Support for Physician Assisted Suicide

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the controversial topic of physician-assisted suicide, arguing in its favor. The author describes why a seriously ill person would prefer to control his death rather than submit to long and drawn out medical procedures. Arguments against the right to die movement are also presented. The author concludes, however, that individuals should have the right to chose how their lives end.

From the Paper:

"Physician assisted suicide is a natural response to the modern creation of a death denying society, reflective of the recent historical emphasis on the physician and his vast skill as the heroic. Modern medicine is seen as having all the answers, as it is capable of reversing the probability of death in so very many cases, even when it is only partly true and the return from the dead is not always pretty, nor does it usually offer the patient a real return to the life they know or a life without dependence."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Kamisar, Yale. "Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Problems Presented by the Compelling, Heartwrenching Case." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 88.3 (1998): 1121-1146.
• Palmer, Larry I. Endings and Beginnings: Law, Medicine, and Society in Assisted Life and Death. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2000.
• Salem, Tania. "Physician-Assisted Suicide." The Hastings Center Report 29.3 (1999): 30.
• Woodman, Sue. Last Rights The Struggle over the Right to Die. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2000.

More papers on Support for Physician Assisted Suicide:

• Argumentative Essay # 16374 : "Euthanasia/Physician-Assisted Suicide"
• Argumentative Essay # 6485 : "Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide"
• Analytical Essay # 24213 : "Legalization of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia"

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