Physician-assisted suicide refers to a physician prescribing a lethal medication to assist a terminally ill patient in ending their life. Terminally ill refers to a patient whose sickness will consequently take their life in about six months or less. Some terminal illnesses are metastatic cancer (cancer that has spread), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Many times, the patients experience many side effects to the illness they are battling such as; excruciating pain, seizures, loss of motor skills, or mental function. This results in suffering for their final months of life, which leads to a very low standard of life for the patient. In the states where physician-assisted suicide is legal, the patient must meet strict criteria to become eligible. Such criteria are that they are legal residents of the state, over the age of eighteen, terminal illness is confirmed by two physicians, two oral and one written request to die with a period of time between each, and they must be able to self-administer the prescribed medication. For the eligible patient, a doctor will prescribe a lethal dose of a medication, commonly barbiturates, for the patient to take to die when and where they feel is best for them.Physician-assisted suicide is only legal in four out of the fifty states in the United States; those states are California, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Physician-assisted suicide is not the same as euthanasia. In euthanasia cases, the physician would act directly on the patient to end their life. A doctor who was notorious for this and a patient’s right to die was a Michigan doctor named Doctor Jack Kevorkian. He manufactured the Thanatron, a device that delivered a fatal dose of potassium chloride via IV, and the Mercitron, a device that delivered carbon monoxide via gas mask. Kevorkian was jailed on multiple occasions for murder regarding his connection to his patients.
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The video clip above is a speech from a TED Talks. Although the speaker is Canadian, and refrences Canada several times, she still brings to the table several valid and good points towards death with dignity.
The above link is the website for the national death with dignity website. Death with dignity is another term for physician-assisted suicide.
The link provides access to many facts and statistics on physician-assisted suicide by CNN.
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