In The Article, “Euthanasia And Physician-Assisted Suicide

In the article, â€Å"Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide Should Be Legal†, Lawrence Rudden responds on why he feels Euthanasia should be legal all around. The article begins with a story about a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer. She spent the next few years slowly dying and the cancer grew inside of her. She was forced to watch her own body begin to fail. She was eventually told she had less than six months to live. One of her final requests was to die with dignity by asking the nurse to end her life, and she did. She wrote a letter two days earlier saying she feels thankful she could escape the cancer before it got worse. In 1997, Oregon was the first state to pass the Death With Dignity Act. To qualify for assisted suicide,†¦show more content†¦That may be true for now but one can imagine how it could change throughout the years if it became legal everywhere. Practices of killing people with clinical depression or even those with disabilities could come into play in hopes to take people out of their distress. For physicians, participating in euthanasia is against the Hippocratic Oath. This is the oath for anyone in the medical practice that states the conducts and moral practices of physicians. Physicians must respect and value all human lives. Not only will this practice violate the oath, but it also will break the respect and trust between the patient and the physician. There are actually two versions of the oath. The first is the original version. The second is the modern version. Both have the same meaning but different wording. One difference between the two is the content of euthanasia and abortion. The modernized version says â€Å"If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life..†. Although this new version of the oath allows euthanasia, there is still the original version which does not allow physicians to assist any patient in death. Within the original Hippocrat ic Oath it states: I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect... . ThisShow MoreRelatedEuthanasia And Assisted Suicide Should Be Legalized Essay1221 Words   |  5 Pages The Oxford English Dictionary states that euthanasia is a gentle and easy death (Oxford English Dictionary). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, active euthanasia is the ending of a terminally ill person s life by direct intervention, such as administering a lethal dose of painkilling drug (Oxford English Dictionary). While passive euthanasia according to the Oxford English Dictionary is the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining medical treatment in the knowledge that the personRead MoreEuthanasia Is The Act Of Killing Someone1284 Words   |  6 PagesEuthanasia is the act of killing someone that is very sick or injured in to prevent a painful suffering in life. One type of euthanasia is physician-assisted suicide, which is the use of a particular medicine given to a patient by a doctor to cause a peaceful death. This a very controversial topic when it comes to the subject of terminal or severe illnesses such as cancer and dementia. Brittany Maynard is a well-know n example of person who took her own live under Oregon’s aid-in-dying law due toRead MoreEuthanasia Essay : Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide910 Words   |  4 PagesBackground about Euthanasia in The Netherlands. Patients Rights Council. Patients Rights Council, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2015. This website address euthanasia, assisted suicide, advance directive, disability rights, pain control, and more. This article features background information on euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, for euthanasia or assisted suicide to be legal, â€Å"The patient must be experiencing unbearable pain†¦ must be conscious, The death request must beRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide And Voluntary Euthanasia1348 Words   |  6 PagesPhysician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia is still under scrutiny for a number of reasons. â€Å"In spring, 1996, the Ninth and Second Circuits were the first circuit courts in the country to find a constitutional prohibition against laws which make physician-assisted suicide a crime† (Martyn Bourguignon, 1997). New York was one of the states that followed this prohibition. Eventually, The Ninth and Second Circuit, â€Å"allow physician-assisted suicide while attempting to protect individuals fromRead MoreDefending Euthanasia Essay1034 Words   |  5 Pagesand co-edited a number of books and newspaper articles opposing the use of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide and who also is the Samuel Gale Professor of Law, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, and Founding Dir ector of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics, and Law at McGill University, Montreal, wrote the internet article titled â€Å"Against Euthanasia.† In the article Somerville blatantly states that any type of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is completely and totally wrong under all circumstancesRead MoreThe Debate Surrounding Physician-Assisted Suicide Essay1673 Words   |  7 PagesPhysician-assisted suicide is the practice in which a doctor prescribes a terminally ill patient with a lethal medication as a form of active, voluntary euthanasia. These patients, rather than suffer slowly and painfully, often request this procedure as a means of experiencing a more â€Å"dignified† death. The debate surrounding this issue is a heated one, especially among the general public whose attitudes are deeply influenced by the level of patient pain and discomfort (Frileux et al. 334). At theRead MoreIs Euthanasia A Lethal Injection?1269 Words   |  6 Pagesto death, veteri narians will inform the owner on options of euthanasia or â€Å"putting the pet to sleep.† While the owner officially has to make the decision of putting the pet out of it’s pain or misery with a lethal injection. In the case of humans, rather than animals, whether or not a lethal injection should be given is a highly argued ethical and economical matter. In this paper, peoples’ cultures and how they affect the view of euthanasia, will be discussed along with the cost of medical proceduresRead MoreThe Centers For Disease Control And Prevention Released1181 Words   |  5 PagesDisease Control and Prevention released a suicide report in 2015 stating that in The United States, suicide is the 10th leading cause of deaths. As many as 44,193 individuals have died per year, which means there is about 123 suicide deaths a day happening as of now in The United States (â€Å"Suicide Statistics†). This is only the statistics of deaths that have been successful in The United States, it is not counting all suicide deaths around the world nor suicide attempts. This alone is already a majorRead MoreThe Ethical Issue Of Physician Assisted Suicide1580 Words   |  7 Pagessurrounding physician assisted suicide. By exploring Aristotle’s work through primary and secondary sources, this paper will discuss the greater good and happiness as it relates to not only the patient or physician, but as a member of a greater social circle and that of society because to Aristotle the role of the individual is less important than their social obligations and role. This paper aims to use the rationale of natural law and of Aristotle to explore the prospects of physician assisted suicideRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide Is Considered A Taboo Subject Essay1087 Words   |  5 PagesKeeley Echols 3rd/7th Period Medical Ethics Paper For a long time, euthanasia was considered a taboo subject. No one liked to talk about it because of how wrong it seemed to be. Today, it still is a relatively taboo subject, however, it is started being accepted in more places over time. To start off examining this broad topic, one should ask themselves, what is euthanasia? According to dictionary.com, euthanasia is ?the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme