Currently in the United States only five out of the fifty states have legalized assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is the help from a physician for a patient to end their life because they have a terminal illness. Many people believe that euthanasia should be illegal across the board, however, people who have terminal illnesses should have a right to be in charge of how to end their life. Many people do not want their family to see them at their lowest, and they do not want to see their selves at their lowest either, therefore, giving a person a right to end their life peacefully, should be an individual’s choice. When someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness it is devastating going through the long and grueling process of death, for the family and the patient both. The government should not be there telling the citizens how to end their life. Many people on their death bed would rather have their loved ones see them strong and still able to do everyday things, instead of them slowly dying in a hospital …show more content…
A woman named Brittany Maynard chose to end her life after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. In the article, My right to death with dignity at 29 Brittany Maynard explains (2014), “I am not suicidal. If I were, I would have consumed that medication long ago. I do not want to die. But I am dying. And I want to die on my own terms” (p. 1). If given the choice, a person should be able to decide how they die. People do not enjoy seeing themselves become weak and helpless; no one should get to tell them how they die. People who are against euthanasia believe that it goes against all medical ethics and should not be legal anywhere, however, a doctors job is to help and provide care to patients. If they need help in having a simple peaceful death before they get so sick they are a completely different person, they should be given that
As assisted suicide became more accepted, more people have died. “Oregon, which passed its Death with Dignity Act through a voter referendum in 1994 and began allowing the practice in 1998, has the longest track record. The number of Oregonians who choose physician-assisted suicide has been slowly climbing; 673 cases were recorded between 1998 and 2012. In 2012, the 77 cases reported to the Public Health Division amounted to about 0.2 percent of the total deaths recorded in the state” (Karaim 2013 para 14).
Life is never guaranteed and whether it is through an illness or an accident, we as humans are eventually going to die. Physicians Assisted suicide is one of the most controversial issues. The issue of doctor-assisted suicide has been the subject of the heated dispute in recent years. While some oppose the idea that a physician should aid in ending a life, others believe that physicians should be permitted in helping a patient to end his or her unbearable suffering when faced with a terminal illness. Furthermore, Physician-assisted suicide should be legal; it should be the patient’s right to decide when and how he or she should die.
Everybody has a right to make a choice. When a person goes to a restaurant, that person has the right to make choice of which entree to eat. However, sometimes a person might not be able to make a decision, such in case of person who is bed bound or a person with a terminal illness. I believe that Physician-assisted suicide should be available as an option for those who can and can’t make decisions for the following reasons cost and ending deterring quality of life.
Diagnosed with brain cancer, Maynard decided to research her options to save or extend her life; she reached the conclusion that nothing can be done for her. “There is no treatment that would save my life, and the recommended treatments would have destroyed the time I had left.” Instead of living her last few months in pain, Brittany decided to move to Oregon to legally do receive the medication to die. People argued against her stance, one women with cancer herself asked her to reconsider, but Brittany was firm on where she stood. Brittany, at the age of 29, died in Oregon by lethal medication.
“It’s ridiculous that somebody who’s been told that they’re going to die in six months has to drive 600 miles north to die peacefully.” These were the remarks of Dan Diaz, the husband of Brittany Maynard a woman who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and had to drive to Oregon to be legally euthanized. Brittany’s tragic story was received with acclaim and disgust due to assisted suicide being such a controversial issue. With the debate of making assisted suicide nationally legal right on a cusp of fruition, writer-reporter for Time Josh Sanburn writes to inform readers on the two different aspects of the debate in his article “The Last Choice”. Mr. Sanburn writes an ample overview on the prospect of legalized assisted suicide in the
The Right to Die 1) Introduction a) Thesis statement: Physician assisted suicide offers patients a choice of getting out of their pain and misery, presents a way to help those who are already dead mentally because of how much a disease has taken over them, proves to be a great option in many states its legal in, and puts the family at ease knowing their love one is out of pain. i) The use of physician assisted death is used in many different countries and some states. ii) Many people who chose this option are fighting a terminal illness.
As the article “Assisted Suicide: a Right or a Wrong” said there are people who disease, handicap or condition leave them unable to take their own lives. Assemblyman Luis Alejo wants doctor assisted suicide to be legal so his Vietnam veteran father can die with dignity if he chooses to do so as told in the article “California Assembly approves right-to-die legislation”. Some of these patients need help to end their lives and if they need it should be made available to them and they should be able to get it Doctor assisted suicide should be legal for terminally ill patients. Terminally ill people are just sad people who want to end their life they are people with incurable diseases who are living in pain.
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
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.
’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.
In this case, and many others worldwide, physician assisted suicide is morally permissible at all ages for anyone with a terminal illness with a prognosis of 6 months. This is supported by act based utilitarianism and the idea of maximizing pleasure and reducing pain and suffering on an individual circumstance. By allowing a terminal patient to die a less painful death, in control of the situation, and with dignity, the patient will have amplified
Life is a matter of choice. People should have the power to control what happens to their bodies, and that they should not be forced to suffer through horrible pain until their body finally just gives out and dies. Some terminally ill patients are in terrible pain and have a very poor quality of life, and they would rather end it as opposed to living life in a way that they would not enjoy. Humans have the right to end their life when they want to. The elderly and those suffering from severe debilitating illnesses, who may be depressed
There was recently an upsurge in Oregon after a 29 year-old woman named Brittany Maynard decided to end her life (since euthanasia is currently legal in Oregon) by taking a fatal dose of barbituates. Maynard had previously been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and was informed she only had an estimate of six months to live. This made Maynard become an incredibly trending topic on the internet, exposing euthanasia and cases like Maynard's to a younger audience. Both her videos and news articles received more than 10 million views, making her one of the biggest advocates of the right-to-die law (Sebastian). In an article titled “The right to live is also the right to die with dignity”, Natasha Lennard, a freelance writer from the on-line ABC newspaper “Fusion”, asks “if an able bodied person can freely take their own life, why shouldn’t a person who physically cannot be prevented from doing so.
The Right to Die has been taking effect in many states and is rapidly spreading around the world. Patients who have life threatening conditions usually choose to die quickly with the help of their physicians. Many people question this right because of its inhumane authority. Euthanasia or assisted suicide are done by physicians to end the lives of their patients only in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, New Mexico and soon California that have the Right to Die so that patients don’t have to live with depression, cancer and immobility would rather die quick in peace.
There has been many cases involving euthanasia or PAS, but one six-minute video sparked a global conversation about death with dignity. In the spring of 2014, 29 year old Brittany Maynard learned she had terminal brain cancer. The doctors informed her that she might live up to six months. Her story was viewed more than nine million times in the first month of October on YouTube. She recognized how unfair it was that the majority of the people living in the United States do not have access to death with dignity.