Preview

Assisted Suicide

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2527 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Assisted Suicide
Assisted Suicide
Megan

Today there are millions of people who are living with a terminal illness. Many of these people are basically waiting to die. Modern medicine can either do nothing more to help them or they have enacted their right to refuse treatments. Whichever the case may be the question arises: should we have the right to choose to die? This paper will be examining euthanasia and assisted suicide. It will begin by first defining what euthanasia; it will also be looking into the different types of euthanasia; there is passive and active. Next I will share my own personal feeling on the issue of euthanasia. I do believe in certain circumstances that euthanasia should be allowed; after all the law does support a human beings right to determine what will be done their own body. Each person is going to have their own view of the issue; my opinion on it is not going to be the same as someone else’s. Then this paper will define and describe the special populations that are presented on the Pro/Con website as well as how this population might be adversely affected by euthanasia. I will discuss my own beliefs regarding euthanasia and these special populations. And finally this paper will look at the laws concerning physician assisted suicide in Texas. It will compare and contrast theses laws against Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act.
In George D.Pozgar’s book Legal and Ethical Issues for Health Professionals it defines euthanasia as “an act conducted for the purpose of causing the medical death of a person who is suffering from an incurable condition, such as providing a patient with medication to hasten his or her death” (2013, pg.535). The actual word euthanasia is a Greek word meaning a good death. There are two different types of euthanasia; passive and active. There are also two different categories; which are voluntary and involuntary. Passive euthanasia is usually consider more ethically and morally acceptable by many because it is



References: Aungst, H. (2008). ‘Death with dignity’:the first decade of Oregon’s physican-assisted death act. Geriatrics,63(12), 20-22 retrieved from EBSCOhost : http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=fef4ec8f-9020-4124-a152-a84a647eeacf%40sessionmgr112&vid=4&hid=124 Gorman, D. (1999). Active and passive euthanasia: The case of drs. claudio alberto de la rocha and nancy morrison.Canadian Medical Association.Journal, 160(6), 857-60. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/204795669?accountid=32521 Pozgar, G. D.  (2012). Legal and Ethical Issues for Health Professionals (3rd ed.).  Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.  ProCon.org.  (2012).  Euthanasia ProCon.org.  (http://euthanasia.procon.org/) .

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Oregon Public Health Division.(2011, March) Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act: Thriteen Years. CD Summary, Volume 60, Number 6. Retrieved May 29, 2011, from Oregon.gov…

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Euthanasia means “good death” but today the term is deemed as a merciful action to rid someone of suffering. In many cases we have seen terminally ill patients euthanized active or passive, yet for the sake of my essay I will discuss active euthanasia. End of life issues is a topic many families are faced with everyday more than one likes to imagine; however, imagine that you were a significant other who has a loved one in the hospital suffering from a terminal illness and their pain is unbearable that your loved one has decided to end his life and the subject of euthanasia comes up. What would you do? The…

    • 1769 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Euthanasia, often referred to as mercy killing, easy death, or right to die, generates strong feelings both pro and con as proponents of each side passionately argue their ideological stance. The broader concept is often missed with the attention placed on the narrow view of physician-assisted suicide. Many have little or no tolerance or understanding of the patient’s position feeling there is no quality of life in their present circumstance or condition and as such, they have a personal choice or entitlement to end their life or have someone else assist them in ending it in order to cease their own personal, unbearable, suffering and/or pain. Currently, this type of practice within these United States is deemed unacceptable and unlawful except within the states of Oregon, Washington, and Montana (Marker,…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Physician-Assisted Suicide

    • 2476 Words
    • 10 Pages

    References: Arthur E. Chin, M., Katrina Hedberg, M. M., Grant K. Higginson, M. M., & David W. Fleming, M. (1999). Legalized Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon- The First Year 's Experience. The New England Journal of Medicine , 577-583.…

    • 2476 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Euthanasia Ethical Dilemma

    • 2102 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Euthanasia is a social issue in today’s world because not only does it affect the lives of those who are terminally ill and/or comatose, and the physicians who have been entrusted with their care, but it also affects the patient’s ability to have control over their own life, whether they are aware of this decision or not, which is one of the reasons why euthanasia has become such a controversial issue around the globe. Caddell and Newton (1995) define euthanasia as “any treatment initiated by a physician with the intent of hastening the death of another human being who is terminally ill and in severe pain or distress with the motive of relieving that person from great suffering” (p. 1,672). Even though the concept of great…

    • 2102 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Definitions of euthanasia abound in the medical community. John Keown in his book Euthanasia, Ethics and Public Policy: An Argument Against Legalisation, creates a succinct definition of euthanasia based on various understandings of the process, "Euthanasia involves doctors making decisions which have the effect of shortening a patient's life and these decisions are based on the belief that the patient would be better off dead" (Keown 10). One often sees manifestations of euthanasia on the death beds of those close to death. Doctors, loved ones, or the patient himself decides that it is better to be dead than alive. However, a major distinction must be made between active and passive euthanasia.…

    • 1545 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 2422 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Introduction: Physician assisted suicide by definition is "When a patient dies as a result of the voluntary ingestion of a fatal dose of medication that a physician has prescribed for that purpose." Physician assisted suicide is one of the most debated topics in the healthcare world today with over 1.58 million patients in hospice in 2012. Many of these patients must decide between medication to ease the pain or having to make the difficult decision of physician assisted suicide to relieve the pain of dying from their terminal illness.…

    • 2422 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 928 Words
    • 3 Pages

    often labeled compassionate, according to the columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Joni Eareckson Tada, legalized assisted suicide or euthanasia is really a deadly double standard for those with severe disabilities, both conditions that are labeled terminal and those that are not. She seems to be of the opinion that euthanasia should never be considered an option no matter how severe or subjective suffering the person is facing. In the article, Tada claims that legalization of euthanasia, “sends a clear message that a person with a disability may not have a life worth living” (1). She touches on euthanasia in The Nethlands and Belguium . She stands for a powerful example of a person with this depilating condition, in this case quadriplegia, can accomplish in spite of her condition. However this is somewhat of a bias perspective because it implies that she has put a measure on the subjective pain this condition and similar to it entails. There should be certain conditions set in order to qualify for euthanasia so that it is an option for people who want it but we can also make a system to prevent people from misusing it. We were granted free will which includes the right to end our life when we chose.…

    • 928 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Situation being argued is Assisted Suicide, this practice involves helping a person who is hopelessly ill to end his or her own life. Some People support it because it is a persons right to end their life using a Physicians grant and supervision . Others are opposed because it is said that a doctors will is to heal and never harm . Because people have been prosecuted for assisting with suicide, Government should protect a person's right to die with protective legislative.Thirty-four states of the United States, including Washington and Oregon,assisted suicide is illegal.The current debate over physician-assisted suicide involves who will have the power to control the dying process,physicians or the patients.…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Imagine yourself trapped in your own useless body life sentenced to a wheelchair or even your bed, fed with large quantities of medication and painkillers. Your body is no longer responding but your mind is. All you have left is your rational thoughts. If you are in that position you only have few options. The first one is to live your life the way it is, but for some people this is not an option. Even though suicide is taboo in our society, it is a reality for the people trapped in this vegetative state. These dark thoughts can’t be obtained without the assistance of someone else. The only problem with this option is that in Canada, it is illegal to participate in any way in an assisted suicide and can send you to jail for a long time. The laws have to change.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    activist who tried to legalize assisted suicide under the argument that everyone deserves a humane death. There had been much debate on the issue,…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Did you know that about 9% of all deaths were a result of physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia in 1990? And based on a recent study, 57% of physicians practicing today have received a request for physician-assisted suicide in some form or another?…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Assisted suicide is the best option for the terminally ill people that want to put an end to their suffering. Terminal ill patients should be allowed to request assisted suicide to end their life in a painless, humane, and cheaper way.…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 1503 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There probably isn’t one person that can say that they haven’t watched somebody they love in some way suffer from and ultimately die from some sort of unfortunate disease. Assisted suicide is a very controversial topic in the United States. Physician assisted suicide is defined as suicide committed by a terminally ill person with help from another person. This subject causes many controversies of ethical and moral issues. Some of these issues are that it violates the doctors Hippocratic Oath, suicide is ruled wrong in many religions, and some even say it degrades the value of human life. However, physician assisted suicide should be legalized because it offers terminally ill people an opportunity for a peaceful death and allows a terminally ill patient to die with dignity.…

    • 1503 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Euthanasia, formally known as mercy killing, is the act of intentionally causing the painless death of a sick person, rather than allowing that person to die naturally. In terms of a physician's actions, it can be passive in that a physician plays no direct role in the death of the person or it can be active in that the physician does something directly to cause the death (Yount, 2002). Euthanasia may also be formed into three types of act, which are voluntary, involuntary, and nonvoluntary. Voluntary involves killing the patient at his or her request. Involuntary occurs when the patient does not give consent, or refuses. Nonvoluntary is where the patient is not able to make the decision about their medical treatment so it is up to a third party to make the decision for them (Yount, 2002). Legalizing euthanasia would cause many complications because we are dealing with a very controversial issue that brings into focus some extremely powerful, conflicting, and competing values. Under the Canadian Criminal Code, active voluntary euthanasia is illegal and individuals can be convicted for 14 years for murder (Ogden & Young, 2000). Passive euthanasia has been legal because the courts have recognized the right of a patient to refuse and to terminate unwanted medical treatments. The question that remains today is whether legalizing active euthanasia in Canada could either benefit or harm not only the individuals involved, but also society as a whole.…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics