Death With Dignity Argument
Argument, Death with Dignity
Tiffany Johnson
Anoka Ramsey Community College
May 9, 2016
Argument, Death with Dignity
Brittany Maynard expired on November 1, 2014, after she chose to stop the progression of her terminal brain tumor and long-endured suffering through the use of a life-ending medication prescribed by her physician. Her story of utilizing Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act was widely covered by the national media, bringing the issue of death with dignity to the forefront of conversations across the country.
Physician assisted suicide is the practice that a doctor offers a terminally sick patient with a prescription of a fatal medication dose, upon the patient‘s request with the intention of ending his or her life. In addition,
the American Medical Association (AMA, 2016) and the American Nurses Association (ANA, 2013) continue to take the stance that physician-assisted suicide is unethical and should remain illegal. However, a number of states that includes Montana, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and California, authorize psychologically competent, terminally sick persons to get medications they are capable of ingesting to die peaceful in case their distress becomes intolerable. It is not the wish of patients who are terminally ill to die other than it is due to the fact that these persons are encountering a looming death, this is mostly following long attempts to treat their sickness as well as heroic attempts for symptoms’ palliation. In spite of exceptional management symptoms and pain, a number of patients find the process of dying intolerable and wish for achievement of a peaceful death. Patients who are capable of choosing death with dignity, fail to understand that they are actually committing suicide, and get the idea that they are extremely distasteful, stigmatizing and imprecise. Some may find it disrespectful to them and their families to use the word suicide and would rather it be called physician assisted death instead. However, if you are ingesting a medication to purposely end your own life it is technically considered suicide.
Terminally ill patients choosing physician assisted suicide have a desire to live in reality. Among other evidences, studies reveal that over 30 percent of these patients fail to take the prescription even after filling them (Orfali, 2011). However, they get immense console knowing that they have that choice, as Brittany stated in the video. On the same note, those patients who take these drugs to attain a peaceful death, have done so out of the manner in agreement with their beliefs and values, and regard this decision to have allowed them to accomplish an ultimate autonomy act compatible with the way they have lived their entire life. Individuals among other persons utilizing the law choose to die with dignity for loss of sovereignty with dying in a hospital, and hospice facilities. Again, these persons choose death with dignity due to their incapability to take pleasure in life because of the terminal illness’ progression. With regards to physician assisted suicide, right acts are those considered to lead to a greater extent of contentment but not sadness.
Ideally, at the time a physician and the patient make the decision to end life of a patient via administration of lethal drug, the purpose is to terminate, or get rid of the pain and suffering of the patient. This entails that the doctor aims at minimizing suffering as well as maximizing happiness for the patient. Utilitarian such as Kant would agree that physician assisted suicide is right because it reduces the greatest amount of pain and suffering for the patient. This sorry to say is a conflict met by doctors flanked by the permission and the push for relieving pain and suffering for very sick patients.
The utilitarian’s scrutiny of the worthiness of life as well as deciding to live, brings out the evidence that physician assisted suicide brings out the sense of the degrading of human life in my opinion. Ideally, human life is supposed to be viewed as a precious and valuable aspect, which is supposed to be sustained. It is even more ethically wrong to terminate one’s life because it is expensive or inconvenient as this ignores the worthiness of life. Some patients feel the hospice programs are expensive and can sometimes prolong death. I feel it is morally unsound to maintain physician assisted death for financial reasons or whichever reason. Kant would say that we should do whatever creates the most happiness and less pain for our patients. However, choosing to end a person’s life to prevent pain and suffering is wrong and does seem to cause more harm for the patient, because the physician is assisting them with committing suicide. Taking a human life is wrong regardless of the situation. I don’t agree with the Utilitarian that it is right to end a life in order to prevent pain and suffering because it goes against the human right to life as well. I feel that the patients should undergo counseling and treatment for depression to help them cope, instead of the death with dignity act.
References
American Medical Association. (2016). Opinion 2.211 - Physician-assisted suicide. Retrieved from http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code- medical-ethics/opinion2211.page American Nurses Association. (2013). Position statements: Euthanasia, assisted suicide, and aid in dying. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/euthanasiaanddying
Orfali, R. (2011). Death with dignity: The case for legalizing physician-assisted dying and Euthanasia. Minneapolis, Minn: Mill City Press.
Tiffany Johnson
Anoka Ramsey Community College
May 9, 2016
Argument, Death with Dignity
Brittany Maynard expired on November 1, 2014, after she chose to stop the progression of her terminal brain tumor and long-endured suffering through the use of a life-ending medication prescribed by her physician. Her story of utilizing Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act was widely covered by the national media, bringing the issue of death with dignity to the forefront of conversations across the country.
Physician assisted suicide is the practice that a doctor offers a terminally sick patient with a prescription of a fatal medication dose, upon the patient‘s request with the intention of ending his or her life. In addition,
the American Medical Association (AMA, 2016) and the American Nurses Association (ANA, 2013) continue to take the stance that physician-assisted suicide is unethical and should remain illegal. However, a number of states that includes Montana, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and California, authorize psychologically competent, terminally sick persons to get medications they are capable of ingesting to die peaceful in case their distress becomes intolerable. It is not the wish of patients who are terminally ill to die other than it is due to the fact that these persons are encountering a looming death, this is mostly following long attempts to treat their sickness as well as heroic attempts for symptoms’ palliation. In spite of exceptional management symptoms and pain, a number of patients find the process of dying intolerable and wish for achievement of a peaceful death. Patients who are capable of choosing death with dignity, fail to understand that they are actually committing suicide, and get the idea that they are extremely distasteful, stigmatizing and imprecise. Some may find it disrespectful to them and their families to use the word suicide and would rather it be called physician assisted death instead. However, if you are ingesting a medication to purposely end your own life it is technically considered suicide.
Terminally ill patients choosing physician assisted suicide have a desire to live in reality. Among other evidences, studies reveal that over 30 percent of these patients fail to take the prescription even after filling them (Orfali, 2011). However, they get immense console knowing that they have that choice, as Brittany stated in the video. On the same note, those patients who take these drugs to attain a peaceful death, have done so out of the manner in agreement with their beliefs and values, and regard this decision to have allowed them to accomplish an ultimate autonomy act compatible with the way they have lived their entire life. Individuals among other persons utilizing the law choose to die with dignity for loss of sovereignty with dying in a hospital, and hospice facilities. Again, these persons choose death with dignity due to their incapability to take pleasure in life because of the terminal illness’ progression. With regards to physician assisted suicide, right acts are those considered to lead to a greater extent of contentment but not sadness.
Ideally, at the time a physician and the patient make the decision to end life of a patient via administration of lethal drug, the purpose is to terminate, or get rid of the pain and suffering of the patient. This entails that the doctor aims at minimizing suffering as well as maximizing happiness for the patient. Utilitarian such as Kant would agree that physician assisted suicide is right because it reduces the greatest amount of pain and suffering for the patient. This sorry to say is a conflict met by doctors flanked by the permission and the push for relieving pain and suffering for very sick patients.
The utilitarian’s scrutiny of the worthiness of life as well as deciding to live, brings out the evidence that physician assisted suicide brings out the sense of the degrading of human life in my opinion. Ideally, human life is supposed to be viewed as a precious and valuable aspect, which is supposed to be sustained. It is even more ethically wrong to terminate one’s life because it is expensive or inconvenient as this ignores the worthiness of life. Some patients feel the hospice programs are expensive and can sometimes prolong death. I feel it is morally unsound to maintain physician assisted death for financial reasons or whichever reason. Kant would say that we should do whatever creates the most happiness and less pain for our patients. However, choosing to end a person’s life to prevent pain and suffering is wrong and does seem to cause more harm for the patient, because the physician is assisting them with committing suicide. Taking a human life is wrong regardless of the situation. I don’t agree with the Utilitarian that it is right to end a life in order to prevent pain and suffering because it goes against the human right to life as well. I feel that the patients should undergo counseling and treatment for depression to help them cope, instead of the death with dignity act.
References
American Medical Association. (2016). Opinion 2.211 - Physician-assisted suicide. Retrieved from http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code- medical-ethics/opinion2211.page American Nurses Association. (2013). Position statements: Euthanasia, assisted suicide, and aid in dying. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/euthanasiaanddying
Orfali, R. (2011). Death with dignity: The case for legalizing physician-assisted dying and Euthanasia. Minneapolis, Minn: Mill City Press.