Physician Assisted Suicide Essays (2029 words) - Euthanasia

Physician Assisted Suicide Kirk Mueller Mr. Maclay 20th Century History 15 February 2001 Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: Public Opinions Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide (PAS) have been more widely accepted in the last decade of the 1900's then any prior. In the United States, polls of citizens and medical professionals have shown an increase in support of PAS and euthanasia. Physician assisted suicide and euthanasia have been addressed by courts and state legislation. Even though most religious groups still condemn this choice, the right to die has gained support throughout the 1990's. The American Medical Association's definition of Euthanasia is the administration of a lethal agent by another person to a patient for the purpose of relieving the patient's intolerable pain and incurable suffering.# Euthanasia is a Greek word that means good death. This word was diminished in Nazi Germany. In 1939 the Nazi's were some of the first people to practice euthanasia. The Nazi's would put the mentally retarded, physically challenged and citizens that they thought were suffering, to death. They used euthanasia in their concentration camps and because of all of the mass murdering the United States opinion polls went down.# There are two types of Euthanasia, passive and active. Active euthanasia is considered by most people to be the doctor administering the drug. For instance doctors could prescribe a medication for the patient that would act like a depressant and slow the heart beat down. They could also have a lethal injection that the patient would inject into himself or herself. Passive euthanasia is thought of as withholding or with drawing treatment by request of a patient. For instance when a respirator is withdrawn by request, that is considered by most citizens to be passive euthanasia.# More then half of the requests for physician assisted suicide come from the family members.# During the latter part of the 20th century medical technology advanced in ways that allowed doctors to prolong the lives of people who in earlier times would have died. An example of the modern technology is Artificial Respirators and feeding tubes. Artificial respirators help people breath that wouldn't normally and feeding tubes give people who are unable to eat or swallow food and water.# The only state in the United States to legalize euthanasia and physician assisted suicide was Oregon. Oregon was able to pass The Death with Dignity Act. This act, which was passed in October of 1997, allowed terminally ill Oregon residents to receive a prescription from their physicians to self administer lethal medications.# These lethal medications would kill the person eventually and stop their suffering. Some of the doctors feel that by prescribing these drugs that they could be accused of murder.# The Oregon Health Division (OHD) observes the Death with Dignity Act annually. After the OHD takes down the stats of how many people who died and how many people were prescribed lethal drugs they make a public report. The OHD's first report stated that 23 people received lethal drugs and 15 of those patients took the drug and successfully died. The other eight didn't take the pill and of them six died from their illness and two were still living as of January 1, 1999. Of the 15 suicid es there were no problems.# The only problem found with the Death with Dignity Act was that there was no penalty for the doctor not reporting a prescription of a lethal drug. If just one doctor didn't report a prescription it would throw off the OHD's annual report.# Some citizens feel that another problem is that the physicians are only allowed to prescribe oral drugs and not lethal injections. Others feel that this is a good section of the Death with Dignity Act but some have problems that no physician is forced into assisting in suicide. Doctors can make the decision if they want to assist or not.# Washington and California tried to follow Oregon's example of the Death with Dignity Act but the only thing that stopped the act from passing was the majority vote by the citizens. California tried to pass the act for two years and after the first year the percent of the supporters went up by 5% but just not enough to pass the act. Washington's