“On New Year's Day, after months of suffering from debilitating headaches, I learned that I had brain cancer. I was 29 years old. I'd been married for just over a year. My husband and I were trying for a family...Because my tumor is so large, doctors prescribed full brain radiation. I read about the side effects: The hair on my scalp would have been singed off. My scalp would be left covered with first-degree burns. My quality of life, as I knew it, would be gone” (Maynard). (See figure 1). This is the sad reality faced by thousands of people every year. “It is estimated that 1,660,290 people in the United States will be diagnosed with some type of cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society”(delawareonline). Once diagnosed with
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“When hope of recovery is gone, when one achieves relief from physical symptoms only at the cost of mental clarity, and once dignity is lost to physical deterioration, the wish to end one’s life may be rational”(Solomon). People choosing to end their life with assisted suicide do not want to end their life. Terminally ill people simply want to end their life with dignity, and many people see assisted suicide as a last ditch effort to take their life into their own hands. Before attaining lethal medication the patient must exhaust all other medical options. The Death with Dignity Act is currently only legalized in five states. The law in Oregon states the requirements of attaining lethal medication as follows: “must be 18, an Oregon resident, capable (able to make decisions), and diagnosed with a terminal illness that is incurable or irreversible”(OLR). There are additional requirements that must be fulfilled between the patient and the physician as well. Once the lethal medication has been prescribed, the patient feels relief in knowing that they can end their pain and suffering at any time. By having this option the patient gains peace of …show more content…
In the European Declaration of Human Rights it states that you have “the right not to be forced to suffer”(ProCon). The right not to suffer should be universal. These personal decisions should be left up to those who are suffering, not the governors or legislators of that state. A possible reason for why this may not be legalized is because the legislators may not know how many people would benefit from physician assisted suicide. In Oregon “since 1997, prescriptions have been written for 1,327 people and 859 patients have died from ingesting the drugs that were legally prescribed for them under the law”(CNN). (See Figure 2). Reasons why the total number of people prescribed the medication is higher than those that use it include the possibility that they have died from that disease or they simply chose not to use it. In fact, this is actually a growth in numbers. “The latest annual report indicates that reported assisted-suicide deaths have increased by more than 306% since the first year of legal assisted suicide in Oregon”(PatientsRightsCoucil). Not only does physician assisted suicide benefit the patients but also the state in which they reside. Physician assisted suicide cost less money than it does to give treatments to terminally ill patients. Plus, physician assisted suicide allows patients to have the opportunity to donate vital organs to help others before the disease kills the organs. The most important
“When hope of recovery is gone, when one achieves relief from physical symptoms only at the cost of mental clarity, and once dignity is lost to physical deterioration, the wish to end one’s life may be rational”(Solomon). People choosing to end their life with assisted suicide do not want to end their life. Terminally ill people simply want to end their life with dignity, and many people see assisted suicide as a last ditch effort to take their life into their own hands. Before attaining lethal medication the patient must exhaust all other medical options. The Death with Dignity Act is currently only legalized in five states. The law in Oregon states the requirements of attaining lethal medication as follows: “must be 18, an Oregon resident, capable (able to make decisions), and diagnosed with a terminal illness that is incurable or irreversible”(OLR). There are additional requirements that must be fulfilled between the patient and the physician as well. Once the lethal medication has been prescribed, the patient feels relief in knowing that they can end their pain and suffering at any time. By having this option the patient gains peace of …show more content…
In the European Declaration of Human Rights it states that you have “the right not to be forced to suffer”(ProCon). The right not to suffer should be universal. These personal decisions should be left up to those who are suffering, not the governors or legislators of that state. A possible reason for why this may not be legalized is because the legislators may not know how many people would benefit from physician assisted suicide. In Oregon “since 1997, prescriptions have been written for 1,327 people and 859 patients have died from ingesting the drugs that were legally prescribed for them under the law”(CNN). (See Figure 2). Reasons why the total number of people prescribed the medication is higher than those that use it include the possibility that they have died from that disease or they simply chose not to use it. In fact, this is actually a growth in numbers. “The latest annual report indicates that reported assisted-suicide deaths have increased by more than 306% since the first year of legal assisted suicide in Oregon”(PatientsRightsCoucil). Not only does physician assisted suicide benefit the patients but also the state in which they reside. Physician assisted suicide cost less money than it does to give treatments to terminally ill patients. Plus, physician assisted suicide allows patients to have the opportunity to donate vital organs to help others before the disease kills the organs. The most important