Preview

Argumentative Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
798 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Argumentative Essay
Across the nation and world assisted suicide is an issue that has been gaining attention for several years. With famous cases such as Jack Kevorkian it has become a household term and everyone has an opinion. There are strong cases on both sides, but the bottom line is while it may sound good for the present, it is not for the future. Assisted Suicide should not be legalized in Alabama as the negative outcomes far exceed the positive outcomes in the areas of impact on society, politics and medical education Assisted suicide is defined as the aiding and abetting in a person’s suicide to relieve them from suffering. It is also known as Euthanasia. Euthanasia or assisted suicide has been going on for probably as long as there has been suffering. It has been brought to the forefront thanks to today’s media presence and cases such as Dr. Jack Kevorkian in which there are case it was found unlawful to assist a person in their own death. Currently, there are a few places where it is legal to assist in suicide as a physician. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Oregon and Washington in the United States are the only places in the world that have laws legalizing assisted suicide. In a study in the Netherlands, family members ranked their experience with their loved ones through their deaths. This research shows that the deaths resulting from euthanasia compared with those of natural progression of age and illness were not any more positive for anyone involved. This shows that the risk is not worth the possibility of this law going too far. There are many obvious reasons why a person would want to either kill themselves or have someone else do it for them. Suffering is just what it says it is, suffering. It is as much a part of life as birth and death. There is nothing on Earth that can take that reality away no matter how much we try with our new technologies. However; many seek to end their life to end suffering one way or another. Although there

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The first point of debate is the effectiveness of assisted suicide. Currently, assisted suicide is legal and being used in only two states, Oregon and Washington but Mayo believes that more of the country should follow the example. David’s recently…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The debate about whether assisted suicide is morally right or morally wrong is an extremely difficult controversy. Many people assume that it is morally wrong since the practice is in fact illegal in the majority of the United States. Many people also believe that assisted suicide is spiritually wrong especially in terms of religion; from experience, many Catholics believe that the idea of suicide is a sin. However, in any controversy there is always another side. There were factors that led me to believe why assisted suicide can be morally right. According to William Winslade, a Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch and Kyriakos Markides, a professor in the department of preventative…

    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assisted suicide is a non-widely known controversy in our country for years now. Many, including professionals in the healthcare industry, confuse this term with euthanasia and other similar concepts. Assisted suicide is when a physically and mentally capable person, most likely diagnosed with a terminal illness, makes a decision to end their lives themselves for reasons such as to not inconvenience their families with financial and emotional difficulty, and to end their own suffering. On the other hand euthanasia is when another person, usually a physician, is directly performing the act on the dying person with or without their consent for emergency reasons. Clearly, the difference is that assisted suicide gives the person the right to die…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They say assisted suicide is euthanasia, or something that will lead to it. Something that will create a culture that promotes reckless and rash behavior when it comes to life and death decisions. This, however, is not the case. Physician assisted suicide is the solution to something that many fear, not death itself, but the byproduct of death - pain. It gives people freedom of choice over their most valuable asset, their own right to life. Carefully regulated assisted suicide is not something to be feared in the slightest, as long as patients are in the right mind when they are making the difficult decision. Assisted suicide is a merciful and dignified treatment under these specific circumstances.…

    • 1438 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Physician Assisted Suicide

    • 1899 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The argument over physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and the right-to-die movement has plagued American society, for decades. A large amount of people are concerned that legalizing doctor assisted suicide is irrational and violates the life-saving tradition of medicine. Nevertheless, the main issue surrounding the issue of assisted suicide is who has the right to choose when someone dies? There are countless of questions in different levels, and views surrounding this right. Physician-assisted suicide should be a legalized medical practice for terminally ill patient who needs to be relieved from suffering so that they may have a peaceful death.…

    • 1899 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    To better understand this process, knowing some background information is helpful. Per the World of Criminal Justice, in 1997, the supreme court ruled that “there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide”. Although these laws have not changed, there are exceptions to this that argue on the behalf of physician-assisted suicide. For example, in Oregon a patient can go through with this only if they administer the drug themselves. One must meet certain qualifications for this, and such circumstances include, but are not limited to, terminal illnesses. Arguments for this process include the suffering a patient experiences. When a patient has a terminal illness, the pain at the end can be excruciating. Some of these patients do not consider living in pain to be living at all. They find it cruel to live in pain, and would rather go comfortably. Therefore, they seek the help of assisted suicide to end their suffering. There is also the argument that when they are reaching their final days, they want to be able to die with dignity. Their final days can be painful for both them, and their loved ones. In some cases, the patient does not recognize their loved ones, or is not even conscious when they pass, making it incredibly difficult for the family to say their goodbyes. Also, if a patient chooses to end their life, doctors can save their organs and then use them to save other people who need them. People who are in this position, argue that the choice of ending their life should be their choice, and their right. They want to be able to control what their body does, before it may be taken away by the illness. Although the opposing argument may…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    To sanction the taking of innocent human life is to contradict a primary purpose of law in an ordered society. A law or court decision allowing assisted suicide would demean the lives of vulnerable patients and expose them to exploitation by those who feel they are better off dead. Such a policy would corrupt the medical profession, whose ethical code calls on physicians to serve life and never to kill.…

    • 2079 Words
    • 9 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 is legalized in seven different states. These states included California, Colorado, District Of Columbia, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.This is increasing public health issue as it is legalized in more and more states. Assisted suicide is also know as “death with dignity” or “right to die”. Supporters say that it represents patients autonomy by allowing them control of their lives until the very end and die on their own terms.Supporters also say that it can relieve physical suffering that would only continue to worsen. Disapproves say that people need to live the fullest of their lives, they need to die somewhere peaceful weather that's you bed, beach or by a pool. Disapproves also say that if the pain does get…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    assisted suicide

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Assisted suicide should not be viewed solely as affecting one life, but should be viewed as a…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    assisted suicide

    • 1145 Words
    • 4 Pages

    According to the opposing viewpoints database "Assisted suicide occurs when a physician provides a patient with the means of ending his or her life-usually a prescription for a fatal dose of drugs. The patient takes the drugs independently of the doctor." Assisted Suicide (also known as physician assisted suicide) has been an issue that is becoming hot as scientists are getting the ability to prolong human life and find a new way to cure diseases previously not able to be cured and people have been talking about people dying due to those diseases. Doctors have had to explain the available treatment options and to obtain the patient's consent prior to treatment since the early 1900s with the standard of informed consent. This lets the patient make their own choice with the input of their doctor, and not just do whatever the doctor says. The question with assisted suicide is, Should people who want to die be allowed to arrange an easy, no pain death? I believe that with the correct guidelines and laws, allowing someone to take their own life should be allowed and ratified in all states.…

    • 1145 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better 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
  • Good Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Despite the changes in modern medicine, the attitudes toward assisted suicide in America’s courts and legislatures have not altered considerably. For instance, in the book Understanding Assisted Suicide, John B Mitchell writes, “in June 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people do not have a constitutional right to assisted suicide” (214). Although a constitutional right was not established, the ruling did not preclude states from passing laws prohibiting or permitting assisted suicide. However, similar to its status 130 years ago, assisted suicide is not widely supported in America’s state legislatures. As of 1997, physician-assisted suicide was legal in only one state—Oregon. Moreover, that law faced challenges from right-to-life opponents and the Justice Department, which was trying to decide whether the Oregon statute violated any federal law. The other states remained strongly opposed to assisted suicide. As of this writing, thirty-five states have statutes that prohibit assisted suicide, nine…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Like I already mentioned, people should have an opinion in their OWN lives. Therefore that being a reason that assisted suicide should be legalised. The person feels as though they are done, then they should be helped in their decision. People argue that helping someone kill themselves is a way of violating their right to…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages

    They believe that it is easier to end a life so the family and the other people…

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays