Essay on The Right to Physician Assisted Suicide - 1887 Words

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. Others are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. Physicians are also divided on the issue. They differ where they place the line that separates relief from dying--and killing. For many the main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. Many 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†¦show more content†¦For the terminally ill, however, it is just a means of prolonging suffering. Medicine is supposed to alleviate the suffering that a patient undergoes.Yet the only thing that medical technology does for a dying patient i s give that patient more pain and agony day after day. Some terminal patients in the past have gone to their doctors and asked for a final medication that would take all the pain away- lethal drugs. For example, as Ronald Dworkin recounts, Lillian Boyes, an English woman who was suffering from a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis, begged her doctor to assist her to die because she could no longer stand the pain (184). Another example is Dr. Ali Khalili, Dr. Jack Kevorkians twentieth patient. According to Kevorkians attorney, [Dr. Khalili] was a pain specialist; he could get any kind of pain medication, but he came to Dr. Kevorkian. There are times when pain medication does not suffice(qtd. in Cotton 363). Terminally ill patients should have the right to assisted suicide because it is the best means for them to end the pain caused by an illness which no drug can cure. A competent terminal patient must have the option of assisted suicide because it is in the best interes t of that person. Further, a dying persons physical suffering can be most unbearable to that persons immediate family. Medical technology has failedShow MoreRelatedThe Rights Of Physician Assisted Suicide1347 Words   |  6 PagesThe Right to Die By: Antony Makhlouf Antony Makhlouf PHR 102-006 Contemporary Moral Issues Final Paper The Right to Die Physician-assisted suicide, also known as euthanasia, has been a hot topic as of late. If you do not know what this is, physician-assisted suicide is the taking of ones life. This usually occurs when a patient is in a irreversible state, and must live through a tube. 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For those people whose pain does not respond to methods of modern medicine, there should be the option of physician-assisted suicide. â€Å"Physician-assisted suicide refers to the practice of a physician prescribing or regulatingRead MorePhysician-Assisted Suicide: Right or Wrong?1053 Words   |  4 PagesHead: RIGHT OR WRONG? Physician-Assisted Suicide Physician-assisted suicide occurs when a physician helps in the requested death of a voluntary patient (Smith, 2012). In most cases, the patient is terminally ill. A recent study revealed that pain or unbearable pain is not a major motivating factor for the request (Foley et al, 2001). Rather, the motivating factors are the effects of illness, the patients sense of self, and fears about the future. 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