Summary Of Expanding The Right To Die By André Da Loba

The general argument made by the author, André da Loba, in his work Expanding the Right to Die, is that ill people should be able to decide to end their own lives and pass up a long and drawn out death. He writes “A 29-year-old woman with terminal brain cancer has announced a campaign to support physician-assisted suicide leading up to her own death next month.” In this passage, the author is suggesting that people should have the right to choose their time of death during life ending conditions. In conclusion, the author’s belief is that people suffering should be allowed to have a physician-assisted suicide. In my view, the author is right because people don’t deserve to suffer. More specifically, I believe that people that have already suffered
The Death with Dignity Act has been in use for many years now, and according to Thaddeus Pope, there have been numerous people that have made use of the law. “Since the Oregon Death with Dignity Act was enacted in 1997, more than 1,100 people have obtained life-ending prescriptions, and about 750 used them. Most were dying of cancer.” (Pope). Based on Pope’s statistics there are many people that have the ability to use the prescription, but chose not to. There are many fears that go into suffering through a disease, and a majority of the people that utilized the prescriptions were fearing the loss of dignity during their time of pain and suffering. This act allows the anguish, for the patient and their family, to cease. There is an immense amount of pain that a family goes through watching loved ones anguish in their last days, as shown by Anita Freeman. “I watched my 66-year-old sister die in pain from stage 4 liver cancer. It took five weeks and it was excruciating for the both of us.” (Freeman). This shows that there is a very large benefit to the family if the patient were able to choose the right to a dignified death. During the time of her suffering, her pain medication was no longer working, causing her to wish for a merciful death. As a family member, wishing for your loved one to finally pass on can be hard, but keeping
Doctors are only giving patients two choices: die now or die later. “I see it all the time: sick, elderly patients being treated by a slew of specialists who aggressively order tests and procedures that result in physical (not to mention psychological and financial) harm.” (Jauhar). They are being treated without being informed of other beneficial options that could help them live more comfortably. Thus, these patients choose death over living with a non-curable disease. The “Death with Dignity Act” is very questionable: are the people using it being informed of all options by qualified doctors? Ilora Finlay feels that there is a false hope to this law. “We have seen the steady rise in Oregon’s death rate from physician-assisted suicide, currently between four and five times the number when the law was enacted.” (Finlay). This shows that there is no way to confirm that there are safety measures in place for the misuse of the prescriptions, for those that request “assisted suicide out of a sense of duty or obligation.” (Finlay). In continuation of the fears coming out of Oregon, there have been events that have failed in Holland; not to mention the violation of medical principles. “Holland shows how such measures get out of control. While the state of dying in America is outrageous, two wrongs