Perspectives on Physician-Assisted Suicides Brendolynn Champlaie PHI103 Informal Logic John Moore September 22, 2010 Thesis Assisted suicide should be legal it will allow terminally ill patients the freedom of choosing how they should end their life when they can no longer endure the pain and suffering. People have the freedom to do almost anything that they choose to do except for how they die. Some patients would like to die with dignity since is a personal choice and this is something their doctor should understand. The method that they might want to choose is euthanasia which is also known as assisted suicide, physician-assisted suicide (dying), doctor-assisted dying (suicide), and more loosely termed mercy (Christian Nordquist
Killing is a form of active euthanasia whereby a person is deliberately causing death of a patient. As humans, all patients have the right to make moral decisions with regards to their own life. The argument for personal autonomy provides a stance suggesting that if a patient requests to end their life, within reason, they should be allowed to. However, it can be seen that this completely undermines the sanctity of life. Allowing a human life to intentionally be ended disregards the sacredness of human life and has no direct difference to murder despite the intentions to prevent pain.
Another important aspect, the person who is being euthanized must be ill or injured in some way that recovery is not expected, such as a coma. Lastly, the death of the individual must be intentional. He also makes sure to state the “passive euthanasia” or letting someone die is not euthanasia within this paper. With these definitions in place Gay-Williams defines euthanasia as “intentionally taking the life of a presumably hopeless person.” Gay-Williams’ first argument is that euthanasia is against human beings nature. The first premise he provides for this argument is that all human beings have a natural instinct to survive and that euthanasia goes against this natural process.
Understand how duty of care contributes to safe practice Explain what it means to have a duty of care in own work role. All service users should be supported and enabled to live in an environment which is free from prejudice and safe from abuse. My responsibilities under the duty of care is to do everything reasonable within the definition of my job role to make this happen. A duty of care is a legal obligation imposed on a carer requiring that they adhere to a good quality and standard of care. It is my duty to take care of vulnerable adults and to ensure that their needs and well-being are looked after.
Therefore, I agree with euthanasia protestors. Instead of ending someone’s life in order to prevent any more suffering, we should alleviate pain by improving our hospice care and making our healthcare system more affordable. Let us not lose our humanity by valuing life from the best ethical rules possible. In conclusion, the severity and the complexity of the euthanasia debate indicate why euthanasia is the most active area of research in contemporary bioethics. While some people strongly believe that euthanasia should be legalized, other people insist that euthanasia is literally a type of murder.
It is the right of a terminally ill person to end excruciating pain. The ACLU’s Amicus Brief in Vacco v. Quill has gone into detail about a person’s right being central to personal autonomy. The right to a good death is a basic human freedom (Religious Tolerance). As long as the patient is mentally competent, a terminally ill person has the right to end their suffering by bringing about his or her own
Debra Cassidy Eng 102 WA 6 Euthanasia/ physician-assisted suicide Why do our free rights end at euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide in the United States? If we have freedom of speech and the freedom to refuse speech, and the freedom of religion and the freedom to not be religious; why can we not have the freedom of life or ending a painful one. The term Euthanasia originated from the Greek word for “good death.” It is the act or practice of ending the life of a person either by lethal injection or the suspension of medical treatment. [The Nightingale Alliance] Having helped ending a painful, slow agonizing death should be a right everybody has. Perhaps the strongest argument made on behalf of legalizing euthanasia or assisted
Intention Charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter require an intention to kill or harm on the part of the accused. It could be argued that a nurse has such an intention if he or she is responsible for certain actions, for example switching off a ventilator, or omissions, such as not attempting to resuscitate a patient. One way the law is sometimes said to address this problem is by invoking the doctrine of double effect (Cavanaugh 2006). The idea behind this doctrine is that some decisions made have both good
Assisted Suicide Is Not Murder Assisted suicide is a very touchy issue but should be allowed for all terminally ill patients. Any person who has been diagnosed terminal should be allowed to end their pain and suffering. The term assisted suicide has several different interpretations. The most widely used and accepted is the intentional hastening of death by a terminally ill patient with assistance from a doctor, relative, or another person. Some people think that the definition should include the words, in order to relieve extreme pain and suffering Most people just want to live and die with dignity.
This could be regarded as the distribution of moral justice, choosing on which principle they are morally obliged to follow (Steinbock, 2007, p22). “When principles contingently conflict, no supreme principle is available in the four-principle approach to determine an overriding obligation. Therefore, discretionary judgment becomes an inescapable part of moral thinking in our approach” (Beauchamp, 2010, p44). The respect for autonomy obliges health care professionals to ensure patients understand all the information they require enabling them to make an informed choice. If patients have the understanding to make an informed choice then the professional must respect the autonomous choices they make (Childress, 1990).