Persuasive Essay On Death With Dignity Act

Can you imagine going through long battle with a disease only to be told that you have only 6 more months to live. All of these thoughts and questions start running through your head and you feel like you’re dreaming or having some sort of out of body experience. Being diagnosed with a terminal illness is unimaginable, emotional and physically trying. Cancer is the number one leading cause of terminal death in the United States, to put that into a better perspective one out of every four deaths is cancer related. That’s about 564,000 deaths annually and 1,500 deaths per day.

“In the 20 years that Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law has been on the books, 1,749 patients have been prescribed lethal medications, and only 64% of them (1,127) used them to die, according to state data. Last year, Oregon doctors prescribed 206 lethal medications, 133 of which were reported used by patients” (Portland Press Herald). This statistic shows that not all patients who are prescribed the drugs, use them to end their life. Gale states, “The three most frequently cites reasons for requesting suicide were: a decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable, loss of autonomy and loss of dignity.

Assisted Suicided Every 16.2 minutes, there are people in the world that take their own life by killing themselves.(Purity, 9) There are are over 40,000 people every year that commit suicide.(Purity, 10) Suicide is the leading cause of death for those of the age of 15-24 years old.(Purity, 13) However, coming up in the media through the last 20 years has been the idea of ending your life by assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is the practice of ending someone 's life.(Newton, 7) A terminal illness is when you have a disease that will end your life within the near future.

California govener, Jerry Brown, recently signed the ABX2-- the "End of Life Option Act"--making it a statewide law. According to Brown, he signed the bill based on his own feelings and is getting critized for doing so. He claims he "wouldn 't deny that right to others" but is getting pushed from the Californians Aganist Assisted Suicide which is claming that Brown since Brown came from a more wealthier background unlike the million others of Californians – he is not looking out for the disadvantaged who dont have access to better doctors and medicine. Though some on in head with Brown, claiming that they dont have to go through any more pain—both physical and emotional-- , many organizations oppose it saying it will encourgae

American political leader Anna Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” There are some people that live their lives happily everyday while there are some that are living in bitterness. Life is a cycle that everyone experiences from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and finally ends with death. Some may believe that maybe if a human being is no longer content with life anymore, then he or she might as well no longer be alive. The issue of euthanasia has been one of the most discussed ethical situations among healthcare workers and patients.

The price to pay for assisted suicide costs a lot more than just money. Some of the elderly or sick people believe that they would become a financial burden to their friends and loved ones. In fact, in one of the states where assisted suicide is allowed, a poll was taken. The poll revealed that 66% of citizens would only consider assisted suicide because of being a financial burden on their loved ones. One person even says “If I had terminal cancer, I had a few weeks to live, I was in tremendous amount of pain - if they just effectively wanted to turn off the switch and legalize that by legalizing euthanasia, I'd want that” (Key).

However, there is hope of a peaceful death for these patients that exists in a controversial law being considered by many states throughout the country. It is known as the Death with Dignity Act. This law gives terminally ill patients the option of ending their own life in a painless manner at a time and place of their choosing by

The documentary, A Death of One’s Own, explores the end of life complexities that many terminal disease patients have to undergo in deciding on dying and dignity. It features three patients, their families, and caregivers debating the issue of physician-assisted suicide or pain relief than may speed up death. One character, Jim Witcher has ALS and knows the kind of death he is facing and wants to control its timing. Kitty Rayl is suffering from terminal cancer and wants to take advantage of her state’s Death with Dignity Act and take medication to terminate her life. Ricky Tackett, on the other hand, has liver failure and together with his family and caregiver agrees on terminal sedation to relieve his delirium and pain.

There are real case incidents in which a 14 year old girl suffering from terminal cystic fibrosis is asking her country’s president for permission to end her life. She had self shot a video in which she says “I am tired of living this disease and she can authorize an injection through which I can sleep forever”. The girl's video has sparked a broader conversation about whether euthanasia should be legalized in the largely Catholic nation. According to me we should let euthanasia be legal as there is no significance in keeping them alive against their wish as we don’t know how much they are suffering. Another incident is where the woman moved to Oregon where euthanasia is legal to take advantage of Oregon’s death with Dignity Law.

Erica Routt Professor Shay English 101500 2/15/2017 Palliative Care: To Die Or Not To Die (With Dignity) "Kill me! Kill me! Please!" are the words my friend would hear his father scream several times a day. He was in his mid eighties and had advanced stage leukemia and was suffering from unbelievable pain.

It is not easy to make the decision of death. Thus, when a person wants to die with dignity, we as a society should respect their

The dying patient no longer has quality of life, they have lost their independence, are lonely, are forced to endure inevitable pain, are publicly humiliated, are suffering immensely, and are forced to watch their loved ones grieve because of them. It is an innate Constitutional Right to choose how to die, since we all will die. There comes a point when the poking and prodding becomes too much, when the patient wants to just die in silence in the loving arms of their

Euthanasia, also known as assisted suicide, is the act of permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured patients. This is never suggested by the caretaker rather than requested by the patient or their family. Few areas such as the Netherlands have already legalized this practice. This debate, as split as a fork in the road, is over whether or not this approach should be legalized worldwide on stances regarding religion, ethics, and self choice.     I see this as being extremely unethical on both religious and social morality levels.

Everyone has the right to choose to live or die. Death is part of life that can 't be avoided. This is a natural phenomenon in the process of life is birth, aging, illness and death. Euthanasia, in some words "Mercy Killing or Physician assisted Suicide. " Euthanasia is to help patients who despair and cannot be cured to die peacefully and to have free from suffering.

Throughout the life of human beings have experienced great obstacles, most of these obstacles are degenerative diseases that lead to death but many times first go through a time of pain, however, with the great sciences is a Invented assisted suicide which we call (euthanasia) "which is the action or omission that accelerates the death of a terminally ill patient, with their consent, with the intention of avoiding suffering and pain". This new invention has motivated many people who suffer of diseases to take the hard decision to cause their death since they prefer to die to be suffering. I am in favor of these decisions because only those who are sick know of the pain they have to go through during their illness, the death that they may not hurt as much as being tormented by their illness. First of all there are diseases that have an end but last a long time for this to happen, then with the new laws this type of pain release was created, however there are two types of euthanasia, passive and active, which have great differences, then passive euthanasia "