Doctor assisted suicide

             " Modern medicine has advanced to a point where doctors are able to keep the sick and elderly alive much longer"(Issues and Controversies). Many older or terminally ill people are still afraid of dying in a hospital, and are afraid of suffering from ongoing, uncomfortable pain. As these trends coincide, opinion polls have found that a majority of Americans approve of actions like those of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a controversial retired pathologist who has made a mission of assisting terminally ill people to die. Mentally competent and terminally ill people should be able to seek and receive a doctor's help to die.
             What exactly is meant by mental competence? In legal terms it means a person is found sound of mind, lucid and not suffering from any mental impairment or disturbance(World news Digest). These terminally ill patients could choose between two major options, assisted suicide or euthanasia. The term assisted suicide and euthanasia are sometimes used interchangeably, but they differ. In assisted suicide, a doctor prescribes a lethal dose of medication, making the means of death available but not participating in it. In euthanasia, the doctor himself or herself administers a fatal dose to a patient. The right to assisted suicide might even help patients to live longer. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are the most common types of patient assisted death discussed over the years. While Americans debate the concept, some nations such as Australia, have gone ahead and tried it devotedly in the northern parts of their country. The idea would be workable in this country too. Unfortunately opponents are doing all they can to prevent the idea from being implemented in the United States. First of all, opposers of assisted suicide contend that doctors are healers and should never actively hasten death. They argue that it is a violation of professional ethical standards for a doctor to help s...

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Doctor assisted suicide. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 10:25, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/27387.html