Physician Assisted Death
Freedom of Choice
“A physician can sometimes parry the scythe of death, but has no power over the sand in the hourglass.”
- Hester Lynch Piozzi
Many of us have felt the pain of watching a loved one’s life slowly diminish in a hospital bed. Today, modern medicine and doctors can only go so far to care for terminally ill patients. Even with the knowledge of this country’s best medicine and most extraordinary doctors, many of the terminally ill suffer persistently; they become unhappy, and some are not able to fend for themselves in ways healthy individuals find to be easy and are able to do. The simple every day actions begin to be tremendous struggles such as eating, moving, and even communicating. In extreme cases, terminally ill patients may no longer find the will or strength to move forward. Physician-assisted death can be constructed to have reasonable laws, which still protect against its abuse and the value of human life, easing the patients suffering when nearing the end of their life. Physician-assisted death is ethical and is a compassionate response to unbearable suffering. Physicians should be required by law to help terminally ill patients, with no hope, which have a strong desire to end their lives. On the day of March 26 in 1999, a man by the name of Dr. Jack Kevorkian was charged with first-degree homicide and the delivery of a controlled substance to Thomas Youk, a man terminally ill with Lou Gehrig’s disease. This disease made the man physically incapable of moving so Dr. Kevorkian himself had to insert the lethal injection into the patient. His previous patients, however, were able to inject themselves. “Kevorkian, being hailed as the champion of the right-to-die movement and denounced as a ghoulish cheerleader for suicide, has helped lead over 130 people to their deaths” (Braddock). Due to his eight year imprisonment, some rejoiced, but others were outraged. Some held rallies for keeping him in jail while others tried to change the
“A physician can sometimes parry the scythe of death, but has no power over the sand in the hourglass.”
- Hester Lynch Piozzi
Many of us have felt the pain of watching a loved one’s life slowly diminish in a hospital bed. Today, modern medicine and doctors can only go so far to care for terminally ill patients. Even with the knowledge of this country’s best medicine and most extraordinary doctors, many of the terminally ill suffer persistently; they become unhappy, and some are not able to fend for themselves in ways healthy individuals find to be easy and are able to do. The simple every day actions begin to be tremendous struggles such as eating, moving, and even communicating. In extreme cases, terminally ill patients may no longer find the will or strength to move forward. Physician-assisted death can be constructed to have reasonable laws, which still protect against its abuse and the value of human life, easing the patients suffering when nearing the end of their life. Physician-assisted death is ethical and is a compassionate response to unbearable suffering. Physicians should be required by law to help terminally ill patients, with no hope, which have a strong desire to end their lives. On the day of March 26 in 1999, a man by the name of Dr. Jack Kevorkian was charged with first-degree homicide and the delivery of a controlled substance to Thomas Youk, a man terminally ill with Lou Gehrig’s disease. This disease made the man physically incapable of moving so Dr. Kevorkian himself had to insert the lethal injection into the patient. His previous patients, however, were able to inject themselves. “Kevorkian, being hailed as the champion of the right-to-die movement and denounced as a ghoulish cheerleader for suicide, has helped lead over 130 people to their deaths” (Braddock). Due to his eight year imprisonment, some rejoiced, but others were outraged. Some held rallies for keeping him in jail while others tried to change the