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Assisted Suicide

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Assisted Suicide
Assisted Suicide
Megan

Today there are millions of people who are living with a terminal illness. Many of these people are basically waiting to die. Modern medicine can either do nothing more to help them or they have enacted their right to refuse treatments. Whichever the case may be the question arises: should we have the right to choose to die? This paper will be examining euthanasia and assisted suicide. It will begin by first defining what euthanasia; it will also be looking into the different types of euthanasia; there is passive and active. Next I will share my own personal feeling on the issue of euthanasia. I do believe in certain circumstances that euthanasia should be allowed; after all the law does support a human beings right to determine what will be done their own body. Each person is going to have their own view of the issue; my opinion on it is not going to be the same as someone else’s. Then this paper will define and describe the special populations that are presented on the Pro/Con website as well as how this population might be adversely affected by euthanasia. I will discuss my own beliefs regarding euthanasia and these special populations. And finally this paper will look at the laws concerning physician assisted suicide in Texas. It will compare and contrast theses laws against Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act.
In George D.Pozgar’s book Legal and Ethical Issues for Health Professionals it defines euthanasia as “an act conducted for the purpose of causing the medical death of a person who is suffering from an incurable condition, such as providing a patient with medication to hasten his or her death” (2013, pg.535). The actual word euthanasia is a Greek word meaning a good death. There are two different types of euthanasia; passive and active. There are also two different categories; which are voluntary and involuntary. Passive euthanasia is usually consider more ethically and morally acceptable by many because it is



References: Aungst, H. (2008). ‘Death with dignity’:the first decade of Oregon’s physican-assisted death act. Geriatrics,63(12), 20-22 retrieved from EBSCOhost : http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=fef4ec8f-9020-4124-a152-a84a647eeacf%40sessionmgr112&vid=4&hid=124 Gorman, D. (1999). Active and passive euthanasia: The case of drs. claudio alberto de la rocha and nancy morrison.Canadian Medical Association.Journal, 160(6), 857-60. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/204795669?accountid=32521 Pozgar, G. D.  (2012). Legal and Ethical Issues for Health Professionals (3rd ed.).  Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.  ProCon.org.  (2012).  Euthanasia ProCon.org.  (http://euthanasia.procon.org/) .

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