...years. Born and raised in Michigan I remember all of the news on Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisting terminally ill patients in their death and the controversy on it. The dilemma is whether or not a physician should be allowed to assist a person in ending their life even if they are terminally ill. According to a recent article on The New York Times website, New Mexico just legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide for terminally ill patients. This ruling would make New Mexico the fifth state to allow physicians to prescribe to their terminally ill patients a fatal dose of medications to end their life (Eckholm, 2014). Proponents of Physician-Assisted Suicide believe that terminally ill people should have the right to choose go to the doctors and ask for their help to end their lives and stop their suffering. Of course there would have to be certain steps taken to make sure they were making the right choice. Many supporters of Physician-Assisted Suicide believe that there should be some psychiatric evaluation to make sure that the patient is of a sound mind in their decision to end their life. Opponents of Physician-Assisted Suicide believe that a person does not have a right to end their own life and that it goes against the oath a doctor takes to keep people healthy. Many also believe that it is against God’s will to take their own life even if it physician-assisted because God should be in full control of the moment a person takes their last breathe. In this paper I will discuss...
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...ACS 242 Mini Project #5 for extra credit By: Dena Lovtang 03/13/13 ISSUE PAPER Should the elderly or terminally ill people be exempt from drug regulations because their life expectancy is short? Should they be given maximum pain relief and or whatever pleasure they can gain from the drugs? I chose this subject as it hits close to home. Last year my grandma whom was 92 and in a lot of pain was authorized to have the death with dignity medication put on her list of medications that she could order if she felt it was needed. At first my mother and I thought well it was a good idea since she was so miserable. Later that year she called my mom one day and said “order the Medication I am done” my mom was shocked and asked her what was going on she said her cable was out and she just did not want to go on living like this. We got the cable working and she then chose to cancel the order for the medication. At that point I realized how they must feel and what things we take for granted that are everything to an elderly person in this situation. I think they should be able to have it available but I think there needs to be a close watch on who is making the decision as you can see my grandma could have ended her life over cable TV. Here is some information I found on the subject at hand. A person diagnosed with a terminal illness as determined by medical professionals should be allowed to have any drug they want for any reason, including euthanasia or recreation. Since they...
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...the request of a dying patient or that person’s legal representative. When this is done it is known as Voluntary Euthanasia. Not doing something to prevent someone’s death is known as passive or negative Euthanasia. Active or positive Euthanasia is when someone takes deliberate action to cause a death. Currently Euthanasia is not allowed by law to be practiced on people. My opinion on Euthanasia is that it should be legalised because the patients get to die in less pain and suffering as possible, the majority of the public believe that Euthanasia should be allowed morally and in a free society an individual should be able to choose their time of death. Patients with such diseases as cancer should be allowed to choose their time of death. This is because cancer is the most common cause of death in Australia, accounting for more than a quarter of all deaths. There is major pain that is associated with cancer suffers and it is a severe and intractable form of chronic pain. Patients with advanced cancers often experience multiple symptoms like fatigue, weakness, mental haziness, anxiety and nausea. Many of these symptoms can not be eliminated and any may widely affect the function of sense and well being. This can cause a major source of distress to the terminally ill and it can cause extremely unpleasant symptoms, which are undignified in the terminal stage. This is where Euthanasia would be able to step in and with the request from the patient or their legal representative...
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...lessen the overall cost of your medical care and life support. Being able to choose what you do with your life, especially in a terminally ill state, should be a fundamental human right and a legal option for anyone around the globe. One major benefit of physician-assisted suicide is that it ends suffering. According to "Doctor Assisted Suicide Pros and Cons List," as death nears, a lot of physical pain can occur from terminal...
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...A Final Wish of Death A final wish of death should be granted when life has come to its last chapter and all that is sought is a peaceful passing. The decision between a physician and terminally ill patient to hasten their death should be accepted and granted. A terminal illness can be described as an incurable disease which will end the life of the sufferer. If death is inevitable, why must we wait for natural causes to occur? Physician-assisted deaths should be legalized in all states so that the terminally ill can request a final act of dignity. “Physician-assisted death is defined as the physician providing the means for death, most often with a prescription. The patient not the physician will ultimately administer the lethal medication” (Braddock & Tonelli, 1998). If a patient can come to a decision when it is time to stop treatment for their terminal illness, they should also be allowed to choose when to bring death. End of life care has become an equally important issue to physicians as well as the patients. If physician-assisted deaths were permitted in all 50 states, physicians could openly discuss end of life wishes with their patients. With all the advances in modern medicine, people are living much longer which allows for a higher risk in developing a terminal illness. A few examples of terminal illnesses are cancer, strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, renal failure, and heart failure. With increasing numbers in terminal illnesses...
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...Physician assisted suicide has been a controversial topic in this country for many years. Some believe that people who are sick and dying should have the legal right to end their life with the help of a physician. There are many terminal cancer patients who are so sick they will not have a chance to live the rest of their life so they choose the route of physician assisted suicide. They choose it because it is an easy pain free way to end their life. Although people may say physician assisted suicide is unethical, physician assisted suicide is ethical because it is a person's individual choice whether they want to live or die and it reduces suffering. There have been many cases and statewide issues that have dealt with physician assisted suicide. The state of California and Washington denied the idea of physician assisted suicide. In the early 1990’s California and Washington rejected the votes that would have allowed Physician assisted suicide to be legal. Physician assisted suicide is a state issue. Physician assisted suicide was a problem in states...
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...made it possible to maintain terminally ill patients alive for a longer period of time than before. Even though were able to sustain terminally ill peoples lives it has been questioned whether their lives were worth sustaining. During 1994 Oregon began its battle to legalize euthanasia. A few years after its approval voters decided to retain the law. In order to receive medication at least two physicians must concur that their patient has less than six months to live. In the United States euthanasia is often referred to as mercy killing. Proponents of euthanasia believe it’s a way to relief terminally ill peoples low life quality. They also say it provides extreme relief. Proponents argue that the right to die is protected by the same constitutional safeguards that guarantee marriage or any other right. Opponents argue that doctors have a moral responsibility to keep patients alive as reflected by the Hippocratic oath. They also say that legalizing euthanasia will target the poor and disabled and create incentives for insurance companies to terminate lives in order to save money. Jack Kevorkian was an American pathologist known for assisting terminally ill patients death through physician-assisted suicide. In 1990 he assisted Janet Adkins in suicide. He was sent to jail, but later released. That did not stop Kevorkian he assisted many others in suicide. In 1998, the Michigan legislature enacted a law making assisted suicide a felony. He allowed a news program 60 Minutes to...
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...have advanced over the years, this allows physicians to save people’s lives and helped increase the life expectancy of their patients. Unfortunately, there are some medical conditions and diseases that are incurable. And these medical conditions and diseases are unpredictable and may cause us to have to make some difficult decisions to want ease the patient from suffering. There are ethical issues surround anything that is done in the medical field, particularly concerning the treatment and voluntary euthanasia of a patient that is dying. There are strong controversy whether voluntary euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, of a patient that is dying, is morally right or wrong. Should it be up to the patient and their family to make the decision for end-of life care? The choice for end of life a mission for many individuals, “the nineteenth-century philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that individuals are, ultimately, the best judges and guardians of their own interests”, (Singer, 2005). In this essay, I will discuss the difference between euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, and the utilitarian ethical theory for this topic and how it results in the happiness for several people. After being diagnosed with a serious terminal illness, the body can begin to deteriorate causing physical pain and trauma before death. As the patient with serious illness gets closer to the end of life their symptoms and pain may intensify. Watching...
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...Death is one of the few inevitable events in life; it is something everybody must face in their lifetime. Many fear it, but for some it is an opportunity to embrace freedom and tranquility from their suffering. For the terminally-ill, they want to liberate themselves from their illness, but modern medicine, sometimes, can only reduce their pain to a certain degree. Doctors trying to salvage their patients’ lives could possibly cause more harm than actually aiding the patient. As medical professionals, they abide to do no harm to their patients, to only reduce their pain and cope with their suffering, it is damaging them even more. The last option for many terminally-ill patient is to die and allow medical professionals to help them. Therefore,...
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...intentionally injecting the patient with a lethal substance in order to take their life whereas passive euthanasia is denying means of artificial life and letting nature take its course. The biggest argument with passive euthanasia is the idea that patients who are brain dead have the chance of being revived, but this is seldom achieved. Involuntary is using euthanasia against the patient’s wishes which should be the only form of euthanasia that could be considered murder. Activists debate whether taking someone’s life is right or wrong based on religious concerns or health care practices and many voice a strong opinion. Although Oregon is the only state in America with legal practices of euthanasia, assisted suicide is carried out behind the scenes in other states as well. Many pro-life activists are against the practice of taking a life because they believe it is murder, but helping someone be at peace is virtuous. Euthanasia should be legalized for the sake of the patient, the sake of the physicians in the United States, and because euthanasia cannot be considered murder given that it is the patients’ choice. One major reason euthanasia should be legalized is because people who are faced with the choice of euthanasia are terminally ill. These patients are forced to take medicines that will make them inactive and miserable, are put in hospice, or are hooked up to machines which help them breath and get nourishment. Also, some terminally ill patients are in terrible pain and...
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...Euthanasia Should Be Legalized Euthanasia should be legalized? As human beings we should all have the right to end our suffering and to choose a dignified, quiet death. Euthanasia is the hastening of death for a suffering, terminally ill person. It is a quiet and easy death. Indeed, the term euthanasia quite literally means in Greek a good death. Euthanasia should be made a legal procedure within Australia as any such legalisation would give people the legal right to choose a ‘good death’, a dignified death for themselves. As human beings we have the right to vote, to take responsibility for our actions and to make our own choices. We are an autonomous people with a right to self-sufficiency, independence and to self-regulation, so why should we not have the right to choose whether or not our lives should end if there is little or no hope of recovery? We all should have the right to choose to die if our circumstances are completely intolerable. We grant animals these rights yet we currently do not offer humans the same opportunity. Who are we, as a civilised society, to force a competent, yet terminally ill person to endure a lingering and painful death? Every person should have the legal right to make choices regarding their own lives and according to their own values as long as these choices do not impinge on the liberties of others. The choice of a terminally ill person to die does not impinge on the liberties of others – only their own. When the only alternative is suffering...
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...other words, he or she is terminally ill, would it not be merciful to allow the person to die? Would not euthanasia--or mercy killing as it is termed--be acceptable to the suffering patient as well as to those who are close to him? mercy killing causes no harm to anyone. in fact, it provides a relief to the realtives of the victims as they undergo immense agony, seeing a dear one suffering. Euthanasia is an act of professional support to the terminally ill patient and hence canot be held as a cruel act on the part of the person who commints it. On the other hand, there is a deep rooted belief that life is a god given gift and it is presumptious on the part of a human being to end it. As for taking it away from another human being, howsoever merciful the motive, it is regarded as playing god. If the patient is terminally ill or in a coma, without having expressed any idea on the subject, who is to decide on terminating the persons life? The possibily of greedy and unscrupuluos relatives colluding with an equally unscrupuluos doctor to kill a patient, is a real danger. Morever, though it is an individual decisiom, it cannot be ignored as a major social problem as it opens up a chapter of suffering for the realtives of the patient. Any law, therefore, on euthanasia should have safeguards to preclude any possiblity of exploiting the situation by unscrupulous elements. The Scam in Mercy Killing Imagine one of your family members is terminally ill and presumed she will die...
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...Euthanasia refers to the painless killing of a patient with an incurable and painful disease. One form of euthanasia is physician-assisted suicide. “Physician-assisted suicide is when a doctor assists a competent adult to voluntarily end his or her own life” (Roberts). “Physician-assisted suicide remains a very controversial topic throughout the country. Terminally ill patients, physicians, and pharmacists often have different beliefs about the practice” (Fass). If this form of euthanasia was legal in the United States, people could be put out of their misery. Also, it would be safe because it is watched over by a physician. Not many people consider physician-assisted suicide a reasonable way to pass away because they have never been so close...
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...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 their loved ones suffer and the patient doesn’t want them to suffer either. Physician-assisted suicide provides an option to end a life before it even enters the terminal “death-bed” stage of suffering, or it allows families to choose to end a “death bed” existence with dignity and peace instead of simply pulling...
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...doctor’s office, the doctor informs you that there is no easy way of telling you that a large amount of cancer cells have been found in your blood work. As you try to speak, he continues to inform you that the cancer cells have completely taken over your blood and have migrated to your vital organs. As you try to speak again, he interrupts you one more time, however, this time it is to deliver the final blow; you only have six weeks left to live, which you will surely spend in extreme pain and unremitting suffering as your body goes into complete organ failure. Would you not want the option to end your pain and suffering and die with at least a little dignity? This is what physician-assisted suicide (PAS), if legalized, would offer terminally ill patients. The strongest argument made on behalf of the legalization of PAS is that it, like abortion, it is a choice issue. Proponents continue to argue that PAS is the ultimate civil right,...
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