Should Physician Assisted Suicide Be Legalized Essay

This poll also found that 56 percent of Americans believe that physician assisted suicide is a morally acceptable act regardless of its legality, and only 37 percent believe it is morally wrong. Additionally, 62 percent of adults agree that a person has a moral right to suicide” (Ralph A Capone). Other states including Oregon, that have passed death-with-dignity laws include Vermont, California, Colorado and Washington. There is a death with dignity bill that is slated to go before the Maine Legislature in support of physician assisted suicide.

Within the past thirty years, scientists have made multiple medical breakthroughs, such as the identification of HIV/AIDs, a successful attempt at cloning, and the first vaccination for Lyme disease. Compared to the lack of medical knowledge in the 19th century, the average American lifespan was around 30 years old. Currently, Americans live, on average 70 years of age. However, an unsettling percentage of these survivors begin to decline before the age of 70 from illnesses that cause great discomfort or pain. Regardless of the extended lifespan, what is the difference between being alive and living?

Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Right to Murder? Doctors spend over eight years attending college, studying and practicing how humans work and how to save them. So why should it be right for physicians to help out their patients in killing themselves? If a person chooses to end their life, they completely loose the possibility of a medical miracle of being able to live through whatever condition they have.

Physician-assisted death is the practice in which a physician provides a mentally competent patient with the means to take his/her own life, usually in the form of prescribing death-dealing medications. It first became legal in the United States in Oregon in 1998. It is now legal in four other states: Washington, California, Montana, and Vermont. In order for one to exercise their right to die this way, the law states that the patient must be at least 18 years old, be mentally competent, be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months, and must wait at least fifteen days before filling the death-dealing prescriptions. This controversial practice has raised the question of whether or not it is ethical for a physician

Not only does it give physician, who is still human, too much power and room for human error, it is religiously and morally incorrect, violates the Hippocratic oath, and above devalues the precious gift of life. As stated earlier, treatment is possible and should be looked into instead of giving up. Donating your final moments to research and to help aid in discovering different treatment options, could give a child a chance to live that is diagnosed with the same illness. There will always be pros and cons to this subject but my opinion stands. A person has to right to refuse or accept treatment, but should not be able to take their own lives by assistance of a

Oregon has the strictest laws put into place when it comes to physician assisted suicide. The patient must be at least 18 years old, cognizant enough to make their own medical decisions, suffering from a terminal illness that will lead to death within 6 months, a request form with two signatures from witnesses: one of which cannot be a relative, the patient must wait fifteen days before they get the prescription and the patient can rescind a request at any time (Barone, 2014). These laws leave little wiggle room for a patient to abuse physician assisted death. Between 1998 and 2006 candidates for physician assisted suicide were also required to complete a psychiatric evaluation before they could obtain the prescription medications (Steinbrook,

“Legislation that allows people to end their lives automatically creates incentives to seek death as a cost-saving option. The elderly and infirm are seen as burdens and can easily be disposed of. Suicide becomes the easy way out.” (Ben Broussard) Most of the time physicians are against the idea of physician assisted suicide because it goes against their job description and personal beliefs.

Most people would never contemplate whether or not to end their family pet’s suffering, so why can’t people be as sympathetic to their family and friends? In today’s society, the legalization of physician-assisted suicide is one of the most debatable topics. The debates on physician-assisted suicide go back and forth between whether or not patients, specifically terminally ill patients, should have the right to die with the aid of doctors. Opponents believe physician-assisted suicide is morally and ethically wrong for patients to end their lives, and they believe it violates basic medical standards. However, proponents of physician-assisted suicide believe it is a humane and safe way for terminally ill patients to resolve their agony.

A survey of physicians conducted by the Canadian Medical Association found that "a significant proportion of respondents reported that they had been asked for assistance in dying by patients whose primary motivation appeared to be loneliness, lack of social support, or perceived burden on others" (Downar et al., 2017). This means that if physician-assisted suicide is legalized, at-risk people could be vulnerable to coercion or abuse. Opponents say allowing doctors to assist in suicide would undermine their role as healers and could lead to unwanted or unnecessary deaths, or a loss of respect for human life. The American Psychological Association echoes these concerns and highlights the major risks associated with such decisions. Among those concerns are, “Depression causing a desire for death,” “A loss of autonomy and function causing a desire for control,” and “worries about future pain” (Weir).

Patients have the right to the kind of treatment they want. 3) Conclusion a) Physician assisted suicide can help treat the terminally ill how they would like to be treated. b) The long history of assisted suicide speaks for itself in the matter of if it should be legal or

Physician assisted suicide has been an intensely debated problem for years but if used properly, could be an effective way to help those who are suffering at the end of their life. Countless people have been advocating for physician assisted suicide for years and the most famous advocate for assisted suicide was Dr. Jack Kevorkian. He was a pathologist but received the nickname Dr. Death after it was estimated that between 1990 and 1999 he assisted 130 terminally ill individuals in their assisted suicides (“Jack Kevorkian”). Dr. Kevorkian is considered a crusader for physician

The medical field is filled with opportunities and procedures that are used to help improve a patient’s standard of living and allow them to be as comfortable as possible. Physician assisted suicide (PAS) is a method, if permitted by the government, that can be employed by physicians across the world as a way to ease a patient’s pain and suffering when all else fails. PAS is, “The voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician.”-Medicinenet.com. This procedure would be the patient’s decision and would allow the patient to end their lives in a more peaceful and comfortable way, rather than suffering until the illness takes over completely. Physician assisted suicide should be permitted by the government because it allows patients to end their suffering and to pass with dignity, save their families and the hospital money, and it allows doctors to preserve vital organs to save

’s turn to die. I don’t believe that we should have the power to decide one’s fate. An important part to recognize that is not talked a lot about in this topic is that if euthanasia and assisted suicide is illegal, then doctors won’t have the pressure and burden of having to take someone’s life, even if the person wanted it. These people are educated to be doctors, not killers. They are meant to use everything in their power to save patients, not take away their life.

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

One reason why patients would want to end their life with euthanasia is because of their disorders and immobility to get around and enjoy things. Euthanasia is a physician assisted