Euthanasia, the painless killing of a patient suffering from an agonizing disease, is a very controversial topic. Some argue that it is an act of murder and doctors should do all they can to extend life. Others argue that life should not be forced by resuscitation but patients should instead be relieved of their suffering through death. Barbara Huttman addresses the opposers of euthanasia in her essay, "A Crime of Compassion". Huttman tells the reader of her experience with Mac, a terminally ill cancer patient. Within the essay, Huttman explains how she watched the treatment take all he had, affecting Mac and those around him, and ultimately allows him die. Using rhetorical devices, she conveys the message that suffering patients should have…
Kramer, Matthew H. "Do animals and dead people have legal rights?." Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence. Vol. 14, No. 1 (Jan. 2001): pp. 29-54.…
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, assisted suicide is defined as suicide by a patient that has acquired a lethal dose of medication provided by a physician that is knowledgeable of the patient’s intentions. (Britannica 2011) Over the last two decades the issue of assisted suicide has become more prevalent because it is now legal in three states. There are two passionate sides to this controversial topic; one side believes that suicide for any reason is wrong and immoral because of religious reasons. The other side believes that each person should have the right to decide when and where and how they will die.…
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…
What indeed is assisted suicide? Some may think it is just another word for euthanasia; however, there is actually a difference. Based on the basic Dictionary.com definition, euthanasia is “intentionally causing the death of a person; the motive being to benefit that person or protect him/her from further suffering,” while assisted suicide is “helping a person kill him or herself”. In other words, the main difference between this and euthanasia is that in assisted suicide the patient is in complete control of the process that leads to death because he/she is the person who performs the act of suicide. The other person simply helps (for example, providing the means for carrying out the action).…
Euthanasia, or assisted suicide, is a procedure that allows the patient to die under the conditions that the disease is uncurable and only results in death in a short period of time. So for an example if a person has cancer and their estimate of life is one to three months then they could opt for a mercy killing. However if a person has another terminal disease longer than six months, such as AIDS, then it would be deemed “moral to let the person live in slow suffering.…
Assisted suicide is mostly associated with doctors, whereby; a medical doctor intentionally makes the means available for a patient to kill him or herself. Enormous health challenges make patients contemplate suicide and do request their physicians to assist them make the suicide possible. Doctors can provide the means to death usually through an overdose of prescribed medication; hence, the individual dies because of a drug overdose rather than from natural causes (Battin, 1995). This is commonly referred to as physician-assisted suicide. However, assisted suicide is not an action primarily limited to physicians. Any other individual providing the means to death to a patient is also considered assisting in suicide (Battin, 1995).…
Euthanasia is known by different terms such as mercy killing, assisted suicide, etc. It is the act of assisting someone in his or her own death who is terminally ill, suffering, and in great pain. The goal of the assisted suicide is to prevent the continuation of pain.…
Assisted Suicide is defined as an attempt to take one's own life with the intentional assistance of another person. It is a form of euthanasia in which a person wishes to commit suicide but feels unable to perform the act alone because of a physical disability or lack of knowledge about the most effective means. An individual who assists a suicide victim in…
In the U.S., only the States of Montana, Washington and Oregon allows physician-assisted suicide. Known as the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, in Oregon, competent terminally ill state residents, likely to die within 6 months can receive prescriptions for self-administered lethal medications from their physicians. This act does not permit euthanasia, in which a physician or other person directly administers a lethal dose of medication to the patient.…
Assisted suicide occurs when a doctor or medical staff person prescribes a lethal amount of medication with the intent of helping a person commit suicide. The patient then takes the dose or turns the switch. In both active euthanasia and assisted suicide, death is induced before its time.…
Physician Assisted Suicide has been legal in the state of Oregon since 1998. The Death with Dignity Act allows Oregon residents who are terminally ill with less than a six month life expectancy to end their lives voluntarily by requesting lethal medications prescribed by a physician. In accordance with the act, a patient must be diagnosed by two separate physicians as being terminally ill, be mentally competent, and serve a 15 day waiting period.…
Assisted suicide is suicide with help from another person (such as a doctor) to end suffering from severe physical illness. About one hundred and thirty thousand people die from assisted suicide and up to 20,000 a year is helped to die by doctors. One of the many doctors is Dr. Kevorkian. He was known as Dr. Death, a Michigan physician who helped his patients kill themselves.…
Assisted suicide is where a PAD (Physician aid-in-dying) helps an individual to bring about his or her death by providing medication or equipment while euthanasia means that patient has to give consent (based on requirements) to the physician and he or she then terminates the life of the patient.…
People in Canada are diagnosed with terminal illness’ every day. They know when they are going to die and often suffer until then. Why can’t patients diagnosed with a terminal illness be given the option to be euthanized? It would allow such patients to die painlessly and peacefully instead of having to suffer. While currently illegal in all but five areas of the world, assisted suicide and euthanasia are quickly becoming a more prevalent topic globally with more and more countries looking at making the move to legalize the acts. It has been legalized nationally in countries such as the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium while also being legalized in the states of Oregon and Washington in the United States of America. The article from the New England Journal of Medicine, Redefining Physicians` Role in Assisted Dying by Lisa Lehmann, uses the state of Oregon as a basis for much of her research and probing into both sides of the argument behind euthanasia. Margaret Somerville, a world renown ethicist and academic known for some of her controversial views, also gives her own insight into the topic in the article Legalized Euthanasia Only a Breath Away, published by the Globe and Mail. Somerville bases much of her argument around personal opinions and strong beliefs. I will examine the merits and proposals brought forth by each author and compare them to each other.…