The Thought of Physician Assisted Suicides

The Thought of Physician Assisted Suicides

Looking at my life in general, would I want to live on life support, living in a vegetative state being severely brain damaged or in a coma, not having a true awareness on what is going on in the world around you? Could this be the time for someone else to make the decision to end my life? Living and breathing not knowing what is going on with one's body, does anyone want to live like this? We all have our own set life span. Our life span is definitely determined by many factors. We are human beings; dying at some point is one of the most expected occurrences to take place in our life. The fear of death, or maybe wanting to live eternally, may sometimes compromise this thought process. It is likely that some us may believe that we can live forever but this isn't always the case; it is obvious that at any given time we can die. In today's society medicine has helped us live sometimes longer than what was anticipated! Mercy killings, or euthanasia, is defined as painless killing of a person who has a painful, incurable disease or incapacitating disorder by giving the patient a lethal drug, also known as physician assisted suicides (Euthanasia). There has been a continuing debate on what is called "mercy killings", "physician assisted suicides or euthanasia during for a very long time (Worsnop)." This dispute started in the 1990's when Jacob Kevorkian (May 26,1928-June 3, 2011) performed his first physician assisted suicide in the United States. Jacob better known as Jack, helped end at least 130 patients' lives, earning him the name of "Dr. Death" (Jack). Since the act of physician assisted killings began, there are three states in which it is legal to do this. Those states include Oregon, Washington and Montana, while many other states are still fighting this (Worsnop). There is also a difference between voluntary and non-voluntary physician assisted suicides. To voluntary euthanasia's is when the terminally person has requested to be killed; involuntary euthanasiais is where someone else acts on behalf of the person to be euthanized and this person is unaware of the killing. Is this debate because of the thought of it being against the doctor's medical oath that he or she may take? Or is it against God's will?

Although the causes of the medical community's general resistance to the policy of physician assisted killings may be complex, the major factors would include the medical community's resistance based on the medical oath that is taken, or society at large tending to be resistant to this because of one's religious beliefs. Although, an additional socialized factor would also be the emotional effects such an act has on the family members that would be drawn into this situation. There are many reasons why this could cause some