Assisted Suicide - 2374 Words

FDENG 101 July 12, 2010 A Time to Die Matthew Donnelly was a young man who fully appreciated the beauty of being alive. He had several friends and a brilliant mind that helped him do priceless research in the field of X-rays. Everything about his life seemed to be normal. He was young, and his hopes for the future were full of excitement and dreams that appeared very likely to come true. However, a day that Matthew had never before anticipated was now reality before his eyes. Shockingly, at age 30, Matthew Donnelly was diagnosed with a brutal case of skin cancer. Suddenly, his mind was bombarded with unanswered questions that seemed to flourish and infuse every beat of his heart with fear. Instead of†¦show more content†¦It does not take much to look around and see how much medicine has developed over the years. Scenarios involving certain illnesses that at sometime in the past seemed to be hopeless have been studied and treatments carefully developed. Many medical discoveries have be en made, and many are the lives that have been spared because of such. On the other hand, however, it is undeniable that there are many forms of physical disorder that still cannot be fully explained by medicine. Extremely knowledgeable researchers and devoted doctors have been grappling with problems such as cancer and AIDS for decades, yet nothing has been discovered or developed further enough to completely cure these and also many other forms of deadly illnesses. It is not possible to imagine the everyday life of a person plagued with terminal illness. Not only is their burden incomparably heavy, but also that of their family and friends who are forced to watch a loved one suffer over long periods of time. The Journal of Medical Ethics, one of the world’s most respected voices in the field of medicine, attempted to explore the experience of 18 people fighting against a terminal illness and make known the opinion of patients who are the main â€Å"target† of any decision made over this issue. A young female patient suffering from chronic obstructive lung disease emphasized her desire to be in control of her own life and be given the right to choose death over life. She said, â€Å"IShow MoreRelatedA Brief Note On Assisted Suicide And Suicide1062 Words   |  5 PagesAfter researching assisted suicide I have more questions than when I started. The definition of assisted suicide is very factual: suicide facilitated by another per son, especially a physician, who organized the logistics of the suicide, as by providing the necessary quantities of a poison (The definition of assisted suicide 2016). After much research I have learned that assisted suicide is an option one has to make depending on their moral standards, will to live, and how they want to die ratherRead More Euthanasia Essay - Assisted Suicide1579 Words   |  7 PagesAssisted Suicide/Euthanasia      Ã‚   Remarkably, few have noticed that frail, elderly and terminally ill people oppose assisted suicide more than other Americans. The assisted-suicide agenda is moving forward chiefly with vocal support from the young, the able-bodied and the affluent, who may even think that their parents and grandparents share their enthusiasm. They are wrong.    Thus the assisted suicide agenda appears as a victory not for freedom, but for discrimination. At its heartRead MoreDoctor Assisted Suicide And Suicide1585 Words   |  7 PagesDoctor assisted suicide is a topic that has recently become a much larger debated issue than before. A timeline put together by Michael Manning and Ian Dowbigging shows that prior to Christianity, doctor assisted suicide was something that was tolerated, and was not heavily questioned (2). Yet, in the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas had made a statement about suicide as well as doctor assisted suicide, and his words shaped the Catholic teaching on suicide into what they teach today. Beginning in theRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide Should Be Legal1578 Words   |  7 PagesOne of the alternative options is Physician-Assisted Suicide; defined as the voluntary termination of one’s own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician (â€Å"Physician-assi sted†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). In layman’s terms it means that a physician administers medications to the patients to use on their own terms, and it’s entirely up to the patient whether or not to ingest the medication. I know Physician-Assisted Suicide is a practical solution to terminally ill patients’Read MoreEssay Problems with Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide1262 Words   |  6 PagesEuthanasia Problems      Ã‚  Doctors do err on cancer patients survival times, so how can they say when the time is ripe for assisted suicide. A study in the July 1 issue of Cancer, the journal of the American Cancer Society, finds that doctors are often wrong in predicting how long terminally ill cancer patients will live. After studying the accuracy of doctors predictions regarding 233 patients with end-of-life cancer, the researchers found most doctors had a tendency to overestimate survivalRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide Essay1214 Words   |  5 Pagesrelentless pain and agony through physician assisted death? Physician-Assisted Suicide PAS is highly contentious because it induces conflict of several moral and ethical questions such as who is the true director of our lives. Is suicide an individual choice and should the highest priority to humans be alleviating pain or do we suffer for a purpose? Is suicide a purely individual choice? Having analyzed and even experience the effects of physician assisted suicide, I promote and fully support its legalityRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide Thesis Statement1679 Words   |  7 Pagesrequests for physician-assisted suicide are now a viable possibility. Knowing the pathways to answering to those patients, as their requests for assisted death persist, is upmost importance. As of June, 9th 2016 California became the fifth state to allow physician-assisted suicide. The California’s End of Life Option Act authorizes any individual 18 years of age or older, who has been diagnosed as terminally ill and fits specific criteria, to solicit administration of assisted dying drugs at the handsRead MorePhysician’s Assisted Suicide1063 Words   |  5 Pagesthe question may arise as to whether or not third parties should be allowed to intentionally end the life of the patient or help the patient commit suicide. Physician’s assisted suicide should be a legal option for terminally ill patients all throughout the United States. Currently in the US there are three states that have physician assisted suicide laws in place. Oregon was the first state to pass a law allowing physicians to help end the lives of the terminally ill. This law was called the 1997Read MoreThe Legalization of Assisted Suicide1291 Words   |  5 PagesAssisted Suicide has through out history caused controversy among our society. There are two sides to this issue, one that passionately supports it, and those who religiously disagree. I believe that assisted suicide should become legal for several reasons. Assisted suicide gives individuals the right to end their suffering when they personally feel that their time has come to die. Assisted suicide should become legal because if one can decide to put an animal out of its misery, why shouldn’t thatRead MoreThe Choice Of Assisted Suicide1314 Words   |  6 Pag esthe law so patients are allowed to lawfully receive assistance to peacefully pass away. The acceptability to acquire â€Å"assisted suicide† has been designed into five factors. It is the combination of a patient’s age, curability of illness, degree of suffering, mental status, and extent of patients requests for the procedure. Moreover, no discussion on assisted suicide is complete without looking into the experience of Oregon, which was the first state in the U.S. to pass the Death with Dignity