The debate on physician-assisted suicide is an ongoing one with many social influences. Only 5 states in the United States authorize Death with Dignity, an end-of-life option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live. It enables patients to use the medical practice of aid in dying: able to request and receive a prescription from a physician for medication that could be self-ingested to end his or her dying process if it becomes unbearable.
On November 1st, 2014, 29-year-old Brittany Maynard practiced her right to die with dignity in Portland, Oregon surrounded by her loved ones in her home. Suffering from a terminal brain tumor, stage 4 glioblastoma, Maynard chose to live out her final months …show more content…
People nationwide were touched and inspired by Maynard’s bravery, supporting her and her family. There were others, however, who were outraged by her decision to end her life on her own conditions, equating it with suicide despite the terminal illness looming over her and her family. These disparate feelings toward death and dying are socially constructed and permeate the legislature and policies we implement in medicine and health today, affecting the options available for patients with terminal …show more content…
Their movement to pass peacefully from this world with the help of their trusted doctors can be seen as a cry for help. Family physician Peter M. McGough argues that “the ‘Death with Dignity’ debate reflects such a plea on a societal level, and if we stay only with the issues of individual autonomy and self-determination, we will be overlooking other important values in how we approach death and care for the dying3.” Society as well as medicine is challenged to rethink its conception of what death means in a community. “Modern medicine, in its many successes against disease and its ability to forestall death, has led physicians and patients alike to see death as an option rather than an inevitable fact of
On November 1st, 2014, 29-year-old Brittany Maynard practiced her right to die with dignity in Portland, Oregon surrounded by her loved ones in her home. Suffering from a terminal brain tumor, stage 4 glioblastoma, Maynard chose to live out her final months …show more content…
People nationwide were touched and inspired by Maynard’s bravery, supporting her and her family. There were others, however, who were outraged by her decision to end her life on her own conditions, equating it with suicide despite the terminal illness looming over her and her family. These disparate feelings toward death and dying are socially constructed and permeate the legislature and policies we implement in medicine and health today, affecting the options available for patients with terminal …show more content…
Their movement to pass peacefully from this world with the help of their trusted doctors can be seen as a cry for help. Family physician Peter M. McGough argues that “the ‘Death with Dignity’ debate reflects such a plea on a societal level, and if we stay only with the issues of individual autonomy and self-determination, we will be overlooking other important values in how we approach death and care for the dying3.” Society as well as medicine is challenged to rethink its conception of what death means in a community. “Modern medicine, in its many successes against disease and its ability to forestall death, has led physicians and patients alike to see death as an option rather than an inevitable fact of