isn’t it unfair that they are not permitted to end their suffering?
isn’t it unfair that they are not permitted to end their suffering?
Many people all over the world are suffering from diseases. Diseases such as multiple sclerosis, cancer, parkinson's disease, heart disease and many others. Suffering from diseases not only effects the person suffering but the families and even our health care system. Suffering at the end of our lives has become an acceptable part of life in many parts of the world. This documentary, How to die in Oregon, explores: the issue and the laws of the right to choose when to die, the three main drugs used for this procedure, how medicare will pay for this drug before they will chemotherapy- something that may prolong life, the number of people who have used this drug,and the fact that they can get this drug even if they do not plan to use it. This paper will use the information from this documentary as the basis of an ethical examination of the laws in place for the one's who suffer. First, I will briefly…
Instead of embracing this act of death, we should respond to suffering with compassion and solidarity. (Anderson, Screen 1) Many of the patients seeking to end their lives in this way usually suffer from depression or other mental illnesses, but also from loneliness. Instead of us giving them pills to kill them, the doctors should provide the suitable medical care they need. As for the patients in physical pain, pain management drugs can be administered to improve their quality of life. The terminally ill patients are provided with hospice care and fellowship to accompany them on their last days of life. Doctors should help their patients die a dignified death of natural causes, not assist in killing them. (Anderson, Screen 1) Physicians take the oath to always heal and care, never to kill intentionally. Palliative care focuses on the patient’s quality of life and improving it by alleviating pain and other distressing symptoms of a serious illness. At any age or stage in illness, palliative care is available to help improve the patient’s life as a whole. It does not matter if the illness is curable, chronic, or even life-threatening, medicine can improve your symptoms dramatically, helping you live with your…
death...[yet]... the near universal desire ‘to be allowed to die in my own home’ is willfully disregarded. By allowing yourself to have life, one would assume that this gives you freedom over other aspects of your existence, including when it should end. By denying the rights to achieve liberty, achieve happiness, and define our lives, are we not denying the rights governments around the world were founded on? It is the denial of these rights that allows the mental stress felt by patients to turn into…
Pain and suffering is unique to each individual. Even with excellent care, symptom management sometimes falls short in alleviating the suffering at the end of life. Only the individual can determine if he or she is able or willing to endure that suffering. In order to provide full autonomy and spectrum of choice for patients, physician-assisted suicide that is legal with standards of care to protect all parties should be in place.…
There are two factors that have contributed to euthanasia’s distinction with how the world is today. They are both an increasing sense of self-determinism and medical revolution that have the potential of prolonging human life (Michigan, 2006). People think that just because there are things like hospice and medication that euthanasia shouldn’t even be an option. But what people don’t know is that even with the best medication and the patient being made completely comfortable, it is not the pain that causes people to ask for what people call a “hastened death”, but the humiliation and suffering that accompanies most terminal disorders.…
John D. Arras looks at a situation which poses a patient suffering from uncontrolled pain by having the physician ignore their decisions amongst life and death. He mentions that physicians may contribute to “suicide and suicidal ideation” (page 478, column 1) which is statistically shown in over fifty percent of cancer patients who suffer from uncontrolled pain that is often brought on by untreated depression. In this situation however, if patient is given control of their own lives and obtain adequate psychiatric and palliative care to treat depression, it is assumed that most would lose interest in PAS/euthanasia. Using a similar example, there will always be a small amount of patients who may have pain that cannot be treated, for these patients J. Arras believes that present law on PAS/euthanasia can represent an impossible barrier to a distinguished and decent…
As a part of a medical field with economic and social implications, the idea of physician-assisted death will come in direct contact with forces such as costs reduction, personal prejudices, and limited access to care. For example, people with disabilities are often seen as individuals unable to live good, happy lives, and their impairment can be misdiagnosed as a terminal illness. Put simply, we all must be able to consult our physicians without the fear that their recommendations will be affected by quality-of-life…
Unusually great pain or a terminal condition or an irreversible coma or advances senility or extreme degradation is the disqualifying quality of life that pleads –choice or no choice- for merciful termination (Kass, 1989). Even though the number of people who are dying with a large amount of pain is low, that does not mean that there are people who are not comfortable. Doctors are only able to give so much pain medication to a person. If given enough medication, one may be so drugged they are not even themselves. That is no way to live. Dr. Balfour Mount, from the College of Family Physicians, once said, “People do not have to die with pain” (Palliummia, 2011). To me, this means that people have a…
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.…
We have a moral obligation to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings and to respect their right to die with dignity. Throughout most of our country today, terminally ill patients lie with incurable diseases and without the means to end their own suffering because the government tells them they can’t. These patients can only look forward to lives filled with yet more suffering and degradation. When such people beg…
Who are we to say when we should die? Are we trying to play God, or do we just want the right to end the inevitable a little sooner than God’s plan for us? This paper will discuss pros and cons of euthanasia with stories and research. Such as the case of a ninety five year old comma patient, whose family receives the news that she could live for months, years even in a vegetative state on life support; leaving the family questioning whether or not to pull the plug and put an end to what otherwise would be like the “death of a hundred deaths.”…
Despite advanced medical technology that has successfully saved and prolonged the lives of patients, it is just a means of prolonging suffering for the terminally ill. While medicine aims to alleviate any pain a patient endures, the only assistance medical technology provides terminal patients is continual agony. Therefore, individuals like Kathy Myers reach out to doctors in hopes of receiving medication. After a decade…
Currently, in the United States, 12% of states, including Vermont, Oregon, and California have legalized the Right to Die. This debate around whether or not to help patients who have terminal illness end their lives has been and is still far from over. The definition of Right to Die is, “an individual who has been certified by a physician as having an illness or physical condition which can be reasonably be expected to result in death in 24 months or less after the date of the certification” (Terminally Ill Law & Legal Definition 1). With this definition, the Right to Die ought to be available to any person that is determined terminally ill, as determined by a professional.…
Today’s doctors are now performing what is known as physician-assisted suicide, which is when a doctor sets up a machine, but the patient actually kills him or herself. The right to assisted suicide is a significant topic that concerns people all over the United States. The debates go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Some are against it because of religious and moral reasons, and some are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. Physicians also take a big role on this issue. They differ where they place the line that separates relief from dying--and killing. The main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. Terminally ill patients who are in the final stages of their lives have requested doctors to aid them in exercising active euthanasia. It is sad to realize that these people are in great agony and that to them the only hope of bringing that agony to a halt is through assisted suicide. When people see the word euthanasia, they see the meaning of the word in two different lights. Euthanasia for some carries a negative connotation; it is the same as murder. However for others, euthanasia is the act of putting someone to death painlessly, or allowing a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or condition to die by withholding extreme medical measures. But after studying both sides of the issue, a compassionate individual must conclude that competent terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial…
Ben Broussard stated that passing assisted suicide laws would motivate people to seek death to save money for their families (Broussard). While this may be a reason to seek death, there are also multiple other factors which add to the decision to take lethal drugs. When people think about assisted suicide, they are taking into account their quality of life and the amount of suffering they are going through at the time. The authors of Critical Care Medicine expressed that sometimes, the positive aspects of being alive are outweighed by the burdens of being alive (Goligher et al.). Therefore, physicians are entitled to help ease a patient’s suffering through lethal drugs if they believe that is the best option for themselves. James Fieser agrees with the CCM, and quoted American philosopher Joel Feinberg, who declared that just as humans have the rights to come or go and to read or not to read, they should have the right to live or die as they choose. If someone truly feels that life does not have any value anymore because their pain is unbearable, then they should have the right to be freed from their pain through assisted…