I think New York state should have an assisted Suicide law similar to Oregon. From my perspective, physician-assisted suicide should be available and legal in all states, because people have the right to decide how they want to die. It’s completely up to the patient if he or she wants to try every option of treatment of just die a peaceful, painless death. Doctors don’t violate their principles; they enforce them.
The basic principles of their profession are doing everything they can for their patients and doing what’s best for them. Sometimes assisted suicide is what a patient wants, and is the most humane thing to do, and the doctor should respect that. In the last 6 months of someone’s life, patients usually try to exhaust every treatment option that would extend their lives, and these are usually very aggressive. The better decision for elderly or terminally ill people would be to give them the decision to end their lives on their own terms, as opposed to long, harsh treatments that may potentially fail.
From my observation, Many people who have a short life to be lived might not want to put the burden on themselves or even others in their family. The option to end their life peacefully and soundly makes for a very stress-free and clean death without having to go through possible pain. Although people may argue that this is just an excuse for doctors to not do their job or to find a quick and easy way out. However, this isn’t the case. The doctor does give the patient all the viable and necessary options they should and would be entitled to normally.
Some of these procedures are never a guarantee and the patients have the ability to stop the death procedure at any time since the medication is self-taken. Although someone who only has 6 months to live they should still be given the best medical treatment available to them during such time to give them a pain-free death. Although it’s not always the case it should be changed so it is. I feel as though if the patient is ill and consents to the death it should be legal and there isn’t a reason it truly shouldn’t be. Moreover, It’s your own life and you should have the decision to suffer or not. Humans tend to try live life the fullest extent possible. No human would think about death unless they have something very severe that impedes them to live a normal life. Taking this into consideration I believe that physician-assisted suicide should be legal in every state and the terminally ill person should have the ultimate decision to end their life.
For example, people who are in a coma for a very long time, people who are in a vegetative state, people who cannot live without life support or people who have a disease that causes them to live a painful life. All these people might struggle to do normal everyday activities such as bathing, cooking, eating, walking, etc. The people who are struggling and suffering might want to end to end their life because there might be no counter agent for their condition.
The only way this may be possible for those people is by living in one out of the four states were Physician-assisted suicide is legal. A basic concept that some people may have about doctors is that they are people who have been highly trained in observing people prescribe the right medication so the patient can recover as soon as possible and live a normal life. It is ironic that a doctor could help his patient die. This defies the basic principles of a doctor, which is to help the people stay healthy so that the patient could be able to live long as possible. However, a doctor who helps his patient with a terminal illness die with his or her consent is just respecting the opinion of someone who is struggling every minute of the patient’s life.
The medical system should change the way how the patients are treated. The medical system just wants to get as much money as possible from the patient’s insurance. They prescribe many things to a patient that would not help cure the patient. It would be useless for the patient to consume the medication.
If there is no possible cure for the patient then the doctor should tell the truth to the patient and respect the opinion of the patient who may choose to live the rest of the life or to end it earlier. Physician-assisted suicide should indeed be made legal in every state of the United States of America. Plus, people who are sick and diagnosed with a disease that WILL take their lives should indeed be given the right to die on their own terms. After all, why should the life of the person who is suffering from a disease that is untreatable be forced to live? By doing this, the only way this can be seen as is torture for the one who is suffering in pain. Doctors who help patients die are not violating the most basic principles of their profession. The doctors who assist their patients in committing suicide are only caring for patients health.
If the patient is in pain of unending suffering from symptoms that fall under physical, emotional and phycological turmoil. Also, one the basic principles of medical ethics state: A physician shall be dedicated to providing competent medical care, with compassion and respect for human dignity and rights. This states that a physician shall do their best to serve and respect the patient’s rights and self-respect. This entitles the physician to respect the patients wish to die should the patient be in suffering. With this the doctors who respect the patients wish to do are not violating the most basic principles of their profession, they are but simply obeying them. Our countries medical system must be rethought. When people begin the last six months of their lives on mother earth they must have the right to choose when to ‘ pull the plug’. However, the ‘ pulling of the plug’ should only be allowed when one is experiencing the untreatable pain for a disease one has.
I believe physician-assisted suicide should be legal because it helps those who are suffering and those who are terminally ill die peacefully. Patients who terminally ill know when they can’t live anymore so when doctors conduct a physician-assisted suicide all they are doing is helping their patients die peacefully. No one wants to die suffering or live to suffer, one would rather die peacefully so physician-assisted suicide prevents the case of patients suffering. Doctors who help patients die do not violate their principles of their profession because they are helping their patients be heard, and be free. They are respecting their patients’ requests for not wanting to suffer any more if one does not want to live anymore because of pain they should be allowed to have a physician-assisted suicide.
Treating elderly’s with strong medicine that does not help them is wrong, we should definitely rethink our medical system and how we treat people in the last six months of their lives. It is much more reasonable to take a sick elderly’s life with a physician-assisted suicide because I believe they have suffered enough. If a patient is given six months to live, they should have the option to either live the six months or die peacefully. If a patient is suffering in pain, they would most likely choose the option to die peacefully and I believe that is the right choice because no one should suffer, no one should feel like they are unable to enjoy life anymore. In the United States, I think that anybody should have the ability to have physician-aided suicided if they are eligible in regards to certain standards. In Oregon currently, you must be 18 or older, and agree three times to continue with the process (twice verbally, once written).
Also, a physician must approve that you are terminally ill and will most likely die within six months of the aided suicide. All of the precautions are definitely needed for something of this nature ever wants to become more universal. For example, if a person is not mentally sane, or under the influence, the physician-aided suicide should not be available. Also, in my opinion, it is important to be able to give people the choice if they feel that they are in pain, or uncomfortable, or if they feel that they are missing out on common human activities. Does a doctor who aids in a suicide go against what he or she has been trained to do? Doctors, in general, are supposed to help people, if a person is in pain and it cannot be treated any further, the best thing to do is to just call it, which would help the person in pain be relieved. People may argue that this is inhumane because it could most definitely be seen that way.
The very people who are trained and educated on saving people are now ending peoples lives. If the death wish is only granted if a person is not going to live longer than six months, then why don’t nurses and doctors provide a happier and more fulfilling six months for the patient to enjoy living just a little more before their death. In conclusion, I think it should be more universal but under the same restrictions if not even more than Oregon.
