Physician Assisted Suicide Persuasive Essay

Have you ever had to watch a loved one finish out their life in pain and suffering? If so, then you will know it is very hard to watch that loved one live in agony. Knowing that there is something that could help your loved one, but they do not have access to it is just as hard. Imagine being the person who is experiencing the pain themselves. Physician assisted suicide is when a doctor prescribes a lethal medication to a patient, eighteen years old or older, with a terminal illness who no longer wants to live uncomfortably. The person should be able to make their own decisions about their medical treatment, including if they want to take part in physician assisted suicide. Even though doctors do not want to inflict harm on any of their patients, they still are harming them with some of the medications that they prescribe. Some doctors, and people who oppose physician assisted suicide, think that the slippery slope should be enough for people to be against physician assisted suicide, but that may not be enough. Every day animals are put to sleep, and most of us do not react to that at all. These are things that needs to be thought about when discussing physician assisted suicide. With any new law that is passed, there is always going to be a down side to it. There is always going to be something makes it unfavorable. The slippery slope was addressed in the article “Assisted Suicide: Unraveling a Complex Issue” and the author said “This is the idea that allowing assisted suicide would inevitably lead to more morally questionable or unacceptable practices” (Eserk 50). Yes, passing this law could lead to “morally questionable or unacceptable practices,” but it will also be drastically helping the lives of the terminally ill. An example of a positive thing with a down side is medical marijuana. Medical marijuana is now becoming legal in some states. This gives people more opportunities to get their hands on it. If more people have access to it, who says that they are using it according to the law or the doctor. Another example is prescription pain medicine. Every day doctors give prescriptions to patients for pain medication, knowing that the rate for pain medication addiction is extremely and ridiculously high. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, opioids, “Vicodin” and “OxyCoton” for example, are some of the most commonly prescribed pain medication. “In the United States, more people now die from opioid painkiller overdoses than from heroin and cocaine combined” (National Institute on Drug Abuse). If doctors can prescribe medication that could potentially ruin lives like this, then they are completely capable of handing out a prescription that is going to better the end of someone’s life. The U.S. constitution is all for individual rights and you should be, too. Patients are allowed to refuse medical treatments and they are also allowed to choose what medical …show more content…
This is talking about the misdiagnoses and prognoses that the doctors can make, along with depression. Of course nothing is certain, but in order to take part in physician assisted suicide the patient needs to be seen by multiple doctors to confirm the terminal diagnoses. If the diagnoses is being confirmed by multiple doctors, there is very little margin for error. A patient has to have six months or less to live to be prescribed the lethal medication, so if a patient has one year to live, then they can just wait six months to try to be prescribed the medication. Either way a terminal illness means that the illness the patient has will kill them. The patient will either die slowly and painfully or peacefully and quick. Opponents of physician assisted suicide also say that there could be patients with depression who take part in physician assisted suicide. To be able to take part in physician assisted suicide it is required of patients to see a psychiatrist and be cleared. The psychiatrist is a doctor, which means they know how to detect signs for mental illnesses. Therefore, there shouldn’t be much of problem with missing the mental illnesses. The article “Ethics in Medicine: Physician Assisted Suicide” states “Thus the State has an obligation to protect lives…” (Starks. Dudzinski. White). With that being said, there is a big difference in protecting lives and controlling lives. Depriving patients of physician assisted suicide is crossing that