Assisted Suicide Should Be Legal Essay

The word suicide gives many people negative feelings and is a socially taboo subject. However, suicide might be beneficial to terminally ill patients. Physician- assisted suicide has been one of the most controversial modern topics. Many wonder if it is morally correct to put a terminally ill patient out of their misery. Physicians should be able to meet the requests of their terminally ill patients. Unfortunately, a physician can be doing more harm by keeping someone alive instead of letting them die peacefully. For example, an assisted suicide can bring comfort to patients. These patients are in excruciating pain and will eventually perish. The government should not be involved in such a personal decision. A physician- assisted suicide comes with many benefits for the patient. If a person is terminally ill and wants a physician assisted suicide, then they should receive one.

Imagine laying in a hospital bed living everyday in extreme pain with no hope of getting better. This scenario explains what many people go through everyday, which is a living with a terminal illness. M. Lee, a science historian, and Alexander Stingl a sociologist, define terminal illness as “an illness from which the patient is not expected to recover even with treatment. As the illness progresses death is inevitable” (1). There are not many options for the terminally ill besides dying a slow and painful death, but assisted suicide could be best option for these patients. Assisted suicide is “any case in which a doctor gives a patient (usually someone with a terminal illness) the means to carry out their own suicide by using a lethal dose of medication” (Lee and Stingl 1). Some feel that assisted suicide is unnecessary because it is too great of a controversy and will only cause problems in society. However, assisted suicide should be legal in the United States as long as there are strict regulations to accompany it.

Physician-assisted suicide is controversial in healthcare and political realms alike. Currently, this end-of-life option is practiced in five states within the United States. Social concerns regarding assisted suicide revolve around ethical quandaries; providing the means to a patient’s death is contradictory to ethical principles of healthcare providers. Political concerns surrounding the legalization of assisted suicide include disparities in healthcare that may lead to certain populations choosing assisted suicide and the stagnation of current care options. While there is no succinct manner in which to declare assisted suicide right or wrong, each individual must address the social and political concerns surrounding the issue when voting for legislation to legalize assisted suicide or pursuing the option for themselves.

According to a poll in 2015, 68% of United States residents believe that physician assisted suicide should be legal (“In”). Physician assisted suicide (PAS) gives terminally ill patients a way to end their lives peacefully before they die from whatever terminal illness they have. If physician assisted suicide became legal, many people would be saved from pain and anguish. On top of that, ill people could retain some power and control over their life. And though bringing money into the discussion might be crude, assisted suicide can save millions. Physician assisted suicide should be legal in order to ensure a dignified death for terminally ill patients.

Additionally, the term “euthanasia” does not mean the same thing as assisted suicide. Often people confuse these processes when they differ immensely. Despite this, they remain similar in their resulting death of a human life through the help of a physician. Euthanasia is the direct killing of a patient by a physician by means of lethal injection and it is completely controlled by the doctor. On the other hand, patients in assisted suicide have full control over the process that leads to their death. For this reason, procedures of these sorts must be eliminated as medical treatments and should not be authorized. Consequently, physician assisted suicide has been proven to lead to euthanasia in some cases. Assisted suicide should become illegal in all fifty states of the United States of America because it raises religious concern, endorses legalized murder, puts vulnerable people at risk of abuse, and

prescribe drugs to terminally ill patients who request to end their lives. Attorney General John

1. (problem – PAS): In today’s society, Physician Assisted Suicide is one of the most questionable and debatable issues. Many people feel that it is wrong for people to ask their doctor to help them end their life; while others feel it is their right to choose between the right to life and the right to death. “Suffering has always been a part of human existence.” (PAS) “Physicians have no similar duty to provide actions, such as assistance in suicide, simply because they have been requested by patients. In deciding how to respond to patients ' requests, physicians should use their judgment about the medical appropriateness of the request.” (Bernat, JL) Physician Assisted Suicide differs from withholding or discontinuing medical treatment, it consists of doctors providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication to aid in the use to end their life.

Individuals who are living yet are dying a slow painful death should deserve to end their lives if they wish to; this excludes suicidal individuals or individuals not suffering a fatal disease. Assisted suicide is intended to relieve oneself of pain and suffering, however, in society many individuals consider this option is immoral, as taking someone's life is unethical. We plan to make assisted suicide legal, as the choice to free yourself from your pain should only be yours; medicine should not be governed or restricted by laws because it makes physicians liable for choices out of their power, which could be regarding a citizen's life.

You’re visiting the hospice for the twenty-third day in a row; the soft squeaking of the linoleum and the gentle buzz of the fluorescents in the waiting room greet you as you walk in. You’re visiting your Grandmother, whose lung cancer has entered metastasis, and has been slowly spreading throughout her body; she has already lost movement in her arms. She is a hollow shell of the woman she once was; her once bright eyes have been fading steadily every day, and her bubbly demeanor has become crushed and gravelly, and every day before you leave, she will only say, “Kill me.” What would you do in this situation? Would you break the law in order to respect your elder’s wishes? It is a cruel reality we live in when ability to choose the time

Choosing to die with the assistance of a physician is a much debated controversial issue in the states. Assisted suicide is where a patient with a terminal disease choose to take their life to relieve their suffering, sometimes with the aid of a physician, and is legal in only five states. Assisted suicide is “legal in Washington, Oregon, California, Vermont and Bernalillo County,New Mexico(Death with).” This option should be available to patients in all states, because terminally ill patients should have the choice to end their suffering if their pain becomes unbearable. Terminal patients should be able to die on their own terms.

The topic of physician-assisted suicide has become very controversial because of the ethical questions. The physical state of health of the patient, the patient’s personal life, and even the financial pressure of the patient are all factors to consider when contemplating whether or not to legalize this controversial cause of death. Physician-assisted suicide regarding medical ethics states that a physician cannot legally give any patient a lethal injection to end their life, but they can take the patient off of life support in order to increase the process of death. Physician-assisted suicide should be legalized at a federal level and should be morally acceptable for patients who are terminally ill and can no longer be treated to improve their medical situation.

“Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.”

Euthanasia on human beings, also known as assisted suicide, is the collaborate killing of a patient with a terminal illness or a debilitating physical disability in order to end their suffering. The debate on this topic has been fought between the two sides for years. Those opposing assisted suicide as an option for patients claim that patients should not be allowed to die on their own terms because it is legalizing murder, costs too much, and is not morally correct. Because of the limited number of states (five as of 2015 when California passed a bill legalizing it) that euthanasia performed on human beings is legal in, many nurses and physicians have been involved illegally and have been punished for fulfilling the wishes of their patients (Richardson 1). For example, Jack Kevorkian, also known as “Dr. Death,” was “a pathologist who assisted people suffering from acute medical conditions in ending their lives” and eventually spent time in prison for his work (“Jack Kevorkian” 1). Some patients also resort to trying to kill themselves alone, which is more dangerous and risky than what could be done by an authorized physician. Instead of restricting access to physician-assisted deaths, assisted suicide should be legalized by all states in the United States of America for those with terminal illnesses and physical disabilities (and, in some cases, those with mental illnesses) because not doing so would be restricting the rights of people who fall into the aforementioned

Physician assisted suicide is a topic that is very controversial in the United States, as well as in the world at this point in time. There are advocates for the act, and there are people that disagree completely with the idea of dying with dignity. Physician assisted suicide, otherwise known as euthanasia, is an act where a person with a terminal illness decides to take their own life with the help of a doctor. The patient must meet several requirements in order to be granted the ability to take their life. Although it is not legal in many places now, physician assisted suicide should be made legal in all fifty states here in the United States. There are many reasons for the legalization of euthanasia, one of which being people have the right to be free, so if their choice is to take their life, there should be no one who can stop them, as the right of freedom applies to everyone and can not be taken away. Also, people suffering with terminal illnesses have no other hopes in term of medicine or doctors. There is physically nothing that can be done for them, so in the long run they will just end up in pain with no chance of ever healing or getting better. Assisted suicide would serve as a way to end the pain and suffering before it becomes too unbearable for the person to handle. A final reason for the legalization of physician assisted suicide is that people with a terminal illness lose all sense of autonomy as their illness progresses and becomes worse. As the patient

One of the biggest controversies in the past decade is whether or not euthanasia should be legalized throughout the United States. Euthanasia, also known as physician assisted suicide, is the practice of ending the life of a patient (Euthanasia). There are different forms of euthanasia; they include direct/indirect, voluntary/involuntary. However, euthanasia in its entirety is what has been debated. Although some oppose the idea, others are in favor of people having the option of euthanasia. Religious concerns may give the process a bad reputation but ultimately in a public facility church and state should not intertwine and it should be the patient’s decision. Additionally, euthanasia not only helps a suffering patient but it may help their families be at peace as well. Many people believe euthanasia should remain illegal because it is inhumane or is against religious beliefs for a human being to assist someone else to end their life. Physician assisted suicide is seen to go against popular belief that it is a doctor’s job to keep a patient alive and healthy. However, a doctor’s job also includes taking the patients opinion and decision on what they want to do with themselves to get better into consideration therefore euthanasia should be legal in the United States.