During a game of chase with his sister Nikki, three-year-old Wes caught her for the first time. Without knowing what do to next, he punched her. His mother Joy’s angry and sudden reaction to him hitting his sister was confusing to him. While Wes hid in his room, he heard his father, Westley, trying to calm his mother down. Westley reminded Joy that Wes did not know hitting a woman was wrong or why Joy felt so strongly about it. Years later, Wes would finally understand why his mother reacted in that way. Bill’s recreational drug and alcohol use became an addiction. Even though they had a child together (Wes’s older sister, Nikki), Joy left Bill after a particularly violent encounter ended with her battered, but determined. Joy met Westley,…
There are many ethical dilemmas/cases throughout history, today I would like to address two issues/dilemmas that I believe have impacted and helped reshape our stances upon medical ethics. The first issue in which I would like to address to Physician Assisted Suicide or sometimes referred to as PAS.…
FACTS The prosecution, Dr. Timothy E. Quill and three terminally ill patients residing in New York State sued the New York State Attorney General’s office (Defendant) on constitutional grounds after the State prohibited Physician-assisted suicides. The respondents made up of Physicians argued that the statute violated the Equal Protection Clause under the Fourteenth Amendment, in which a capable person can deny medical treatment at any point in their health, and that this is "essentially the same thing" as a Physician-assisted suicide. The District Court acted in favor of the Statute arguing that it was not unconstitutional and stating that New York State…
Paul committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. He saw no future for himself and chose to end his life. Just like that. It was a violent and lonely end. Paul is a fictional character in the story titled “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather. Paul was a young man who was unhappy with his life and felt he was on the outside looking in at people living the life he wanted. He stole money and sneaked away to New York City to live the life to which he aspired. For one week Paul lived his dream and even though he dressed the part and walked among those he admired, he did not interact--he was still on the outside looking in. Once his theft was discovered he did not want to face the consequences or worse, go back to his previous life, so he carried out the plan he’d decided upon at the beginning of his adventure-- to end his life.…
Imagine a frail elderly woman laying in the nursing home in pain. This woman is 80 years old and has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and her heart cannot withstand treatment via radiation or chemotherapy. She has less than six months to live. Day in and day out you pass her room and hear her crying out from the immense pain. The pain medications are no longer working. She’s tired of fighting, tired of hurting, and tired of waiting to die. After consideration and discussions with her family she has decided to ask the doctor to help and end her life. The doctor feels remorse for the elderly lady and wants to help but cannot decide if it is the ethical thing to do because he knows that what he’s being asked to do is considered physician-assisted suicide.…
Should physicians be granted the power to intentionally end the lives of their patients? Recent proposals to legalize physician-assisted suicide have raised this question and triggered intense legal, medical and social debate. For some individuals, the debate is fueled by their fear that medical technology may someday keep them alive past the time of natural death. However, this concern is unfounded for mentally competent adults who have a legal right to refuse or stop any medical treatment. It is also important to recognize that today's health care climate lends itself more to undertreatment than overtreatment.…
Why it is unjust and unmoral to approve of medical assistants in the pursuit of death, such as suicide if the patients ask for such help? There are two side to every argument, there are some people that believe that is is morally ethical to receive PAS (Physician-Assisted Suicide). Then, of course there’s the opposing side to the debate in which this paper will cover and that side is :The medical practice is PAS is unjust, unmoral and shouldn’t be legalized for the fact the the will of life out powers a moment of misery.…
It is nearly impossible for the patient to rely on another person to make the best decision that they would have made for themselves, particularly when it involves personal interests such as profiting from a will. If there is something to gain, the family members’ motives seem questionable. If the patient falls ill, then there lies a possibility that their heirs will hope for the patient’s death so that they could receive their inheritance. The inability to confirm whether the family actually has the patient’s best interest in mind supports the argument that any form of euthanasia is unethical. Moreover, some families may not have the opportunity to drop everything in order to take on the responsibility of their sick loved one. This causes added stress to the family and can lead to the desire to resolve the issue by forcing the idea of euthanasia on to the loved one. Also, health care costs for terminally ill patients, including nursing homes, prescription drugs, and home health care deserves consideration. According to Time.com, one in every four Medicare dollars spent goes to the five percent of beneficiaries in the last year of their life. The result of this is often overwhelming debt for the families of terminally ill patients, with the care of a single patient costing approximately $39,000 exceeding the financial assets for many households. When the patient is uninsured or denied coverage from an insurance company, the family inherits the costs. In cases like these, legalizing euthanasia would present it as a viable solution, and in their distress, the family members may selfishly consider it to alleviate the financial burden the patient may…
Most people would agree that the right of a competent, terminally ill person to avoid any unnecessary excruciating pain seems as though it should be a basic human right. To have someone go through more suffering than absolutely necessary seems as though it would fall under the description of an inhumane act, and frankly an injustice against the basic human right of bodily autonomy and integrity. Due to these almost undeniable arguments, physician assisted suicide, in many cases, is seen as a basic human right that we need to be granted access to. Activists argue that it is simply an additional choice that we will be able to make, and that it will surely never be pushed onto anybody or used sinisterly (Maynard 2014). Although this claim is something that we cannot be entirely sure of, as I have continued to research the pros and cons behind physician assisted suicide, I have come to the conclusion that in many cases it truly does seem that the legalization of physician assisted suicide is the best option for everyone involved. It is a means to cease any unnecessary suffering that a person may be going though, and provides a sense of comfort for them during a time in their lives where they are not given many choices besides to deal with what they are going through and try to survive. Additionally, with many of the extreme medical advancements of the 20t century, our goals have been clouded by the quest to…
The topic of Physician Assisted Suicide has become a well-known issue. But the fact is, for terminally ill and for those that cannot recover, Physician assisted suicide is not completely misguided. It gives those who are in a lot of pain a chance to save their loved ones the torment of seeing them so feeble. It also strengthens the possibility of saving those who can still be saved.…
Physician assisted suicide is when a doctor helps a patient take his own life. This is…
In the medical field there are massive amounts of treatments for various diseases. Some treatments are going to help the patient feel more comfortable; however, some are going to counteract the problem, and others are going to help kill the patient. Physician assisted suicide is defined by medterms.com as “the voluntary termination of one 's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician.” Any person wishing to undergo assisted suicide in Oregon must be at least 18 years of age and have a terminal illness. This illness must be within its final stages and leave the patient with less than six months to live. Within these six months a patient can request the treatment, but must orally request twice, and provide a written request once as well. In order to receive this treatment, however, a second physician must give a second opinion on the length the patient has to live. In her article, “Physician-Assisted Suicide: Compassionate Liberation or Murder?” Vicki Lachman talks about the option that patients have to request a lethal dosage of medication. She explores the moral conscience of nurses, the ethical and moral issues, and the legal issues that surround a patient’s request for lethal dosages.…
A CNN article from November of 2014 Diane Coleman tells the story of Brittany Maynard. Brittany was a 29-year-old woman with a brain tumor. Diane Coleman is president and CEO of Not Dead Yet, a national grassroots disability rights group. (Coleman) In his article for CNN he expresses that terminally Ill people are vulnerable and should be kept alive, even if it is against their will. The primary structure for his argument is that “the idea of mixing a cost-cutting "treatment" such as assisted suicide into a broken, cost-conscious health care system that's poorly designed to meet dying patient's needs is dangerous to the thousands of people whose health care costs the most -- mainly people living with a disability, the elderly and chronically ill” (Coleman). In fairness, he has a point, but he is looking at the situation as though hospitals are not trying to make a profit. The mix up in his argument is simply that because PAS is cheaper more patients will be pushed to take it. The counter argument is that although PAS will be an option, there is no real need for the medical system to push it. According to the Seattle times on march 4th 2009 “about a third are opting out of providing assisted suicide, about a third have yet to decide and only about a third are allowing it.…
Physician Assisted Suicide seems will always be an ethical issue in the medical community. People are either for it or against it. A few weeks ago during the election, the state of Massachusetts voted to allow this issue. This did not pass. Physician Assisted Suicide can come in two forms; the doctor administering medication or the doctor giving the medication to the patient. Both are considered going against the law of upholding a person’s life. Physician Assisted Suicide should not be performed; it is illegal except in one state (Oregon) and goes against the Hippocratic Oath that a doctor recites when they pass the medical boards. It is just wrong to perform this act.…
The main reasons why physician-assisted suicide should be legalized in every state is outlined in great detail with real life examples to back up each reason. Physician-assisted suicide is legal in six states in the US and is an ongoing debate amongst other states. Physician-assisted suicide gives a terminally ill patient with six months or less to live the ability to voluntarily control his or her own death. The physician prescribes a lethal dose of medication and the patient chooses when, where and how to end his or her own life. The cost of physician-assisted suicide is substantially lower than receiving end of life care such as palliative or hospice care. Many terminally ill patients fear that medical expenses will leave a burden on their…