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Karrigan Sowash Professor Chester Persuasive/Argument Research December 2, 2015

Physician-Assisted Suicide

Physician-assisted suicide should be a medical procedure because it is a compassionate response to relieve the suffering of terminally ill patients. This procedure is often done by a pill or injection, and is painless for the person. With physician-assisted suicide, the patients dying know that it is their decision. The patients can die with dignity. Imagine a loved one lying in a hospital bed hooked up to countless machines. The doctors have given them no chance of living out a long life. It is just a matter of when they could go. With the help of a physician, they can induce passing. The patient could just be waiting to die. This is a humane way for terminally ill patients to end their lives without suffering. Currently, physician-assisted suicide is not legal in Indiana, due to it being viewed as a crime. Physicianassisted suicide is no for the harm of individuals. This procedure is here to give the power to the patient about their own life. Why should people kill themselves with guns, knives, or ropes, when they can die surrounded by family, and with the understanding that this is for the better? No one is at fault. This was the patient’s decision and they want to go in a way that is the least painful for themselves and for everyone else.

Karrigan Sowash Professor Chester Persuasive/Argument Research December 2, 2015

People have the right to die with dignity. People should be able to die a comfortable death without experiencing the negative impacts their condition has through the dying process. Some illnesses have a very painful dying process and some illnesses like for the patient to stick around for a while to completely take their life from them. Physician-assisted suicide allows the patients to choose when they want to die. Instead of waiting around to die, the patient can prepare for the day, and the family too can prepare for the passing of the loved one. Terminally sick people should not be subjected to prolonged pain when they already know the final outcome. Death. Everyone has the right to the kind of treatment they choose. Patients have the ability to refuse all treatment if that’s what they wish to do. Doctors cannot force anyone into receiving treatment. Included in the Bill Of Rights for patients, is a person’s right to be treated for illness and refuse treatment. Patients don’t always have to choose the most ethical treatment plan. Doctors and nurses have to respect the patient’s choice in medical decisions. Physician-assisted suicide takes away the guilt of a dying patient of being a burden on their family. Terminally ill individuals feel they are emotionally, physically, and financially draining to members of their family. The family is emotionally drained knowing their loved one will die sooner than they expected. The family is physically drained due to running back and forth to the hospital and to appointments. Some family members may even be the care givers of their loved ones. And lastly, the families of patients are financially drained. Keeping someone on life support for ONE DAY could cost up to four thousand dollars. Medical bills really take a toll on

Karrigan Sowash Professor Chester Persuasive/Argument Research December 2, 2015 the family of the dying person along with the patient. The patient is already in bad spirits and watching the family go through all of this for them upsets them even more. Some patients with a terminal illness just lose their will to live. The patients usually become depressed when they are told they have a terminal illness. They lose all hope about the future because they know they are slowly losing their life. After being sick for years some patients see themselves as being useless. With the procedure of physician-assisted suicide, the patients can have the option to end their life being sick and living with depression. Depression does have negative impacts on the body, and in a terminally ill individuals the repercussions of depression are worse. In the United States, there are assisted dying laws restricted to terminally ill and mentally competent adults in Oregon, Montana, Washington, Vermont, and California. Physician-assisted suicide was just legalized in California on October 5, 2015. The procedure is starting to expand, but some states are taking a little longer to convince. People view physician-assisted suicide as violating respect of the dying patient, harmful to society, and not being beneficial to the patient. Does physician-assisted suicide violate respect? Does the act of helping one another violate respect? Does giving someone what they want or ask for violate respect for them? If a person desires death more than life and what life has to offer, and requests assisted suicide, that is what that person truly wants. Not helping the person get what they want or need disrespects the person! Having legalized physician-assisted suicide in certain states will respect dying patients in

Karrigan Sowash Professor Chester Persuasive/Argument Research December 2, 2015 those states. Why restrict people of a medical procedure that could help their situation? (Darr) states, the word part eu- means well, and the word part –thanatos means death. Euthanasia means easy death. How can people love their animals enough to euthanize them when they’re sick but when it comes to humans it is considered unethical? Physician-assisted suicide would provide means of going in an easy fashion. Does it harm society? Does a person dying in a hospital in a local town effect individuals on the outside? Most people don’t even know the amount of people that pass in a local hospital every day, nor does anyone think about it on a daily basis. Physician-assisted suicide does not harm society as a whole. People may think other people of the society could abuse the system and just kill themselves to kill themselves. “States that have legalized, or are considering legalizing, specify criteria to prevent abuse of the policy behind the law” (Evan). There are requirements that have to be met to be able to end life. Individuals cannot jut choose to kill themselves because they are unhappy. “It is argued that the decision to end one’s life is intensely personal and private, harms no one else, and ought not to be prohibited by the government or the medical profession” (Wellman). This procedure does not affect society in a negative way and should be available to terminally ill patients who reach the laws and requirements put into place by the state. Is it an act of beneficence? Does this procedure benefit the dying patient in any way? Physician-assisted suicide gives the patient control at the end of life. It gives the patients the power of choice! It is a way out of endless pain and suffering. Patients diagnosed with

Karrigan Sowash Professor Chester Persuasive/Argument Research December 2, 2015 Alzheimer’s disease, a disease which attacks the brain, can end their life while they still retain the memories of their friends and families. The procedure gives the patients the chance to be in control rather than being weak or in pain. This act, providing the means, benefits the individual. Physician-assisted suicide is a procedure that should and one day could possibly be legal in all fifty states. Terminally ill patients will have to only take one more pill or one more injection before dying a peaceful death surrounded by friends and family. No more feeling like a burden to family. No more pain. No more expensive medical bills. No more machines or therapy. Physician-assisted suicide lets the dying patient go free. Don’t leave terminally ill patients to die in a way nobody wants to die. Legalize physicianassisted suicide in Indiana to give the people of society the freedom of choice. Take advantage of medical advancements and embrace them. Be open-minded when it comes to new procedures, and look for the positives. This procedure is giving one person what they want and could give another person what they NEED.

Works Cited

Karrigan Sowash Professor Chester Persuasive/Argument Research December 2, 2015 Darr, Kurt. “Physician assisted suicide and health services delivery.” Hospital Topics. Volume 78. Issue 2. P28. Web. Evan, Luke. “Nurses attitudes to assisted suicide.” British Journal of Nursing. Volume 24. Issue12. P629-632. Web. Sulmasy, Daniel P. and Lois Snyder. “Physician assisted suicide.” Annals of Internal Medicine. Volume 135. Issue 3. P209-216. Web. Wellman, Carl. “A Legal Right to Physician Assisted Suicide Defended.” Social Theory and Practice. Volume 29. Issue 1. P19-38. Web.