Physician_Assisted_Suicide

Persuasive Essay Donald Wilson COMM 105 March 28, 2011 Doug Swanson Persuasive Essay A very controversial issue right now is physician assisted suicide. Physician assisted suicide is immoral and should be illegal. This essay will discuss the difference between physician assisted suicide and euthanasia. There will also be discussion about important facts associated with physician assisted suicide. The last topics that will be covered will be the legal and ethical debate surrounding physician assisted suicide. Physician assisted suicide can be easily confused with euthanasia. In physician assisted suicide the physician provides the means and information for the patient to end his life. Euthanasia is defined as “The act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment” (Dictionary.com, 2011). Both of these practices are immoral and should be illegal. These two acts are so similar that they only have one difference. During physician assisted suicide the individual kills themselves and in euthanasia the physician is the one performing the act. Physician assisted suicide has been around for a long time. Since medicine was first practiced there have been requests to end the life of suffering patients. There are alternatives to physician assisted suicide. Modern medicine has the ability to relieve pain and suffering with less dosage. Medicine is evolving on a daily basis the next cure could be right around the corner. Life is valuable and should not be thrown away because someone doesn’t want to deal with the pain of an illness. Terminally ill patients should not have the ability to choose whether or not they want commit suicide or not. A person in excruciating pain will want to do anything to stop it. This includes wanting to end their life so that they do not feel this pain anymore. There is a group that “fosters awareness about, and prevention of, suicide and assisted suicide” (True Compassion Advocates, 2009). This group is helping spread the awareness of the illegality of assisted suicide by spreading the information they have collected from various other websites and resources. Groups like this are starting to become more active in the recent years due to the rise in legislation trying to get passed legalizing assisted suicide. We all need to do our part to help the groups and organizations in making assisted suicide illegal in all 50 states. Washington, Oregon, and Montana are the only states in which physician assisted suicide is legal (American Medical Association, n.d.). Physicians swear an oath stating first do no harm. This is contradicting if you are assisting someone in committing suicide. This is a big debate between physicians that will not assist in suicide and ones that will. There are numerous groups that are trying to push the movement to legalize physician assisted suicide. Some of these groups like Final Exit Network are going about it illegally. On February 25, 2009 four members of F.E.N were arrested for assisted suicide. The individual they helped commit suicide was John Celmer. John was not a terminally ill patient; in fact he recovered from mouth and throat cancer and became cancer free. He was depressed because of his appearance after head and neck surgery. Groups like this are breaking the law and they are not even assisting the individuals that are terminally ill. If we make physician assisted suicide legal where will it stop' After we allow terminally ill individuals should people that are depressed and feel that they also have no quality of life be next. Who gets to make the decision if someone is a candidate for physician assisted suicide' These are question that no one has the right or authority to answer. Killing someone is a crime no matter what the circumstance. This essay has discussed the difference between physician assisted suicide and euthanasia. This paper has also covered some important facts about physician assisted suicide and lastly the legal and ethical debate surrounding physician assisted suicide. The information shared in this paper should show you that assisted suicide is immoral and should be illegal. There is still a big debate about the legality of helping someone kill themselves. References American Medical Association. (n.d.). Amednews.com. Retrieved from http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/prsa1229.htm Dictionary.com. (2011). Euthanasia. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Euthanasia True Compassion Advocates. (2009). True Compassion Advocates. Retrieved from http://Coalition Against Assisted Suicide