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Physician Assisted Suicide

Essay by   •  March 12, 2012  •  Essay  •  1,281 Words (6 Pages)  •  1,614 Views

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Assisted suicide and Euthanasia are two subjects many aren't really to familiar with but with reading more articles it puts people in the position to understand and see the ethical and unethical side of both.The death of a close family member let alone seeing them ask for assisted suicide or euthanasia is a hard fact to face. Who is and who isn't one to decide to let one choose to end their life if wanted through one of these processes.

Physician Assisted Suicide is the process of a physician giving patient options on actually committing suicide in a medically implied method. Anything ranging from carbon monoxide or a prescription of lethal medication to help aide the patient in ending their life falls under the context of assisted suicide. For any physician assisted suicide to be labeled as one the patient must take the medication themselves versus an actual doctor giving it to them like most other medications. Many argue that if physician assisted suicide is legalized then the major role of healing and offering solutions to patients that doctors overall roles in society will diminish and be replaced by the role of assisting in death. However, this argument is based solely on personal opinion and is not necessarily true when addressing multiple situations. The role of a physician in our society is also to help and comfort the patient regardless of the patient's case. On the other hand you have Euthanasia which comes in 2 types, active and passive. To remove someone who is relying on oxygen machines and other equipment to survive would be an example of passive euthanasia. For someone other then the patient to apply methods to end another's life would be considered active euthanasia.

To make assisted suicide legal would help many people out in many different situations for the good. For example, people that are in vegetative states, terminally ill, or lying in the hospital facing terrible pain while in a process of dying. Out of all these I could see dealing with a patient in a vegetative state as one of the hardest subjects to address. To try and perform assisted suicide on one that really can't talk or express their true desires would be beyond difficult. Is it a responsible thing to keep someone in a vegatative state in the hospital for multiple years or is it more responsible to find a more reasonable way of helping that individual out with assisted suicide? Many questions and doubts come to people minds when they address the topic of Physician Assisted suicide because there are so many different situations. In most cases patients have the right to choose their own way to end their life when suffering from something dealing with a medical reason ending in death never less?

Making physician assisted suicide a daily practice would give more people like terminally ill patients an option to end their life in an easy manner. Is this an ethical or unethical thing to let terminally ill people fall back on? A closely related issue is whether it is ethical for physicians to assist in their patients' suicide in order to relieve their pain and suffering. Many arguments over this highly discussed topic have been disputed by both sides but still the topic goes without a true solution. If you take a closer look at the pros and cons you will discover that in some cases the argument against physician assisted suicide doesn't hold enough power to prove the use of physician assisted suicide is an inhumane act. To be in the hands of someone who is medically qualified and able to offer you the choices needed should not just be allowed in Oregon.

We always try to come up with more helpful ways in the medical field to take care of people who are going through whatever issue it may be. One thing we have all come to realize that visiting the hospital and getting some type of service isn't cheap especially for individuals facing a terminally illness or other major issues. With the power

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