StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Assisted Suicide for People with Failing Health - Assignment Example

Cite this document
Summary
This assignment “Assisted Suicide for People with Failing Health” will begin with the statement that thanks to the many benefits of modern science and technology, many people who suffer from serious health conditions can be offered treatment which prolongs life…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER92% of users find it useful
Assisted Suicide for People with Failing Health
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Assisted Suicide for People with Failing Health"

Argumentative paper on assisted suicide for people with failing health. Thanks to the many benefits of modern science and technology, many people who suffer from serious health conditions can be offered treatment which prolongs life. This sounds like a good thing, but there is a catch: in some cases this longer lifespan comes at the expense of quality of life. When physical and mental suffering become very great it can happen that people request a form of assisted suicide, in order to escape what they experience as an intolerable existence. This raises ethical issues for professionals and for family members because the moral and legal prohibitions which exist to prevent any actions which cause the death of another person, however well-intentioned they might be. American society has a strong cultural value of protection of the sick, as can be seen in the Hippocratic oath that doctors take, and the laws against assisted suicide in most US states. These taboos are very important, because they provide protection for some of the most vulnerable members of society, but there are occasions on which assisted suicide should be allowed, so long as very strict procedural safeguards are followed. Assisted suicide is currently illegal in all but a few of the United States, but there is some evidence that it nevertheless has been occurring even in states where it is outlawed. A nationwide study in 1998 using a stratified sample of over 1902 doctors found that 18.3 per cent of them had received a request on at least one occasion to assist in the suicide of a patient, usually by lethal injection, and that 4.7 per cent had actually administered at least one lethal injection, while another 3.3 per cent had written at least one prescription to be used for this purpose (Meier et al. 1193). This shows that a sizeable proportion of the patient population wishes to have access to assisted suicide, and a few doctors are willing to admit that they have carried out this wish. This evidence proves that legal sanctions do not prevent assisted suicide, and that there is a growing wish in the population at large to have such an option available. A second reason for revisiting the law on assisted suicide, and working out a better way to regulate the whole area of end-of-life-care more thoroughly, is that prohibition in the face of clear demand breeds underground activity which is more risky than a regulated system would be. There may be a much larger number of doctors who have assisted suicide, but are not willing to admit this in public, due to the likelihood of severe legal consequences. There are no doubt also some situations where people who are not medically qualified take such actions, with potentially unforeseen consequences such as unnecessary pain, or unsuccessful attempts and ensuing distress for all concerned. This is clearly not a desirable situation. The distinct and growing gap between what the law says should happen, and what happens on the ground means also that there is a wide scope for unscrupulous or criminal activity to develop. This means that there is a very strong argument for issuing very tight new rules, allowing assisted suicide in carefully regulated contexts, with checks and safeguards in place. In the Netherlands, for example, such a system has been in operation since 2002, and observers have pointed out that this does not result in abuse of patients, since doctors are very slow to reach for this option, and many steps have to be followed before it is allowed (Gorsuch 103). Assisted suicide can be a blessing, and the example of the Netherlands shows that it can operate without harm to the role of medical professionals, and without causing a rush to take advantage of this option. There has been some debate about the Netherlands regime, however, not least because the demographic mix is very different from that of the United States. More than 40 per cent of Dutch people deny any religious alliance while the vast majority of Americans claim to have some religious affiliation or other (Nitschke, 1). This means that it may well be possible to introduce nationwide rulings in a largely secular society, where humanist values prevail, but it is an entirely different matter to set up rules which fly in the face of some of the most basic teachings of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and many other faiths. Some would argue that human beings do not have the right to determine the time of death for anyone, not even themselves, because this is a privilege accorded to God alone. All in all, therefore, it is clear that revision of the rules on assisted suicide in the United States is urgently necessary. In order to prevent unlawful medical interventions and relieve the suffering of terminally ill patients, new regulations are necessary. The moral and religious taboos are there for good reason, and should be considered, but at the same time people should have a legal right to choose death. The only way to do this fairly is to devise a humane and rigorous procedural regime that balances the rights of all and safeguards the weak from abuse. Too often science is presented as the evil force in these situations, providing doctors with options that give them too much power to destroy life. It is about time that we learned to step up to the moral challenges that science presents, and make a definitive decision to let people die with dignity. For my relatives, and when the time comes for my own eventual departure from this life, I fervently wish that a legal right to choose death is made available across the whole of the United States. References Gorsuch, Neil M. The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. Print. Meier, Diane E., Emmons, Carol-Ann, Wallenstein, Sylvan, Quill, Timothy, Morrison, R. Sean and Cassel, Christine K. “A National Survey of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine 338 (17), (1998), pp. 1193-1201. [Accessed July 13th, 2012]. Web. Nitschke, Philip. “The Role of Religion in the U.S.” New York Times April 10th, 2012. [Accessed July 13th, 2012]. Web. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Assisted Suicide for People with Failing Health Assignment”, n.d.)
Assisted Suicide for People with Failing Health Assignment. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/sociology/1600177-argumentative-essay-on-assisted-suicide-for-people-with-health
(Assisted Suicide for People With Failing Health Assignment)
Assisted Suicide for People With Failing Health Assignment. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1600177-argumentative-essay-on-assisted-suicide-for-people-with-health.
“Assisted Suicide for People With Failing Health Assignment”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1600177-argumentative-essay-on-assisted-suicide-for-people-with-health.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Assisted Suicide for People with Failing Health

Argument for Euthanasia

Sometimes euthanasia refers to assisted suicide owing to the fact that a physician has to be involved in the act.... With the growing population of ill people across the world to an extent that there arises immense shortage of health facilities, endorsing euthanasia will assist in evacuating the congested health facilities.... When the terminally sick individuals continue to occupy beds and space, other patients who only suffer from curable diseases may lack and miss health facilities....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

The debate on assisted suicide

The debate on assisted suicide Even as medicine seeks to save these extremely sick people, debate continues to rage on whether these deteriorated and tortured lives in excruciating pain should be ended or not.... While some people opposed assisted suicide outright, others feel that legislations to allow physicians to end the lives of patients suffering from terminal illnesses are in order.... This paper explores the two sides of the raging debates on assisted suicide....
3 Pages (750 words) Research Paper

Nursing and Decision Making in Mental Health Nursing

Nursing and decision making in mental health nursing An Overview of Jo's Case Jo is a twenty-two year old young man who was admitted to a mental health care ward on an outpatient basis after staging an unsuccessful attempt to take his own life.... While admitted as a patient in the mental health facility, Jo actually showed signs of improvement in that his emotional state grew more balanced and he showed signs of functioning as an ordinary person even though he was not given any medicine....
14 Pages (3500 words) Essay

Suicide and Its Prevention

hellip; The WHO cites suicide as one of the major public health burdens that face developed countries and an upcoming problem in middle and developing societies.... t is approximated that 90% of individuals who attempt or die because of suicide have possibly one or more mental health disorders.... Many young people fall prey to suicide with an estimate of almost one million people dying each year from this epidemic.... WHO argues about the number of people that lose their lives through suicide....
9 Pages (2250 words) Research Paper

School of Health Ethics Form

hellip; There have been various debates supporting and opposing legal laws on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia within the country.... In spite of euthanasia not being legal within the country, physician-assisted suicide is legal and being practiced and being practiced in different states within the country.... Examples of states practicing physician-assisted suicide are Washington, Oregon, and Montana (Lo, 2009).... In physician-assisted suicide, a physician plays a crucial role in creating lethal medications for the patients, but the medications are always used by the patient at his own time and comfort, however, this is the opposite of euthanasia because the physician here takes an active role in ending a patient's life....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Suicidal Cases in the Military in the US

The paper "Suicidal Cases in the Military in the US" discusses that military leadership fails to understand that despite some of these soldiers suffering a critical mental health condition before they even join the military, it is still the leader's obligation to checkup and evaluate these soldiers.... Service members and veterans reflect the broader American public, which not only suffers from suicide but also stigmatizes mental health care.... Further, some service members enter military service with mental health challenges and we should not conclude that serving in the military caused these suicides....
6 Pages (1500 words) Coursework

Is It Right to Take Your Own Life

The way we perceive society usually depends upon the health of our brain.... "Is It Right to Take Your Own Life" paper discusses the reasons which move people to kill themselves and its consequences.... Yet the dilemma of the situation is that people can still make it a debatable point.... Like the above-mentioned boy, there are people, who get stuck in such a manner that no outlet could be found.... epression is the root cause that pushes people so hard against the wall that the only escape seems to be suicide....
8 Pages (2000 words) Coursework

Psychological Hazards: The Brodie Panlock

nbsp;Although there is no single accepted definition of workplace bullying, section 55(A) of Occupational health, Safety and Welfare Act describe it as any behavior that is systematic, repeated, and directed towards an employee or a group of employees.... nbsp;Although there is no single accepted definition of workplace bullying, section 55(A) of Occupational health, Safety and Welfare Act describes it as any behavior that is systematic, repeated, and directed towards an employee or a group of employees....
10 Pages (2500 words) Case Study
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us