Argumentative Essay: The State Of North Carolina Assisted Suicide

Assisted suicide The right to end one 's life have been in controversy. The organized opposition of the "right to life" movement, along with disagreement among disabilities rights organizations, maintain the argument. The heat from the debate only intensifies the difficult choices people with end-stage AIDS may face when life is overwhelmed by permanent illness and/or constant pain.

Currently in the United States only five out of the fifty states have legalized assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is the help from a physician for a patient to end their life because they have a terminal illness. Many people believe that euthanasia should be illegal across the board, however, people who have terminal illnesses should have a right to be in charge of how to end their life. Many people do not want their family to see them at their lowest, and they do not want to see their selves at their lowest either, therefore, giving a person a right to end their life peacefully, should be an individual’s choice. When someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness it is devastating going through the long and grueling process of death, for the family and the patient both.

Physician-assisted suicide is very controversial. Some people believe in death with dignity and that we shouldn’t have to suffer from terminal diseases if we don’t want to. Others believe that the act of assisting someone to their death is playing God. Many people also think that the practice of physician-assisted suicide corrupts the practice of medicine and the doctor-patient relationship.

As a daughter, granddaughter and friend, I am thoroughly concerned about the people surrounding me and their well-being. Just as any other family member or friend would feel about me, I would always want them to be happy and healthy. If these traits could no longer be an option in their lives, I would never want them to suffer for any reason. Assisted suicide is a deeply controversial topic in which I feel very strongly to share my view point on.

Another reason against physician-assisted suicide is the idea that if assisted suicide becomes legal, it will get out of hand and target certain people in society. Professor Patricia King states, “Many Americans, particularly the poor, the disabled, the elderly, and members of racial, ethnic minorities- worry that they will be viewed as throwaway people,” (Right to Die).

Euthanasia is the end of a person that was suffering from an illness or a traumatic accident in the past that has affected them and changed them to a different person. Most of these people find them self to believe they are a nuisance to others such as family members or some care givers. Euthanasia is the process of end a live of someone in great suffering to relive the pain of whatever caused it in the first place. Euthanasia is one of the most controversial topics because of religious purposes or the choice of choosing a sooner death.

Many people think that there are too many problems with physician assisted suicide. Physician assisted suicide is a procedure that allows physicians to prescribe their patients a lethal medication that they can inject themselves with in order to die on their own terms. There are specific requirements that the patients must meet in order to receive this medication. Physician assisted suicide is only for patients that have life threatening illnesses and do not have much time left to live. It is legal in numerous places around the world including certain places in the United States. Physician assisted suicide has been an intensely debated problem for years but if used properly, could be an effective way to help those who are suffering at the end of their life.

Not only is the treatment time consuming but running to the doctor can take a lot of time. Usually, when I go to a doctor, ninety minutes out of my day is involved between waiting to see the doctor, the actual visit, and follow up. Doctor visits are not usually the only visit required; nursing visits, therapy, and lab tests also take several hours a day. Again, a lot of wasted time.

In the defense of Physician Assisted Suicide, a wide publicly talked about topic, it should be a choice every terminally ill patient receives. Physician Assisted suicide is when a patient is terminally ill and has no chances of recovering. The patient themselves can make the decision, with the help from their physician, to get lethally injected and end their life reducing and ending the pain. In America each state has a little over 3,000 patients that are terminally ill contact an advocacy group known as the Compassion and Choices to try to reduce end-of- life suffering and perhaps hasten their death. Physician Assisted Suicide shouldn’t be looked at as suicide, but as ending the pain and suffering from an individual whose life is going to be taken away anyway.

I agree with the idea of assisted suicide, because if someone is suffering to the point that they can no longer care for themselves. They may feel that it is there time to go and that person should be able to make that decision. Although some believe that assisted suicide is wrong that should be left to the person that is going to die or the person

Because it, murder you just can’t do that. Also the assisted suicide jail law states that it is wrong to kill. But, some people might say that they could of been doing the right thing by murdering the person. In addition to the law, Religion plays a part in this controversy.

Threatening to diminish the value of life is very dangerous. Euthanasia, also called mercy killing, is the practice of doctors intentionally ending a terminally ill patient’s life in what is purportedly a gentle and dignified manner. The term originated in ancient Greek and means “easy death.” Doctors perform euthanasia by administering lethal drugs or by withholding treatment that would prolong the patient’s life. Physician-assisted suicide is also a form of euthanasia, but the difference between the two methods is that in euthanasia, doctors end the patient’s life with lethal injections, whereas, in physician-assisted suicide, patients kill themselves with a lethal amount of drugs prescribed by the doctors.

Physician assisted suicide, although legal in some states, should remain illegal because it goes against religious and moral beliefs. “In physician assisted suicide, the physician provides the necessary means or information and the patient performs the act” (Endlink). Supporters of assisted-suicide laws believe that mentally competent people who are in misery and have no chance of long-term survival, should have the right to die if and when they choose. I agree that people should have the right to refuse life-saving treatments, written in the patient bill of rights.

Even though some patients have this fear, many are for the use of this practice because they are afraid of getting old (Pearlman, 2005). This has some physicians on their toes because they are the ones making a decision on assisted suicide, and they need a strong reason to why the patients requests for this procedure and to move forward with it. For physician-assisted suicide to occur, the law states that a patient must have a reasonable explanation on why they want this procedure done. This process is known as autonomy (Ersek, 2005). Some of these reasons could include illness, and the decision of someone who is on his or her deathbed.

The debate on whether or not to legalize assisted suicide in every state has caused many uproars in the field of health care. Elements that factor into the controversy of this practice include ethicality, legality, and autonomy. Questions about the issue include: should the patient have the autonomy to select the system of assisted suicide, is it morally