Physician assisted suicide term paper

Download this Term Paper in word format. Foley, 54; Braddock and Tonnelli. This again, is an argument based more on conjecture rather than solid evidence. While it is true that depression may accompany many serious and terminal diseases and there are anecdotes about patients who changed their minds about suicide after treatment; no credible studies are available about how often it happens or even if antidepressant treatment would make patients requesting death, change their minds.

Case 2 What is physician aid-in-dying? Physician aid-in-dying PAD refers to a practice in which a physician provides a competent, terminally ill patient with a prescription for a lethal dose of medication, upon the patient's request, which the patient intends to use to end his or her own life.

For related discussion, see also End of Life Issues. What role does language play in discussions of aid-in-dying? A variety of terms have historically been used to describe when a terminally ill patient uses a lethal dose of medication for the purpose of ending his or her life or having control over the timing of death.

However, implicit in the understanding of the word suicide is the notion of a premature death that is being hastened out of despair, therefore when mental illness impairs judgment, intervention to stop a suicide is ethically warranted because the person seeking suicide has lost his ability to carefully weigh the benefits and burdens of continued life.

Generally speaking, persons who are suicidal are treated as though their decision-making capacity is compromised and health care providers often intervene and provide life-sustaining treatments including involuntary psychiatric treatment over the objections of the patient.

They argue that, unlike the patients with impaired judgment who request suicide, terminally ill patients who request medication under the Act have the capacity to make a rational, autonomous decision to end their lives.

In this context, the term is meant to reflect that physicians provide assistance to patients who are otherwise going to die, and who seek help to control the timing and circumstances of their death in the face of end-of-life suffering they deem intolerable.

Here we use the term physician aid-in-dying to reflect the practice that is legal under the Washington Death with Dignity Act. Recent research has detailed the need for open and honest discussion on end of life issues. This discussion should supersede any debate over the use of particular terms or language.

Acknowledging the power of both historic and contemporary terminology, will help flesh out both sides of this sensitive and powerful debate.

Is physician aid-in-dying PAD the same as euthanasia? In physician aid-in-dying, the patient must self-administer the medications; the "aid-in-dying" refers to a physician providing the medications, but the patient decides whether and when to ingest the lethal medication.

Euthanasia is illegal in every state, including Washington. Some other practices that should be distinguished from physician aid-in-dying include: When a competent adult patient makes an informed decision to refuse life-sustaining treatment, their wishes are generally respected.

The right of a competent adult patient to refuse life-sustaining treatments is supported by law. Pain medication that may hasten death: Often a terminally ill, suffering patient may require dosages of pain medication that have side effects that may hasten death, such as impairing respiration.

Using the ethical principle of double effect as the foundational argument, it is generally held by most professional societies, and supported in court decisions, that this action is justifiable.

Since the primary goal and intention of administering these medications is to relieve suffering, the secondary outcome of potentially hastening death is recognized as an expected and acceptable side-effect in a terminally ill patient.

This term refers to the practice of sedating a terminally ill patient to the point of unconsciousness, due to intractable pain and suffering that has been refractory to traditional medical management.

Such patients are imminently dying, usually hours or days from death.

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Often other life-sustaining interventions continue to be withheld CPR, respirator, antibiotics, artificial nutrition and hydration, etc.

In the rare instances when pain and suffering is refractory to treatment even with expert clinical management by pain and palliative care professionals, palliative sedation may legally be employed.

Is physician aid-in-dying PAD ethically permissible? The ethics of physician aid-in-dying continue to be debated. Some argue that PAD is ethically permissible see arguments in favor.

Often this position is argued on the grounds that PAD may be a rational choice for a dying person who is choosing to escape unbearable suffering at the end of life. Furthermore, the physician's duty to alleviate suffering may, at times, justify providing aid-in-dying.

These arguments rely on respect for individual autonomy, recognizing the right of competent people to choose the timing and manner of death in the face of a terminal illness.Physician Assisted Suicide MY PAPER.

Physician-assisted suicide is not going to save substantial amounts of money in absolute or relative terms, for the nation as a whole. But opponents point to Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act as a good example of how most inhumanities, like the beginning of a wildfire, start out small, only to become an.

SAMPLE ARGUMENTATION ESSAY Research Question: physician-assisted suicide in the state of Oregon when she took a lethal dose of drugs in March, The Oregon Death with Dignity Act passed a referendum in November, , "Most Americans do not have proper access to long-term palliative care and a third die in pain that could be .

Assisted Suicide Assisted Suicide Letithia Terry PHI Informal Logic Kurt Mosser June 6, Assisted Suicide Assisted Suicide is when the physician provides the necessary means or information and the patient performs the act. thoroughly understand the topic of physician assisted suicide regardless of whether it is legally permitted within the State where they are working (Ersek, ).

The purpose of this paper is to. The Issue Of Doctor Assisted Suicide - Assisted Suicide: Rights and Responsibilities A woman suffering from cancer became the first person known to die under the law on physician-assisted suicide in the state of Oregon when she took a lethal dose of drugs in March, Physician Assisted Suicide, Is it Right or Wrong SOC May 9, Physician Assisted Suicide, Is it Right or Wrong?

The ethical issues of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) are both emotional and controversial, as it ranks right up there with abortion.