malone doctor assisted suicide

8/10/2019 Malone Doctor Assisted Suicide

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Tamarra Malone

English 101: Rhetoric

Mr. Newman

1 December 2014

Doctor Assisted Suicide

There is always an argument when it comes to what is and isnt ethical fora doctor. For

instance physician assisted suicide has is its own supporters and doubters. Even though most

patients who decide that physician assisted suicide is the best path for them have a deadly disease

and they have little time left, there are still people who feel that doctor assisted suicide violates

the morals and ethics that are supposed to be instilled in every doctor. I believe that a person

should be able to choose whether or not they want to live the rest of their lives with their life

threatening disease or they want to die a peaceful death. Experts also believe that assisted suicide

is dangerous because it may make people without a life threating disease think it is okay to take

part in doctor assisted suicide. Other pessimist believe that a doctor should honor the doctor oath

and try to heal every patient to the best of their ability. Supporters of the idea believe that a very

sick person deserves the right to die peacefully and with dignity. The supporters also think that a

person who is nearing the end of life should not have to finish their lives is agony. Although

many doctors agree that physician assisted suicide is not a practical way to die, there are still

countless doctors that disagree with this notion.

A patient should be able to decide if they want relieve themselves of their pain and

suffering and Oregon believes that same thing. Thaddeus Mason Pope is the director of the

Health Law Institute at Hamline University, and a legal commentator and blogger on end-of-life


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medical issues. He discusses the Oregon Death with Dignity Act and how it can work sensibly

and fairly. More than 1,100 people have obtained life-ending prescriptions, and about 750 used

them. Most were dying of cancer. And most feared a loss of autonomy, dignity and decreasing

ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable(Pope). This means that the people

who actually took the prescriptions were no longer enjoying life, they could not complete daily

tasks on their own and they did not want to be remembered as the person who died of some

disease. Pope also says that although there is a Death with Dignity Act there are many

safeguards whichonly allow participation by distinct categories of the patients. Only patients

who are 18 or older who have had two physicians determine that they have no more than six

months to live, this ensures that the patient really is dying and do not have a possibility of getting

better. He allows people to realize that the death with dignity act is a concrete and beneficial law

to have.

In addition, deciding whether or not it is time to let a loved one go is hard but its even

harder not knowing when they are going to go, but with doctor assisted suicide families can

release their loved ones from pain and suffering at the right time. Anita Freeman watched her

sister die of stage four cancer and now she volunteers for Compassion and Choices. Freeman

witnessed her sister die in agony as the stage four cancer spread through her body. Her sister

simply wanted soothing care because it was the only way she was comfortable, her greatest fear

was to die in pain. Freeman says Elizabeth asked her doctor to help her go to sleep so she could

die peacefully Elizabeths doctorcould not commit doctor assisted suicide because it was

illegal in California. He advised Anita Freeman and her sister on the legal option in every state to

pursue her wish of a peaceful and painless death. He said that she could freely stop eating and

drinking. Freeman believes that many doctors tell their patients how to legally commit suicide so


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that they can die on their own terms. I wholeheartedly endorse Freemans idea that if assisted

suicide was a choice for people with terminal diseases they would not have to go to desperate

measures.

Doctors sometimes rely on their medical ethics to support their stance on assisted suicide.

Doctors will sometime pay more attention to the length of life rather than the quality of life. This

habit may not be the best way to think when it comes to value and worth of someones life.

Psychologist John M. Grohol is the founder of Psych Central, a mental health website and a

founding board member of the society of Participatory Medicine says Whendoctors equate

healing with quantity of life, they ignore the quality of life. If suffering is intolerable it is

inhumane not to end it. In other words, Grohol is saying that doctors are doing patients a

disservice by letting them live through unbearable pain. At the end of life, when medicine

cannot help a person live any longer or stop a terminal disease, it seems in keeping with a

physicians ethics to help an individual maintain their dignity and choose the date of their own

death.(Grohol). Grohol insistsa person should not have to put up with such agonizing pain that

is not going to lead them to a happy and healthy life. Life should not be about how long a person

lived but how well their lives were and how happy they were during their life.

On the other hand there are people who think that physician assisted suicide is unethical

and is dangerous. Ira Byock is a professor at Dartmouths Geisel School of medicine, is chief

office of the institute for human caring of providence Health and Services and the author of

Dying Well and The Best Care Possible. Byock says When doctor-induced death becomes

accepted response to the suffering of dying people, logical extensions grease a slippery slope.

Byock is saying that if physician assisted suicide is made legal is will take a turn for the worst

and it will not a have a positive outcome. I agree that there may be some problems with


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physician assisted suicide in the beginning but doesnt all new medicine findings have their

issues.

Understanding that physician assisted suicide is not a normal way to die and also

understanding that not everyone will come to terms with physician assisted suicide is important

because I need to look at both ends of the spectrum and see why the opposition is opposing.


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Works Cited

Byock, Ira. Doctor Assisted Suicide is Unethical and Dangerous.New York Times: Room for

Debate.New York Times Company, 6.Oct.2014. Web.16.Oct.2014.

Freeman, Anita. Everyone Deserves to Die With DignityNew York Times: Room for Debate.

New York Times Company, 7.Oct.2014. Web.16.Oct.2014.

Grohol John. Denying Someone a Peaceful Death Can Be UnethicalNew York Times: Room

for Debate.New York Times Company, 7.Oct.2014. Web.16.Oct.2014.

Pope, Thaddeus. Oregon Shows that Assisted Suicide Can Work Sensibly and Fair.

New York Time: Room for Debate.New York Times Company, 7.Oct.2014. Web. 16.

Nov. 2014.

malone doctor assisted suicide

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