CBA Essay Examples
EXAMPLE 1 – ESSAY
Life sometimes goes wrong under the best of circumstances, but what if you spend your days in a hospital bed slowly suffocating to death as cancer eats away at your body? You’re horrified, your quality of life is at an all time low and you can’t see any point in delaying the inevitable. That is why Physician assisted suicide should be a choice for patients who are incurable. Physician assisted suicide (PAS) should be legal in cases that involve unbearable suffering or pain. PAS is not the same as euthanasia, as many people think. According to Wesley (2), PAS is when the patient requests to be put to death while euthanasia is when a physician or loved one makes and carries out the decision on his or her own. The first euthanasia bill was drafted in Ohio and failed in 1906. Since then, euthanasia and physician assisted suicide have become a major debatable topic. In 1994 Oregon passed the “Death with Dignity” act which made Oregon the first and only state to legalize PAS (Phillips 3 ). By 1998 fourteen people had died by PAS in Oregon. Yale Kamisar, an important political figure and presidential candidate even said, “There can’t be a much more personal decision an individual makes than how to die and I think that is a personal decision left to individuals, their physicians and families (1).” Many people have moral and ethical issues about PAS and feel that death should come naturally and not even the person suffering should have the power to end it any other way (Phillips 5). Some also believe that “if a physician gives the person injections that they are committing murder (University of Washington 1). Which is against the constitution and many personal ethics. One man, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was arrested for 2nd degree murder for helping a man suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) bring his life to an end (Kamisar 2). “The vast majority of both patients and the general public believe, as I do, that PAS is
Life sometimes goes wrong under the best of circumstances, but what if you spend your days in a hospital bed slowly suffocating to death as cancer eats away at your body? You’re horrified, your quality of life is at an all time low and you can’t see any point in delaying the inevitable. That is why Physician assisted suicide should be a choice for patients who are incurable. Physician assisted suicide (PAS) should be legal in cases that involve unbearable suffering or pain. PAS is not the same as euthanasia, as many people think. According to Wesley (2), PAS is when the patient requests to be put to death while euthanasia is when a physician or loved one makes and carries out the decision on his or her own. The first euthanasia bill was drafted in Ohio and failed in 1906. Since then, euthanasia and physician assisted suicide have become a major debatable topic. In 1994 Oregon passed the “Death with Dignity” act which made Oregon the first and only state to legalize PAS (Phillips 3 ). By 1998 fourteen people had died by PAS in Oregon. Yale Kamisar, an important political figure and presidential candidate even said, “There can’t be a much more personal decision an individual makes than how to die and I think that is a personal decision left to individuals, their physicians and families (1).” Many people have moral and ethical issues about PAS and feel that death should come naturally and not even the person suffering should have the power to end it any other way (Phillips 5). Some also believe that “if a physician gives the person injections that they are committing murder (University of Washington 1). Which is against the constitution and many personal ethics. One man, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was arrested for 2nd degree murder for helping a man suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) bring his life to an end (Kamisar 2). “The vast majority of both patients and the general public believe, as I do, that PAS is
Cited: Kamisar, Yale. "The reasons so many people support physician-assisted suicide - and why these reasons are not convincing.." Issues in Law & Medicine 12. (1996):113-131. eLibrary. Web. 04 Mar. 2010. Phillips, S.. (2010). Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Natural Law Ethics Approach. Ethics & Medicine, 26(1), 55. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from Platinum Full Text Periodicals. (Document ID: 1950198811). Wesley, Patricia. "The Case Against Assisted Suicide: For the Right to End-of-Life Care." Suicide & Life - Threatening Behavior 4(2002):451. eLibrary. Web. 04 Mar. 2010. Lawson, Don. The War In Vietnam. New York: F. Watts, 1981. Print.