English II-Pre Ap
Introduction
Assisted suicide is a term used where doctors knowingly provided a patient or helps a person commit suicide. This can be done through inducing lethal drugs to the patients. Assisted suicide occurs in many cases due to some circumstances that leave the doctors with a choice to either save a person’s life or not (Asch 123). When doctors have to induce the assisted suicide, there has to be an agreement reached with patients, patient’s family and the doctors in order to ensure that the case is not conducted without the knowledge of the patients. When there is an agreement, then it is possible to ensure that the patients are well serviced and the risk is transferred to their caregivers. People have been questioning the ethics behind the assisted suicide cases with regards to taking a person's life which is wrong morally. For example, in religious beliefs, when a person helps another commit suicide, it is murder which is wrong ethically, and theologists criticize the decision that a person can make over another person's life. It is, thus, a critical topic in the society that requires keen intervention to ensure that there is proper judgment (Quill et al., 54).
Assisted suicide should, however, be legalized to ensure that every action taken by doctors in order to save another patient, or dignity or family’s life is allowed by the law.
Analysis
The fact that illnesses affect people’s lives and do not affect them in their deaths – Cases of terminal illnesses occur among many people in the world. Such diseases affect the people during their life time. Granting the right to assisted suicide will change how people live with such terminal illnesses, perceive them and it will also make it easy for relatives and friends to cope with such cases of their deaths. Terminal illnesses will eventually result to death in the long run, when patients are granted the right to assisted suicide, they will be able to decide whether to relieve their loved ones of the stress and trauma or not (Fins, Joseph, and Bacchetta 560).
Provision of financial incentives for premature deaths – When patients are admitted due to cases that require serious care from the hospitals, they consume huge sums of money during their treatment which causes a dangerous challenge to the caregivers. As a result, it is important when assisted suicide is allowed to take place in such fatal cases of illness that are hopeless and patients can die as a result of such cases. For example, patients suffering from a disease that cannot be cured like HIV, the patients require constant medication and care which can be very costly especially to the families from unfortunate backgrounds with no insurance cover.
In other cases, patients require intensive care that involves full medical attention by doctors every day. Consequently, the doctors consume a lot of time giving care to the patients which raise their bill day by day. In the long run, the risk of a patient dying still exists and renders the efforts useless and negative to the financial wellbeing of the relatives. When an induced suicide case occurs, the family can save on the cost by ensuring that the patient dies before the bill escalates through the doctors’ advice since doctors know about the chances of a patient's survival when in a critical condition. Such decisions are important especially to the less fortunate families (Hurst, Samia, and Mauron 87).
Cases where patients need the assisted suicide – In some cases, patients decide whether there is a need to have an assisted suicide in order to prevent suffering from an illness or not. It is vital for doctors to respect such a decision since it may be due to situations where patients do not want a family member to experience the pain that they are suffering. For example, a case where a patient is suffering from a condition where they need intensive care from the care givers which will prevent the caregiver from doing other activities to better their lives, the patient can decide that it will be better for an induced suicide case rather than a case where the lives of these relatives and friends are slowed down due to the responsibility of providing care. Consequently, the doctors should respect the decision made by the patients and assist where necessary. Assisted suicide is committed with the agreement between the patient, family members, and the doctor thus it should be legalized since it is with the person’s concern.
Assisted suicide helps save one patient over another, for instance, a mother and an infant – This case occurs to the pregnant mothers who require an operation that can either save the child or the mother. Such cases are common in the society today as they need serious intermediation. Besides, patients who need such decisions are numerous. When a mother suffers a condition that will see either the death of the infant or the mother, the doctors should not try to save both as the case will lead to the death of both parties. It is important to save at least one life even if there is a possibility of saving another and a risk of losing both lives. Nevertheless, when there is a legalized induced suicide, it will be easy for the patients to ensure that such a situation does not prevent them from making a decision that will see one life saved. The case is also ethically right as it leads to saving of one life which is deemed as important compared to saving no life in the long run (Block, Susan, and Billings 89).
Illness to the aging population – The aging population in the United States and Canada is high. At the age of 65 and above, most people tend to contract diseases from one point of their life to another. It will be important for such cases to be solved using euthanasia by doctors in order to save the relatives the distress they have to undergo each time the patient is sick. Aged individuals require serious attention from care givers. Legalization of assisted suicide will simplify decisions by doctors on induced suicide without causing trauma, with the advice from the relatives and the ailing aged person. When a person decides that suicide is the best way to solve their problem, then the doctors should be obligated to perform the practice. Moreover, when a person wants to commit suicide, they will still commit it with or without the use of the doctor’s help. The case of assisted suicide should thus be legalized to help patients and relatives.
Public support for assisted suicide is at all-time high – A ruling in a Canadian court on the need for assisted suicide cases proved that the public supported the action by 85%. If 85% of the Canadian population supports euthanasia, the society is ready to embrace the practice. In Canada, Quebec already passed a law in February 2014 that allowed euthanasia. The federal court, conversely, revoked the decision made by the state. There is only one meaning to such an action in Canada; the people are accepting the practice, but the governments are rejecting the people's decisions. Induced suicide should be allowed in the society since the people are ready to embrace the practice for their own good (Bachman et al., 67).
Conclusion
Assisted suicide is seen as an important aspect of the society that should be legalized in the long run. Patient’s decisions need to be respected, and the concerns with regards to the financial gain that they will incur from ensuring that such a case is rested without any loss is important. The law should legalize the case of assisted suicide based on its importance to the society and the medical profession. If assisted suicide can help save patients, save the trauma the relatives will undergo, and also save the financial stress that the family and relatives will undergo incase a patient stays in a fully serviced hospital for a longer period; an induced suicide will reduce the stress suffered by relatives, family and friends of the patient. Additionally, the United States government incriminated hard core criminals by sentencing them to death. This serves as an example of how hard core problems that pose a threat to family and friends of patients need to be settled down in the long run (Muskin 90).
Work Cited;
Asch, David A. "The role of critical care nurses in euthanasia and assisted suicide." New England Journal of Medicine 334.21 (1996): 1374-1379.
Bachman, Jerald G., et al. "Attitudes of Michigan physicians and the public toward legalizing physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia." New England Journal of Medicine 334.5 (1996): 303-309.
Block, Susan D., and J. Andrew Billings. "Patient requests for euthanasia and assisted suicide in terminal illness: the role of the psychiatrist." Psychosomatics 36.5 (1995): 445-457.
Caplan, Arthur L., Lois Snyder, and Kathy Faber-Langendoen. "The role of guidelines in the practice of physician-assisted suicide." Annals of internal medicine 132.6 (2000): 476-481.
Fins, Joseph J., and Matthew D. Bacchetta. "Framing the Physician‐Assisted Suicide and Voluntary Active Euthanasia Debate: The Role of Deontology, Consequentialism, and Clinical Pragmatism." Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 43.5 (1995): 563-568.
Hurst, Samia A., and Alex Mauron. "Assisted suicide and euthanasia in Switzerland: allowing a role for non-physicians." bmj 326.7383 (2003): 271-273.
Muskin, Philip R. "The request to die: role for a psychodynamic perspective on physician-assisted suicide." JAMA 279.4 (1998): 323-328.
Quill, Timothy E., Bernard Lo, and Dan W. Brock. "Palliative options of last resort: a comparison of voluntarily stopping eating and drinking, terminal sedation, physician-assisted suicide, and voluntary active euthanasia." Giving Death a Helping Hand. Springer Netherlands, 2008. 49-64.
