Controversy Of Physician Assisted Suicide

The Controversy of Physician Assisted Suicide According to the Constitution every person has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The statement means no one needs permission to live and each person has the right to do what make him or her happy even if it means dying (Bowden 36). There are many people throughout the United States that believe Physician Assisted Suicide is wrong, however, there are also many people who believe it is a human right. The controversy of PAS can be understood by learning what it is and where it occurs, why it should be legal, and why it should not be legal. PAS occurs when a physician can prescribes a lethal drug to a terminally ill patient who has six months or less to live (“Physician”). This lethal drug will end the patient 's life. PAS is not a action given by all physicians in the state that it is legal in. Physicians who do not feel that PAS is right are not required to prescribe the lethal medicine. The lethal medicine is only prescribed by willing physicians (“Physician”). Once the lethal drug is prescribed, the patient will then have it and will have access to it when he or she is ready to take it. The patient who wishes for PAS will give him or herself the lethal drug when he or she are ready to end his or her life. PAS is not legal in all states; however, it is legal in Oregon, Vermont, Washington and California (“Physician”). It is also an option in Montana with a court decision (“Physician”). In Oregon the physician that is prescribing the lethal drug must be a doctor of medicine or a doctor of osteopathy. Since the law was passed in Oregon in 1997, PAS has had a steady increase in choices by patients(“Physician”). For example, the 2015 report showed that since 1997 prescriptions have been written for 1,327 people and 859 patients have died (“Physician”). In Washington, PAS was legalized in 2009 (‘Physician”). In the 2013 report for Washington states that since 2009, prescriptions have been written for 549 people and 525 patients have died (“Physician”). The most common factor in the law between all of the states in which PAS is legal is that the doctor must be willing to assist because some believe that PAS is wrong. Patients with terminally ill diseases go through many difficult obstacles. For example, Percy Bridgeman was a 79 year old Nobel Prize winning physicist who had been battling cancer. In his final stage of cancer, he shot himself and left a note that read “It is not decent for society to make a man do this to himself…” (Bowden 35-36). Death affects everyone who knows the person who died (Phifer 77). The death of Percy …show more content…
Her body was young and healthy but her brain was being eaten away by cancer (Maynard). She lived in California with her husband who she was married to for a little over a year and she was now dying (Maynard). Her headaches and her pain grew stronger every day until she final realised that she needed PAS. She needed PAS because she did not want to be in fear and pain anymore and she wanted to die in peace (Maynard). She knew if she didn’t use PAS that she would stay in hospice for weeks or even mohs and suffer and her family would have to watch it all (Maynard). So her and her husband had to move from California to Oregon and switch their lives around just so she could get PAS (Maynard). She was already sick enough and she shouldn’t have had to switch her life around right before she died but she did because it was not legal where she lived. So she got everything approved to be able to use PAS and she was able to let her family know when she was going to do it and prepare them for it (Maynard). Brittany died in peace like she wanted to and did not have to suffer any longer and that’s why people argue that PAS should be available to all terminally ill patients who wishes for it. People have the right to life or death so if a doctor is willing then no law should step in the way (Bowden