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

    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

    Physician Assisted Suicide

    • 2492 Words
    • 10 Pages

    In the medical field there are massive amounts of treatments for various diseases. Some treatments are going to help the patient feel more comfortable; however, some are going to counteract the problem, and others are going to help kill the patient. Physician assisted suicide is defined by medterms.com as “the voluntary termination of one 's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician.” Any person wishing to undergo assisted suicide in Oregon must be at least 18 years of age and have a terminal illness. This illness must be within its final stages and leave the patient with less than six months to live. Within these six months a patient can request the treatment, but must orally request twice, and provide a written request once as well. In order to receive this treatment, however, a second physician must give a second opinion on the length the patient has to live. In her article, “Physician-Assisted Suicide: Compassionate Liberation or Murder?” Vicki Lachman talks about the option that patients have to request a lethal dosage of medication. She explores the moral conscience of nurses, the ethical and moral issues, and the legal issues that surround a patient’s request for lethal dosages.…

    • 2492 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 2646 Words
    • 11 Pages

    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).…

    • 2646 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • 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
  • Good Essays

    Physician Assisted Suicide

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Dieterle is a professor at Eastern Michigan University in the department of history and philosophy. In this paper he reviewed the arguments against physician assisted suicide. He discusses the Oregon 's Death with Dignity Act and their practice with PAS. Dieterle does not provide positive arguments for physician-assisted suicide because he believes that no anti-PAS argument has value. Consequential arguments were analyzed throughout this paper. After reviewing some of the arguments, Dieterle stated that statistics based on Pas does not agree with the consequential predictions.…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hca 322 Week 5 Assignment

    • 2523 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Pozgar, G. (2012). Legal and Ethical Issues for Health Professionals (3rd ed). Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781449685065/id/ch02lev1sec10…

    • 2523 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Person's Right to Die

    • 953 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Over the past decade, we have gone from Dr. Jack Kevorkian's first public assisted suicide to the first legal assisted suicide in Oregon. The underlying issue has been whether terminally ill individuals should have the right to ask a doctor to hasten their own deaths. However, larger issues have been raised as well; about dying with dignity and what constitutes a ''good death.''…

    • 953 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good 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
  • Better Essays

    Starks, H., Dudzinski, D., & White, N. (2009, April). physician aid-in-dying . Retrieved from http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/pad.html…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Assisted Suicide

    • 2368 Words
    • 10 Pages

    "Where It Is Legal in the World." Life. Wisconsin Right to Life, 2010. Web. 11 July 2010.…

    • 2368 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Physician Assisted Suicide

    • 7664 Words
    • 31 Pages

    Schofield, Joyce Ann. Euthanasia: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. Neal Bernards. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1989. 24-29.…

    • 7664 Words
    • 31 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The term euthanasia originated from the Greek word for "good death." It is the act or practice of ending the life of a person either by lethal injection or the deferment of medical treatment (Munson, 2012, p. 578). Many view euthanasia as simply bringing relief by alleviating pain and suffering. Euthanasia has been a long-standing ethical debate for decades in the United States. Active euthanasia is only legal in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland and in the United States in the states of Washington, Oregon and Montana (Angell). Several surveys indicate that roughly two thirds of the American public now support physician-assisted suicide, and more than half the doctors in the United States do too (Angell). Active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia matter because they allow the patient or family to relieve them of pain and suffering, and to die with dignity and respect. In this paper I will argue that it is immoral and unethical to deny a patient the right to die and that active voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia should be a legal practice in the United States.…

    • 2255 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better 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
  • 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

    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