Should Physician -Assisted Suicide Be Legal?
Should Physician-Assisted Suicide be legal?
Kelly Stevens
PHI 103 Informal Logic
Instructor Michele Clearman Warner
January 4, 2011
Should Physician-assisted suicide be Legal?
When society ponders over the idea of physician-assisted suicide, they most likely feel that the act itself would compare to murdering someone. Who really has the authority to say what is right or wrong when a loved one wants to end their life because of a terminal illness or a severe physical disability? President Clinton signed the Federal Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction in 1997, which prohibits the use of federal funding for physician-assisted suicides (The Gale Group, 2002). However, also in 1997, the state of Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act that legalized the physician-assisted suicides (Youngston, R.M., Dr., 2000). This paper will show why it is important for physician-assisted suicide to be legalized in all states and territories in order to assist the terminally ill and severely disabled patients who are not capable to take care of themselves and want to have a right die with dignity. Everyone has his or her own opinion about physician-assisted suicide, but what about the patients who have to suffer physically and mentally because of an incurable type of cancer or have a stroke that have left him or her paralyzed and they are unable to help themselves? People who have been diagnosed with certain types of incurable cancers can suffer a slow agonizing death. Patients who suffer from an incurable cancer experience endless periods of vomiting, coughing, extreme pain and lose control of their bodily functions (Messerli, J., 2011). There is a woman whose name is Cody Curtis, and she was diagnosed with Cholangicarcinoma in December of 2007. Cholangicarcinoma is a type of cancer that runs through the bile of a person’s liver. Cody’s cancer traveled to her lungs and lymph nodes after having her first surgery and was
Kelly Stevens
PHI 103 Informal Logic
Instructor Michele Clearman Warner
January 4, 2011
Should Physician-assisted suicide be Legal?
When society ponders over the idea of physician-assisted suicide, they most likely feel that the act itself would compare to murdering someone. Who really has the authority to say what is right or wrong when a loved one wants to end their life because of a terminal illness or a severe physical disability? President Clinton signed the Federal Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction in 1997, which prohibits the use of federal funding for physician-assisted suicides (The Gale Group, 2002). However, also in 1997, the state of Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act that legalized the physician-assisted suicides (Youngston, R.M., Dr., 2000). This paper will show why it is important for physician-assisted suicide to be legalized in all states and territories in order to assist the terminally ill and severely disabled patients who are not capable to take care of themselves and want to have a right die with dignity. Everyone has his or her own opinion about physician-assisted suicide, but what about the patients who have to suffer physically and mentally because of an incurable type of cancer or have a stroke that have left him or her paralyzed and they are unable to help themselves? People who have been diagnosed with certain types of incurable cancers can suffer a slow agonizing death. Patients who suffer from an incurable cancer experience endless periods of vomiting, coughing, extreme pain and lose control of their bodily functions (Messerli, J., 2011). There is a woman whose name is Cody Curtis, and she was diagnosed with Cholangicarcinoma in December of 2007. Cholangicarcinoma is a type of cancer that runs through the bile of a person’s liver. Cody’s cancer traveled to her lungs and lymph nodes after having her first surgery and was
Cited: by Nitschke, P., M.D., 2001). There is a professor by the name of Raymond Tallis, who was a doctor for over thirty-five years, who at one time in his life was against physician-assisted suicide but over the course of his life and watching people close to him die has changed his mind. Professor Tallies stated, “This is borne out of evidence. A survey of nine European Countries put levels of trust in the Netherlands at the top. And this is not surmising in countries with assisted dying, discussions of end-of-life care is open,transparent,honest and mature, not concealed beneath a cloud of ambiguity as it is in the UK. And the knowledge that your doctor will not abandon the therapeutic alliance with you at your hour of greatest need will foster, not undermine trust” (Tallis, R., 2011). For the moral and religious counter argument issues, people are taught that suicide is morally wrong and a sin and they will go to hell if they commit such an act; however, salvation is the state of being saved from God’s judgment upon the sinner. When Jesus forgives someone of their sins, they are forgiven for everything and are granted eternal life in heaven. When a person is saved but is dying a horrible death and is in excruciating pain and wishes to die with dignity by using a physician assisted suicide then they have already been forgiven and would not have any reason to fear the afterlife (Slick, M., 2011). The final counter argument is about people being protected from involuntary or voluntary euthanasia. Societies ponder over the idea that if physician-assisted suicide is legalized that people will not be protected or have any rights. However, the question should also entail what involuntary euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide involves? This term is used to describe the killing of a person who has not explicitly requested aid in dying. This term is most often used with respect to patients who are in a persistent vegetative state and who probably will never recover consciousness (The free dictionary, 2012). The only state in the United States that protects a person’s right to physician-assisted suicide is the state of Oregon. These people have to be terminally ill, have six months or less to live, have to make two oral requests for assistance in dying, have to be able to convince two separate physicians that their decision is voluntary, there is not any signs or influence of depression, that the patient has been thoroughly informed of other alternatives, and that they do have to wait for 15 days incase they change their minds (The Free dictionary, 2012). In conclusion, dying is not easy to death with no matter how a person tries to justify the whole scenario. However, if a loved one, who was terminally ill and in pain or so physically disabled they were incapable of helping themselves and wanted to die, would that be considered unethical if they begged the doctors or loved ones to help them? Derek Humphry who is an author and journalist has spent the last thirty years of his life campaigning the right to physician-assisted suicide. His wife Jean was diagnosed with inoperable bone cancer, was in extreme pain, and wanted her husband to help her die with dignity (Humphry, D., 1998). Does this make him a murderer, just because he helped someone he dearly loved? Everyone should have a choice when they know their life is ending, and the government needs to make a law specifically for those reasons. As of today, there are actually thirty-six states that have specific laws prohibiting all assisted suicides. Seven states which include Alabama, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Vermont, and West Virginia Prohibit all assisted suicides under common law. Four states that include Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, (and the District of Columbia) have no specific laws regarding assisted suicide and do not recognize common law about assisted suicide (As cited by Procon.org, 2010).