Physician Assisted Suicide Legalized

Should assisted suicide be legal?

Introduction and Social Problems

Physician-assisted suicide, the practice that allows physicians to prescribe medications to terminally ill people to end their lives, is illegal in forty five states and Washington, DC. Oregon in contrast, is one of the five states that have legalized this procedure. One of the most recent and publicized cases of euthanasia (as it is also known) happened there, in 2014. The patient, a former California resident had to move to Oregon so she could get a physician to prescribe the drugs for her. Her story led to a bill that legalized euthanasia in California. The bill was signed into law by the California governor on October 5, 2015. Assisted suicide is also permitted in Washington,
Supporters believe true compassion is shown by caring for the terminally ill and helping them alleviate their pain through palliative care which is underutilized and it does not always go hand in hand with standard medical care. The American Board of Medical Specialties did not identify palliative care as a distinct specialty until 2006 ("Palliative Care"). Also, “advances in palliative medicine have produced effective strategies for managing and relieving pain for most terminally ill patients, including the possibility of palliative sedation” (Prokopetz and Lehman 97). A study conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital between 2006 and 2009 demonstrated that terminally ill patients who received palliative care lived an average of 2.7 months longer. They also “reported a better quality of life and less depression than the patients who received standard care”, which did not include non-palliative care ("Palliative Care").
2) Having a terminal disease usually causes depression and these two conditions together lead to poor decision making and also precipitate suicide. Studies show that medical illness is related to suicide in 30% to 40% of the cases. These percentages increase significantly with serious/terminal diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Cancer and Multiple Sclerosis. The rate of major depression increases with the seriousness of the disease. (Kleespies,
Economic interests will inevitably play a major role but as we have seen through history, change will come even if it is at a slow pace. Another consequence is rejection to the extensive institution of palliative care centers throughout the country, once again economic interests will play a decisive role. However, once PAS has been banned and legislation that promotes prevention as well as research and development is in place, the consequences that will be seen are: more and more healthy people, a significant decrease of depression in terminally ill patients and members of their families who also suffer from depression, due to lack of tools to be able to cope. Better and significantly improved quality of life due to palliative care centers. Prevention will also reduce health care costs and other diseases that do not necessarily fall under the category of incurable or that render the individual as terminally ill, such as hypertension, obesity, heart disease, etc. This will lead to physically and mentally healthier