n I N ardon e I Wal l ac e CRITICAL THINKING A STUDENT’S INTRODUCTION FOURTH EDITION Gregory Bassham William Irwin Henry Nardone James M. Wallace King’s College TM TM Published by McGraw-Hill, an imprint of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2011, 2008, 2005, 2002. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. This book is printed on acid-free paper. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 DOC/DOC 0 ISBN: 978-0-07-340743-2 MHID: 0-07-340743-7 Vice President, Editorial: Michael Ryan Director, Editorial: Beth Mejia Sponsoring Editor: Mark Georgiev Marketing Manager: Pam Cooper Managing Editor: Nicole Bridge Developmental Editor: Phil Butcher Project Manager: Lindsay Burt Manuscript Editor: Maura P. Brown Design Manager: Margarite Reynolds Cover Designer: Laurie Entringer Production Supervisor: Louis Swaim Composition: 11/12.5 Bembo by MPS Limited, A Macmillan Company Printing: 45# New Era Matte, R. R. Donnelley & Sons Cover Image: © Brand X/JupiterImages Credits: The credits section for this book begins on page C-1 and is considered...
Words: 240232 - Pages: 961
...'Vhat'Ve Can't A Guide J. Budzisze wski WHAT WE CAN’T NOT KNOW J. BUDZISZEWSKI WHAT WE CAN’T NOT KNOW A Guide Revised and Expanded Edition IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO First edition published by Spence Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas ©2003 by J. Budziszewski All rights reserved Cover illustration: Comstock/Fotosearch.com Cover design by Sam Torode ©2004 Spence Publishing Company Used by permission Published in 2011 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco ©2003, 2011 J. Budziszewski All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-58617-481-1 Library of Congress Control Number 2010927673 Printed in the United States of America To my grandparents Julian and Janina Budziszewski, long departed, not forgotten The mind of man is the product of live Law; it thinks by law, it dwells in the midst of law, it gathers from law its growth; with law, therefore, can it alone work to any result. —George MacDonald CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION A New Phase of an Old Tradition ix PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION Whom This Book Is For xix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxiii INTRODUCTION The Moral Common Ground 3 I THE LOST WORLD Things We Can’t Not Know 1 2 What It Is That We Can’t Not Know 3 Could We Get By Knowing Less? II EXPLAINING THE LOST WORLD 4 The First and Second Witnesses 5 The Third and Fourth Witnesses 6 Some Objections vii 19 29 54 83 93 116 viii WHAT WE CAN’T NOT KNOW III HOW THE LOST WORLD WAS LOST 7...
Words: 89540 - Pages: 359
