Physician-assisted suicide is a humane approach to dying and should be adopted legally in all states. Anyone who is terminally ill should have the right to choose how they die, specifically since they face death every day. Physician-assisted suicide is no more harmful than other methods of patient care that address patients needs, rights and desires. Given the fact that most terminally ill patients have a limited life to live, it is the duty of doctors and health care providers to see their rights and wishes are granted, even if those wishes include a hastened journey toward death. For many patients death is a far more optimistic outcome than living a life of pain and suffering.
The Argument
A growing body of health care workers, doctors and physicians currently support physician-assisted suicide as a compassionate and caring method to deliver ones last rights. Woodman (2000) points out that many health care workers believe that the desire among people to speed up their progression toward death is actually quite normal, healthy and a rational approach to a devastating situation. Many also reveal that the request for a quickened death is quite a common response (Woodman, 2000).
Many historical events have changed the healthcare communities views toward physician-assisted suicide, none the least of which is the AIDS epidemic, which for many years had a clear outcome of death and suffering for patients (Woodman, 2000). Patients who knew they would die increasingly requested that physicians assist them in their plight, to hasten their journey to the other side and reduce their pain and suffering. While some may have objections to this a vast majority must agree that in some cases physician-assisted suicide is compassionate, not only for suffering patients but also for family members that must endure the...
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