Persuasive Essay On Physician Assisted Suicide

Superior Essays
Physician-Assisted Suicide There is one thing that you can be certain of your entire life; you are going to die. We had no choice to be born, so should we have no choice when we die? Oftentimes we do not even know when we are going to die, in instances such as car accidents or murders. Sometimes we do know, and the death process can be long and drawn out, with pain, suffering, and mountains of medical bills. When talking about having the choice of life or death, I do not mean the choice to commit suicide because some problem in life leaves you feeling like you do not wish to live. I am talking about being on your deathbed, whether it is a month or a few hours away, with no chance of recovery and guaranteed pain and suffering. When someone …show more content…
When person know they are going to die and there is nothing that can be done to help them why should they have to spend weeks or months suffering in pain. Most people who have animals do not let their pet suffer at the end of their lives. They euthanasia their pet because they love their animal and do not want them to be in pain they want them to find peace and rest easily. There should be a legal way for a person to stop their pain and suffering if that is all they have left in life. Physician-assisted suicide is not and would not be for everyone. Many people find relief to their pain and suffering through the use medications and have no need to end their life to end their pain (Battin, 2005). Others though cannot find relief of the pain through medications and live lives of pain until it is decided to put them into terminal sedation, in terminal sedation a terminally ill patient is put in a coma state and the food and water is withheld (Battin, 2005). Would it not be better for the person to be at home spending time with family, friends, and passing peacefully away instead of in a hospital unknowing and waiting to die. Pain is only one aspect of suffering. Suffering involves family, friends, and the patient reaction to the death that is

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Oregon Public Health Division acknowledges that, “As in previous years, the three most frequently mentioned end-of-life concerns were: loss of autonomy (91.4%), decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (86.7%), and loss of dignity (71.4%)” to show exactly how many people struggled with the thought of losing these things. Many individuals find it scary that they will get to a point where life will no longer be enjoyable because of their illness. People want to be able to respond to life and the things happening around until they die and some people may not end up having that choice. The family of the sufferer will help make sure the patient makes their decision in the right state of mind and they continue to be in that state at the time they die. Brody writes, “Presumably the family will help to assure that the patient 's choice is truly voluntary and that the patient has appropriately sought out other care options before concluding that death through suicide is the only effective way to avoid further suffering”, showing that the choice for Physician Assisted Suicide is usually an option the family approves of as well.…

    • 2128 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A person who would even consider physician assisted suicide has gone through this for so long that they can not handle it anymore. This is something that the person themselves have to decide for themselves, after all it’s their body so they can choice what they want to do with it. However, the down side on Physician Assisted Suicide is that doctors are not adequately trained to perform it. This meaning maybe of easing the suffering and giving the patient a peaceful death, they are doing the complete opposite and…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In “Physician Assisted Suicide as a Real Option,” Leo Chan and Donald Lien write that there are still financial costs associated with PAS such as use of medical facilities, medications, healthcare, and the cost of the provider’s care and decision making, etc. They also mention, however, that if the benefit of doing away with chronic pain or mental anguish and stress with the terminal illness is greater than the costs, as a result PAS may be a rational choice. Another point of view in their paper is how if life after a terminal illness diagnosis is made to be less painful and/or less mentally stressful and depressing the benefit of euthanasia decreases sharply. Perhaps more money should be spent addressing pain management and how to properly manage and treat anxiety and depression during terminal illness and…

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The whole notion of pain, and how every individual experiences pain, is up for debate. We don 't know how another person experiences pain - physical pain or psychic pain. Some of these clinics where assisted suicide or euthanasia is practiced, they call it 'weariness of life. '” (Toews). For many years, those dubbed with the burden of cancer and other terminal illnesses have to suffer through a slow and painful death in the end.…

    • 1733 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If a patient has the right to choose how they live their life then the patient has the right to choose how they will die. In the article “Governor Signs End-of-Life Act” governor Jerry Brown states that if he were to be dying of a prolonged and excruciating pain he would feel more comfortable having the option of being prescribed a lethal drug because he will have a choice how he die. Furthermore in the article “Physician-Assisted Suicide Debate: Are We Using the Right Language” doctors argued that the patient has a right to choose early death because in some cases the patient can be suffering. For example Brittany Maynard, who has a terminal illness was passionate to choose when she died. Opponents argue that having assisted suicide takes away from the doctors duties as a healer.…

    • 1308 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Also, these conditions can become medically expensive as they use sophisticated hospital equipment. Therefore, both the patient and family suffer both physically and financially before the patient dies. In some cases, the patient might want to be relieved of this pain and end his or her life altogether. Is this a right that a terminally ill…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is the voluntary termination of a person’s life with the assistance of a physician in a controlled environment allows a quick, painless, and dignified death for those suffering from terminal illnesses. The arguments against physician-assisted suicide are ineffective because it gives terminally ill patients the right a dignified death. Today, five states have legalized physician-assisted suicide, sparing families in those states from watching their loved ones go through unbearable suffering and pain. The question of assisted suicide, and later physician-assisted suicide, has been long debated.…

    • 2317 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    You are visiting your grandma from the mental hospital, you can tell the end is near. You take a glance into her eyes and you visualize the miserable pain and suffering she is withstanding. You can indicate that she has no incentive to even breathe the same air as you. Do you really think she wants to be alive? Assisted suicide is a very contentious topic; some may argue that it is a physician’s duty to ease a patient’s pain from someone that is suffering an illness or mental problems.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The idea of life and death has always been a concept that many people try to avoid, but what happens when a loved one becomes too ill to live? This question has given rise to the idea of euthanasia and Physician-assisted suicide, which although may seem similar, have very different properties. Although physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia both support the belief that one has the right to choose their own fate, the constant backlash in society has limited its practice resulting in the disappearance of a method which, although unorthodox, offer a relief to people suffering from deadly diseases. Euthanasia is “the intentional killing by an act of . . . a dependent human being for his or her benefit” (MCCL.org) and involves two different methods.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For patients with an incurable and deadly disease or illness, asking them to stay in hospice care; therefore prolonging their pain and not allowing them to choose when they want to be done with the pain is something that must be stopped. Making physician assisted suicide legal, would allow for the patients whose palliative care options have run out, to have one final option of either escaping the pain by choosing physician assisted suicide or waiting for nature to run its course while in hospice care. For these reasons, physician assisted suicide must become…

    • 1946 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When it comes to Physician-Assisted Suicide/Death, there is no end to the misconceptions. Many believe that all patients are in immense pain and suffering. According to a 2010 Oregon Dept. of Health report, requesting patients’ concerns were loss of autonomy (93.8%), decreasing ability to participate in enjoyable activities (93.8%), and loss of dignity (78.5%) (Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act-2010 2010) as the top three. Another myth, is the belief that it takes several months.…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These people sit in hospital beds and suffer through pain for months or even years. These people should be able to die peacefully on their own…

    • 1821 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The discussion on physician-assisted death (PAD) and euthanasia has been fenced with controversy whether by the media or in philosophy. Considerably, the arguments that surround this issue has increased periodically due to the fact that health care and medicine has evolved continuously to safeguard not just patients and families, but all health care providers as well. Physician assisted death is “the voluntary termination of one’s own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician” (Westefeld et al., 2013, p. 539). Oftentimes, PAD is erroneously used interchangeably with euthanasia. According to Dieterle, euthanasia occurs when the active instigator of death is the physician.…

    • 1312 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Against Assisted Suicide In many countries around the world, it is legal for doctors to prescribe a medicine that can potentially end a patient’s life if the patient wishes to commit suicide. In the United States, four states -Vermont, Oregon, Washington, and Montana- are the only states which have chosen to legalize assisted suicide (Backmann par. 6). Physician assisted suicide, also called assisted suicide, has become an extremely sensitive topic that has been debated by everyone, from academic scholars to everyday people, and has become almost as controversial as abortion.…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stand Up for the Ones Who Can’t Cassandra Clare, a renowned American author, once declared, “Everyone has choices to make; no one has the right to take those choices away from us. Not even out of love.” In North America, individual choices often win over collective choices. Generally, people suppose that they have the right to make their very own decisions by following their personal core values. Since values are deeply held beliefs, individuals strongly wish to honour their principles, even over death.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays