Physician-Assisted Suicide Essay - 2768 Words

Physician-Assisted Suicide Francis Bacon once said, â€Å"I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.† In other words, people are not afraid to die. Rather, they are afraid of the way in which they are going to die. Today, four centuries of medical progress later, Bacon’s words are truer than ever. Medical advances have allowed physicians to prolong the lives of their patients, or maybe it would be better to say, to prolong their deaths. People are made to live too long in ways they would not choose: dependent upon machines, lying in comas, and suffering unbearable pain. Bacon’s â€Å"stroke of death† has become the â€Å"stretch of death,† giving people all that much more to fear. To address†¦show more content†¦To fully understand the issue at hand, one must understand the various forms of euthanasia. The Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: Tenth Edition defines euthanasia as â€Å"the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals†¦in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.† Euthanasia can be either passive or active. Passive euthanasia occurs when a patient is relieved of medical treatment and is allowed to die naturally. Active euthanasia occurs when either a physician or a family member actively takes the life of the patient, perhaps through lethal injection, and eliminates a natural death process. Many people commonly use the word â€Å"euthanasia† to refer to assisted suicide. Essentially, assisted suicide is a form of active euthanasia in that a person, usually a physician, aids in the suicide of a patient. John Stuart Mill said, â€Å"The only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole subject is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind† (10). This quote shows that, as in any debate, there are two sides to an issue, and in order to form an opinion on something, a person must understand various sides of theShow MoreRelatedEssay On Physician Assisted Suicide1549 Words   |  7 PagesWriting Project Worksheet 1. This paper will examine the Washington state policy of physician-assisted suicide. 2. State Info: (characteristics, size, culture, political culture, industries, features, etc. to explain state support of policy) Washington is a state in the northwestern United States with an estimated population of 7,288,000, as of July 1, 2016. Washington’s population is primarily white at 69% (not including Hispanics), with Hispanics comprising 12.4%, Asians 8.6%, and African AmericansRead MoreThe Treatment Of Physician Assisted Suicide1025 Words   |  5 Pagesprecious hour will give the loved ones a time to say goodbye just before they die with dignity in physician assisted suicide. Terminally ill patients have the right to end their own lives using physician assisted suicide (PAS) without repercussions of laws and people with opposing opinions. According to an article from CNN.com, there are currently five states in the U.S. where physician-assisted suicide is currently legal. In order to be eligible legally for PAS the patient must have six months orRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide1418 Words   |  6 Pagesresult in patients giving up on life, physician-assisted suicide should be legalized in all fifty states for terminally ill patients with worsening or unbearable pain. What is physician-assisted suicide? â€Å"Suicide is the act of taking ones own life. In assisted suicide, the means to end a patient’s life is provided to the patient (i.e. medication or a weapon) with knowledge of the patients intention† (American Nurses Association). Physician-assisted suicide is known by many names such as deathRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide2301 Words   |  10 Pagesend-of-life decisions is â€Å"physician-assisted suicide† (PAS). This method of suicide involves a physician providing a patient, at his or her own request, with a lethal dose of medication, which the patient self-administers. The ethical acceptability and the desirability of legalization of this practice both continue to cause controversy (Raus, Sterckx, Mortier 1). Vaco v. Quill and Washington v. Glucksberg were landmark decisions on the issue of physician-assisted suicide and a supposed ConstitutionalRead MoreThe Ethics Of Physician Assisted Suicide926 Words   |   4 Pagesethics of physician assisted suicide since the late 18th century. According to medicinenet the definition of physician assisted suicide is â€Å"the voluntary termination of one s own life by administrating a lethal substance with the direct assistance of a physician.† This would typically come into play if/when a critically ill patient wants to end their suffering. Confirming with the State-by-State Guide to Physician-Assisted Suicide, 5 states have Paquin 2 Legalized physician assisted suicide. CaliforniaRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide Essay1214 Words   |  5 Pagesrelentless pain and agony through physician assisted death? Physician-Assisted Suicide PAS is highly contentious because it induces conflict of several moral and ethical questions such as who is the true director of our lives. Is suicide an individual choice and should the highest priority to humans be alleviating pain or do we suffer for a purpose? Is suicide a purely individual choice? Having analyzed and even experience the effects of physician assisted suicide, I promote and fully support itsRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide Is A Controversial Topic1929 Words   |  8 PagesOne may have heard of suicide, but not physician-assisted suicide. The two are very different in terms of the act of taking one’s own life. For instance, physician-assisted suicide is done with help from another person, usually a physician; where the doctor is willing to assist with e ither the means of how to take one’s own life or the actual act itself. This can either be by prescribing lethal doses of drugs to these patients who want to take their own life or by counseling these patients onRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide : A Controversial Subject1692 Words   |  7 PagesPhysician-assisted suicide is a controversial subject all around the world. Although it is legal in some countries and states, such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Oregon, Montana, Washington, and Vermont it is not yet legal in most (Finlay, 2011). People travel from all around the world to these locations to receive information. Physician-assisted suicide is when terminally ill and mentally capable patients perform the final act themselves after being provided with the required meansRead MoreEssay on Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide1871 Words   |  8 PagesPhysician-assisted suicide should be a legal option, if requested, for terminally ill patients. For deca des the question has been asked and a clear answer has yet to surface. It was formed out of a profound commitment to the idea that personal end-of-life decisions should be made solely between a patient and a physician. Can someones life be put into an answer? Shouldnt someones decision in life be just that; their decision? When someone has suffered from a car accident, or battled long enoughRead MoreThe Rights Of Physician Assisted Suicide1347 Words   |  6 PagesThe Right to Die By: Antony Makhlouf Antony Makhlouf PHR 102-006 Contemporary Moral Issues Final Paper The Right to Die Physician-assisted suicide, also known as euthanasia, has been a hot topic as of late. If you do not know what this is, physician-assisted suicide is the taking of ones life. This usually occurs when a patient is in a irreversible state, and must live through a tube. With multiple cases occurring in the past, current and the more to occur the in the future, this looks