Assisted Suicide Essay Outline

Improved Essays
Physician-Assisted Suicide Essay Outline
I. Introduction
- There is a controversial debate throughout the United States for the last decade regarding physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, many believe having a Doctor prescribe a self-administered lethal drug to a patient is diminishing the value of life. While others believe this method should be the patients’ right to choice when the pain and suffering from a life threatening illness should cease.
II. Main Point # 1
- Will Physician- Assisted Suicide, also known as the “Death by Dignity Act” be legalized in the remaining states? While legalized in three states in the United States, many others are adding it to the voting ballots for upcoming elections. The act was first passed in 1997, deeming it legal in the state of Oregon for terminally ill patient to have the choice to take a lethal dose of prescribed medication with no Doctor present. In the Advocate’s eye this gives the patient a choice, a right to end the pain and suffering when they feel necessary. The process is extensive and does have to be approved by the current physician as well as the consulting physician. The patient also has to be terminally ill with a diagnosis
…show more content…
Spring 2012 that no patient wanted to die. The patients he had experiences with would have chosen another illness not near as sever if the chance was presented. The patients never considered themselves suicidal, actually the label seemed to be preposterous and demeaning to them. Quill’s belief in the matter is that every patient should receive excellent palliative care, this should be standard procedure no exceptions. No patient should receive a hasten death due to poor palliative care, ensuring the patient is as comfortable as possible during the tragic

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    In the original Hippocratic Oath, written in 400 B.C.E., physicians were made to swear that they would “neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will [they] make a suggestion to this effect.” While many physicians to this day fiercely agree with this statement, it would be unreasonable not to reconsider and evaluate a centuries-old perception on physician-assisted suicide. Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) calls for physicians to prescribe lethal medication to patients with terminal illnesses who desire to end their lives. Although the debate over the legalization and morality of PAS is thousands of years old, in the past fifty years the issue has been put under the spotlight with the legalization of the practice in countries…

    • 2469 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Physician-assisted suicide has been a hot debate topic for quite some time. People claim that physician-assisted suicide is just plain suicide, while some believe it is the right of the patient to end their own life when burdened by a terminal illness. Countries around the world have made physician-assisted suicide legal. The most famous country for physician-assisted suicide is the Netherlands. Here at home, the United States has five states that allow physician-assisted suicide while the other 45 states deny patients that right.…

    • 1539 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Death With Dignity The nation’s eyes opened when twenty nine-year-old Brittany Maynard publicly made the decision that she was going to end her life. When she learned that even with surgery her death was inevitable, she moved with her husband and mother to the first state that made the Death with Dignity Act legal, Oregon. Brittany Maynard did not want to die in vain: “She said, “I will rob cancer of the ability to take everything of me before it takes my life”” (Printz). The right to die with dignity is ethical in many cases similar to Brittany Maynard’s and should be available in The United States because people shouldn’t have to suffer severe illnesses, there should be an option available for Physician-Assisted death, which helps with peace of mind, and they should not face a penalty for going about the process.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the United States, the controversial topic of physician assisted suicide has been heavily debated. Should it be legal to terminate one’s own life, with the aid of a physician, because they have been afflicted by a terminal illness? One should have the option to not suffer months of agonizing pain, but leave their life with dignity. The only states that legally allow a person of a terminal illness to have a physician assisted death are Oregon, Vermont and Washington. If passed, the End of Life Option Act, modeled after the Death with Dignity Act of Oregon, would give the people of California who have been deemed terminally ill the right to a physician assisted death.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Currently, states of Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have legalized assisted suicide through the legislature. While individuals have the right to choose whether he or she lives or dies, is physician- assisted suicide right or wrong? This paper…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    I. Physician-assisted suicide, under various names and colloquial definitions, has been a documented ethical issue for centuries – not to mention an undocumented ethical issue since the hypothetical dawn of life. By common understanding, physician-assisted suicide is death either directly or indirectly permitted or carried out by a physician. In simple terms, an “out” is provided. For this reason, it is often associated with chronic pain or terminal illness. Suicide where the doctor in charge is directly involved is perhaps the first situation which comes to mind when one thinks of euthanasia.…

    • 2007 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Whether or not the elderly or the terminally ill person meets these criteria is dependent on the health specialists charged with the obligation of making the assessments. It is tough to determine how long a person has left to live accurately in addition to comprehending a person’s motivations and state of mind regarding the physician-assisted suicide (Snyder et al.,…

    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    I initially believed that assisted suicide was that act of a physician carrying out the prescription of lethal dose to impose death to a chronically ill patient, with consent. Although my views appeared to line up more directly beside the definition of euthanasia and through the careful understanding of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, my thoughts have provoked me to accept a person’s wish. At first, I didn’t know that an MD or DO solely prescribe the lethal dose to a patient for them to solely to administer the dose to themselves; I believed the physician was present or administered the lethal dose of a medication directly to the patient. Now that I understand the appropriate way physicians implement the most applicable standard to their patient, I would accept assisted suicide. I originally distrusted that patients could just walk into a physician’s office, explain to them their terminal illness via the proper work-up previously and let the physician help them pass away peacefully.…

    • 1738 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There has been many controversies over whether physician ­assisted suicide should be legal or not. Many people believe that it is morally wrong and should be unconstitutional. Individuals who support physician assisted suicide argue that it cuts costs, ends pain and suffering, and is not morally wrong. Physician­ assisted suicide is a controversial procedure that should be accepted, legally and morally as it is cost saving, and eliminates suffering from individual’s lives. If legalized, physician ­assisted suicide has “potential cost savings” (Emanuel, 1998, p. 1).…

    • 1359 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Physician-Assisted Suicide Thesis: With today’s medical advancements and innovations, along with evolving human beliefs, patients no longer have to die a long and agonizing death. I. Introduction A. Good morning B. V.P. of Chronic Disease Prevention and Management at American Medical Association. I am an MD, as well a Fellow, at the American Heart Association and American Academy of Family Physicians. Advocate for America’s physicians before Congress and the Administration on Capitol Hill. Assure that medicine has a cohesive voice in Washington to achieve legislative goals.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The controversy concerning a new method of death, Physician Assisted Suicide, has provoked a social, legal, and a massive medical debate. Nearly two decades ago, Oregon declared its legalization for the assistance of lethal doses of medication to help terminally ill patients end their lives. Several other states were subsequent to this movement, such as Washington, Vermont, and Montana. Since then, oppositional views and disagreements on this topic have been brought up in court to be legalized for the suffering of patients who are unavoidably assured to death. The legalization of PAS in these states should be revoked because of the many flaws this movement contains.…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    According to a study done by Dartmouth Health Care, 80% of patients with a chronic disease say that they would prefer to avoid hospitalization when they are dying. Of this 80%, less than 20% actually die at home (“Facts”). The remaining terminally ill patients die in a hospital, having been sustained by medications and other life supporting technologies. Terminally ill patients who are experiencing a diminishing quality of life should have the option to voluntarily end their own life through physician-assisted suicide. The first time physician-assisted suicide became legal in the United States was on October 27, 1997.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Physician Assisted Suicide

    • 1395 Words
    • 6 Pages

    When a patient has a terminal illness; it means the person will die, normally within six months. The physician’s responsibility requires them to ensure the patient feels no more pain and stays at peace. The patient must not be obliged to wait to find a sense of contentment; the Hippocratic Oath goes off on the basis that requires for the physician-assisted suicide acquire legalization across the…

    • 1395 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The constant debate on the legality of assisted suicide has been at large for many decades, this procedure has benefits to the patients and to the family of said patient, but with the benefits also comes the downfalls to a procedure as delicate as physician assisted suicide. Proponents of physician assisted death argue mercy killings are justified, especially for patients with terminal illnesses along with uncontrollable pain. They argue the patient has a right to permanent relief by physician assisted death. However, the opposition argues, with appropriate pain management the terminally ill patient should die naturally.…

    • 1441 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior 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