Right To Death With Dignity Essay

The Right to Death with Dignity American citizens suffering from a terminal disease are being denied the right to end their suffering by not legalizing euthanasia or physician assisted suicide. This is a controversial topic because some individuals believe that there is little difference between euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide and murder. Euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide are both means of ending ones life by ingesting lethal medication on their own or by a physician administering the lethal medication versus a person dying naturally. The process of dying can be slow and excruciatingly painful for the patient as well as their loved ones watching this process, people should not have to endure such torture. This raises the …show more content…
Patients facing a painful death due to terminal illness still deserve the right to choose. When a patient request euthanasia or physician assisted suicide, it is important to find out the underlining reasons for this decision and make all means available to relieve the pain and other discomforting symptoms before resorting to euthanasia or physician assisted suicide. A medical evaluation should be given to anyone considering these options in order to determine whether the patient is mentally competent to fully understand the choice they are making, as well as determining the severity of their illness to see if it is in fact life threatening. The unbearable suffering may be due to inadequate palliative care support or inadequate pain relief (Oxford 2002). Therefore, the safeguard measure is to improve the palliative care (Oxford 2002). Another study showed that terminally ill patients with depressive symptoms were more likely to consider euthanasia or physician assisted suicide (Oxford 2002). Patients with major depression can be treated effectively even in the presence of terminal illness (Oxford