Is Assisted Suicide Ethically Justified? Chriss N. Thomas Philosophy of Ethics Dr. John Schmitz February 8, 2012 The choice a terminally ill patient makes should be available to them in the event they no longer want to suffer. According to Dame Jill Macleod Clark, who sits on the Council of Deans of Health, states “those who have cared for terminally ill patients, friends or family know their greatest fears and anxieties are about intractable sufferings, and their desire for a dignified and peaceful death” (2011). When patients who are terminally ill want to hear options the argument has been made that all options are not available because assisted suicide comes with scrutiny and consequences. On the other hand opponents of assisted suicide do not believe this is the only way to secure a good health alternative.
Physician Assisted Suicide Why is it only ethical to die “naturally”, after a long illness filled with highly “un-natural” life extending medical procedures? Over the last twenty years, physician assisted suicides have become a sensitive issue in governmental offices as whether to legalize such an option. Even though many religions prohibit suicide and the intentional killing of others, and some believe it violates a portion of a doctors’ Hippocratic Oath, Physician Assisted Suicide should be a legal option for those with terminal diseases or conditions because reasonable laws can be constructed which prevent abuse and still protect the value of human life. Physician assisted suicide is the voluntary termination of one's own life by administration
Since its passage in 1997, 341 individuals have chosen to end their lives under the state of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act as oppose to painfully living out their final days or months. This is according to the state department’s annual report regarding the Death with Dignity Act. [referred to as DWDA herein] The DWDA allows terminally ill adult residents to obtain and use prescription from their physicians for self-administered, lethal doses of medications. The Oregon Department of Human Services is required by the “Act” to collect information on compliance and to issue an annual report. Oregon’s DWDA is an example of assisted suicide; not to be confused with euthanasia.
Montana Supreme Court legalized PAS in a decision handed down on 2009-DEC-31. (“Euthanasia & Physician Assisted Suicide. (PAS) All side to the issue”.) "Those who oppose any measures permitting assisted suicide argue that we have a duty to protect and to preserve all life. To allow people to assist others in destroying their lives violates a duty we have to respect human life”.
Sue Rodriguez wanted her life to be terminated while she was still lucid and had a say in what happened to her, before the illness could take full course. Her request was denied due to a violation under The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 241 (b) of the Charter provides as follows, Everyone who… (b) aids or abets a person to commit suicide, where suicide ensues or not, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years. Under these terms, the British Columbia court dismissed her case. Rodriguez then appealed the B.C.
Then there are the people who feel that if people who are suffering have the right to stop life sustaining-treatment then why other suffering patients can’t ask physicians to give them life –ending treatments. Physician assisted suicide has been a big debate here in the America. In 1997 the Us Supreme Court said that there is no constitutional right to physician assisted suicide and the State Legistratures may choose if they want to vote to legalize physician assisted suicide then the Oregon board of Pharmacy put in an order requiring physicians to document if this is for an assisted suicide. In 1999 Oregon became the only US state that voted to legalize physician assisted suicide and in January 1998 one doctor announced his or her participation in the assisted suicide act. There are several countries that currently allow one or the other types of physician assisted suicide.
On Sept. 10, 1998, she called her mother, Nancy Palmer, around five p.m. and asked if she could play with friends. Her mother returned at 7 p.m., later than usual, and found her lifeless daughter. Palmer testified in a preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing her daughter, Matthew John Breck. DNA evidence led to Breck, 32, being charged in January 2010 with aggravated murder, aggravated sex abuse of a child, both first degree felonies, and child abuse, a second degree felony, in connection with Anna Palmer’s death. DNA Solves Anna Palmer’s Case
ASSISTED SUICIDE Dorothy Hasselmann CJUS 400 OCTOBER 8, 2014 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY J.SANDERS ASSISTED SUICIDE The topic “Is Assisted Suicide right or wrong? 1. Introduction A. This professional chose this topic because you hear allot of people dying from assisted suicide than with just one committing suicide and I wanted to research on this to see on how much information I can gather from Assisted Suicide. The laws that concern with assisted suicide are: It varies from state to state.
Physician-assisted suicide is the voluntary termination of a person’s life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician. Physician-assisted suicide is the practice of providing a patient with a prescription for medication for the patient to use with the primary intention of ending his or her own life. For decades it has been an on going debate whether or not this practice is right legally, morally, and religiously. Does a person have the right to end his or her own life? This will be the topic addressed in this paper.
Debate Paper HAS 3104 April 15, 2012 According to "MedicineNet" (1996-2012), Assisted Suicide is “the deliberate hastening of death by a terminally ill patient with assistance from a doctor, family member, or another individual” (Definition of Assisted suicide). Many of us when we think about assisted suicide go directly to the one person who was most talked about in 1990’s Dr. Jack Kevorkian, it is said that this specific doctor made death his specialty. He became widely known for his “death machine” a device he invented that allowed a user to self-inject an anesthetic and then a lethal dose of potassium chloride. (He called the machine a thanatron, after Thanatos, the figure of death in Greek mythology.) ("Who 2 Biographies", 2011).