"Physician-assisted suicide isn 't about physicians becoming killers. It 's about patients whose suffering we can 't relieve and about not turning away from them when they ask for help” says Dr. Peter Rogatz. Assisted suicide isn’t an option for most terminally ill patients and even the patients that to decide they want the prescription, up to 40% of them never even take the pills. All doctors for assisted suicide just want to help their patients from living and dying in pain. Others think that assisted suicide should be legal because it will save the United States and the Government money.
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.
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.
Not only will it help patients, who are suffering, but it will also help to relieve some of the stress and pain of loved ones that are taking care of them. Not only will patients have the choice of choosing assisted suicide, but their loved ones may be responsible for this as well. Patients who are incapable to speak for themselves living through unbearable pain, or even the ones who are on life support do not have the opportunity to speak for themselves. Many patients may have a Will written with a name of a relative to make their end of life decision.
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).
In my opinion I would agree that assisted suicide is okay. I think that if a person is severely ill, and knows they don 't have much time left because there isn 't a cure, that they have the right to end their own life. The only thing you are accomplishing is making a bill that your family can 't pay off. Assisted suicide is a touchy subject. You would have to look at it from both sides to truly understand it.
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.
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.
Some families can not afford to drop everything in order to take on the full time responsibility of their sick loved one. This adds financial stress to the family and can lead to the desire to resolve the issue by forcing the idea of euthanasia on to the loved one. According to Time.com, one in every four Medicare dollars spent goes to the five percent of beneficiaries in the last year of their life. The result of this is often an overwhelming debt for the families of terminally ill patients, with the care of a single patient costing approximately $39,000 exceeding the financial assets for many households. When the patient is uninsured or denied coverage from an insurance company, the family inherits the costs.
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.
After researching both sides of the argument, it is clear that the benefits of physician-assisted suicide outweigh the disadvantages. The benefits of ending a patient’s pain and suffering, minimizing the emotional and financial effects on families, and preserving the right for patients to decide their own fate, supports the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.
From an economic standpoint, euthanasia is a brilliant alternative. Though many see it as unethical, it may be relieving for the victims to know that once they’ve passed they’re no longer considered burdens to their families. Though harsh, keeping a terminally ill person alive for a year costs no less than $55,000, dying in a dignified way is their last resort when they know their condition is not going to improve. Many patients with incurable diseases have stated that the lengthy and expensive time and operations granted by their families are not worth the few extra months they get of spending time on Earth.
Imagine getting diagnosed with a terminal illness and being told your last months would be spent in extreme pain. Every day somebody is diagnosed with a terminal illness and is given months to live and most of those months are spent in extreme pain that is controlled by multiple medications. Hospice care is available to help their pain in the end, but they usually cannot speak for themselves at that point. Physician-assisted suicide would allow them to choose when, where, and how they die, and their death would be quick and painless. Not only does this help the patient, but it also helps the family cope with the loss.
Assisted Suicided Every 16.2 minutes, there are people in the world that take their own life by killing themselves.(Purity, 9) There are are over 40,000 people every year that commit suicide.(Purity, 10) Suicide is the leading cause of death for those of the age of 15-24 years old.(Purity, 13) However, coming up in the media through the last 20 years has been the idea of ending your life by assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is the practice of ending someone 's life.(Newton, 7) A terminal illness is when you have a disease that will end your life within the near future.
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.