WiseMann – Counterintuitive

Definition Rewrite — Wiseman101

Right to Physician-Assisted Suicide

According to Kopelman’s article, “Does physician-assisted suicide promote liberty and compassion?”, physician-assisted suicide is an exercise whereby the doctor helps a patient with the faster means to end his or her life due to overwhelming pain or suffering. A suffering patient requests the physician typically to assist him or her to end his life. It is called physician-assisted because the doctor supports in dying and hastening the death of the patient. In this case, the doctor takes the step knowingly and ready to make the patient die. There is a difference between physician-assisted suicide and the euthanasia. In euthanasia a doctor, assist the patient to die through the administration of a lethal drug while in physician-assisted dying, the doctor deals with a sound mind individual who requests voluntarily to die by requiring a dose of barbiturates that will kill him or her. The state of the art palliative care should be established to treat these people suffering and almost ending their lives. Physician-assisted suicide should be an option when only the last means of treatment has failed to work out (Kopelman, 87). However, even though physician-assisted suicide for some appears unethical, there is a need to recognize the right for a physician-assisted suicide since it gives individual their constitutional liberty. Nobody should control how someone should die; therefore, patients should be given a right to die anytime they will.

Many states have illegalized physician-assisted suicide. However, there has been a recent flurry of legal implications in this case. Kopelman also claims that, the issue of whether of whether to legalize physician-assisted deaths (PAD) has been on debate for a long time now. In the United States, most of the states have prohibited PAD and terming it as unconstitutional, but it the real sense it constitutional. Individuals should be given their liberty under the constitution. She says that there have been several attempts to change this law. One of the federal challenging the constitutionality of these prohibitions of PAD includes two Supreme Court cases, Washington vs. Glucksberg and Quill vs. Vacco. After several attempts to legalize PAD failed, then the Death with Dignity Act was passed in Oregon in 1995 and also in Washington state in 2008. These laws allow an individual who wishes to die through physician-assisted practice to do so freely.

There has been a controversy on how to recognize the right of PAD individuals. According to Kopelman, some people associate the word suicide with some mental illness and some irrational behavior. However, these people should be given a right to control their lives because there is a point a patient realizes that death is the only best option for the illness, this is a self-preservation means. That is why when the states legalized this means of dying called is physician-assisted suicide.

There are various reasons why the right to physician-assisted suicide should be recognized. The first reason is patient autonomy. A patient should be guaranteed a right to control any possible circumstances surrounding his death. Respect of the patient is one duty of a doctor. The sole responsibility is to relieve pain the patient is undergoing, physician-assisted suicide is one of the approaches used. This practice was practiced in Oregon whereby over 100 patients obtained a prescription for lethal doses under the law, which was passed in 1997. 850 patients die after taking such doses. Most of these patients had critical and acute diseases like cancer whereby death was the only remaining option. It should also be noted that physician-assisted death is a personal choice; therefore, people should be given their right to choose what suits them. Sometimes the pain in the patient can be too much to contain, therefore when the patient recognizes it is better to die, nobody is supposed to prohibit that, secondly, there is an aspect of mercy. If the pain and suffering the patient is undergoing cannot be relived through the palliative care, then the doctor has the powers to do anything possible to assist the patient to relieve the pan, even if it means hastening patient’s death. Because, honestly, sometimes pain can be unbearable.

Kopelman also points out that, not all medicine can relieve human suffering. The pain and suffering of a dying patient can be too much. The suffering is caused by somatic symptoms like nausea, pain, depression, anxiety and even hopelessness. For most of the patients, when they feel to have the control over their death timing, they get comfort. However, it is reasonable to ask for medicine before opting for death directly. As much as there should be a right for physician-assisted individuals, nobody wants patients to die but have freedom and a right to remain alive and in good health. However, it should be noted that PAD is controlling suffering on terminally ill patients.

There is an unexpected benefit of allowing patients to have a right to physician-assisted suicide. However, it should be noted that the laws and rights for physician-assisted right do intend to kill a patient but to assist in pain relieving. In the study by Boudreau, Donald J., and Margaret A. Somerville, “Physician-assisted Suicide Should Not Be” in this exercise, patients have the opportunity to die with dignity; they experience less trauma and pin when dying. In addition, the patient has all the time to say goodbye to the friends and family members. It should be noted that when the patient requests to die early, he saves the financial burden that the family would have used to treat a disease, which will not get ill at the end of the day. The other most crucial benefit of such a death is that some useful organs like the kidneys can be saved for that patients and be used to save the lives of other patients. In addition, one can imagine if there were not physician-assisted suicide, many people could have committed suicide in a mess and horrifying, traumatic manner.

The other most important reason for legalizing physician-assisted suicide is that it gives patients freedom of choice. The capability to control your mind and body is fundamental to any human being. Boudreau and Somerville agree that, a patient should not be allowed to continue suffering for long in this world when in the real sense there are no hopes for healing members. Death is never enjoyable to witness, but also it is more saddening to see your loved one struggle in pain which will not end any time soon members .Therefore, physician-assisted death helps the terminally ill patient to end his life without necessarily undergoing agony for a long time. Physician-assisted suicide is the best method to determine the right time and manner of a terminally ill patient. This liberty grants the patients alternatives to choose. The constitution provides this liberty and makes it clear for everyone. However, some proponents can argue that physician-assisted suicide should be illegalized since the doctors have no right to determine the right time for a patient’s death.

Works Cited

Boudreau, Donald J., and Margaret A. Somerville. “Physician-assisted Suicide Should Not Be

Permitted: option 1.” The New England Journal of Medicine 368.15 (2013): 114-145.

Kopelman, Loretta M. “Does physician-assisted suicide promote liberty and compassion?.”

Physician-Assisted Suicide: What are the Issues?. Springer, Dordrecht, 2001. 87-102.

Rebuttal Rewrite — Wiseman101

Physician-assisted suicide

Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) as part of euthanasia is one of the oldest points of contention in medical ethics. The original Hippocratic Oath forbids it, and many religions and societal traditions have rejected it since antiquity. In physician-assisted suicide, a suffering or terminally ill patient is aided by a certified health practitioner to get access to a lethal dose that the patient then administers on themselves. If the patient is incapable of doing so, they can request the physician to administer the lethal substance to end the patient’s life. The practice of physician-assisted suicide continues to raise debate as only five American states, a handful of European Countries and Colombia permit some form of doctor-assisted suicide. Even though many governments and organizations do not formally accept physician-assisted suicide as a standard medical practice due to ethical concerns, they should adopt it because it is a show of respect to individual civil liberties as provided by the right of every individual to choose what is best for them without government or societal interference.

Although physician-assisted suicide can be regarded as a sound practice, there are valid arguments against its application. According to Margaret Sommerville in her book “Death Talk, Second Edition: The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide”, she claims that the constitution recognizes the right to life, and when life and death are compared, life will take precedence. Allowing physician-assisted dying is a contradiction of the first liberty. In a literature review by Nicole Steck and Matthias Egger “Euthanasia and assisted suicide in selected European countries and US states: systematic literature review”, they conclude that it is also possible that legislating doctor-assisted suicide will be the first step on a slippery slope that will involve threats to the vulnerable as premature death is enacted as a cheap alternative for palliative care. This is true when one considers that a dose of euthanasia costs an upward of $50 and kidney failure treatment may cost an upward of $89,000 per year in the US. Also, Sommerville points out that, unproductive and poor citizens will be targeted and this, again, goes against the right of every American to access quality healthcare. For some people, the contention is absolute and moral. Life is sacred and the suffering that comes with it till one dies confers its dignity and consequently, deliberately ending a human life is wrong. Finally, how long will it take before physician-assisted suicide becomes involuntary? When relatives approach a 92-year old man on life support and request them to sign the physician-assisted suicide forms, is that not indirectly violating their rights as they have no choice?

According to Bradley Denton and his partner Dr. William Bradley in their “Australian Nursing and Midwifery” journal , the views that physician-assisted dying is immoral and strips human dignity deserves some seriousness but, is not autonomy and liberty critical sources of human dignity as well? The right to choose certainly adds value to human life and people should not take a myopic view of ethics without analyzing the laws that make these ethics possible. In the society we live in where the state and religion are separated, it is queer to support the sanctity of life abstractly by exposing particular individuals to unbearable pain, suffering and indignity that comes from some terminal conditions .Furthermore, evidence from countries and states where physician-assisted suicide has been enacted shows that the slippery slope contention with regard to widespread physician-assisted suicide is a myth. In the Netherlands for example, Gopal in his “Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law”, says that the process of doctor-assisted dying is bureaucratic and highly complex meaning that most applicants are rejected until it is established beyond reasonable doubt that the request is voluntary and will do more good than good. The Netherlands treats physician-assisted suicide as a criminal act if not carried out in the presence of an ethics expert, a legal expert, and the doctor. This implies that strict controls are needed, not blatant rejection, to ensure that this right is protected and not abused.

In the article” Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies” by MSC. Suela Hoxhaj, the argument that life should take precedence over death does not hold water when analyzed from an individual’s rights perspective. Just as people have the right to live with dignity, they also have a right to die with dignity. Medical practice is supposed to alleviate pain and unnecessary suffering in patients. Take the example of a single mother of teenage children having stage four cancer. Undergoing chemotherapy means that her hair falls off even as she consistently vomits while enduring the extreme pain that her children are supposed to watch as they take care of her. Presently, the medical technology we have cannot do any better than chemotherapy and radiotherapy to treat cancer (which generally cannot restore health in stage four cancer) and in the case of this mother, the continuing suffering only robs her of her dignity and those of her children. With physician-assisted suicide, such patients and their families get a right to a dignified end.

According to Sommerville, anti-physician assisted suicide proponents argue that death is a natural process that should not be interfered with. However, doctors have and continue to implicitly exercise the right of dying on the patient’ behalf. Physician-assisted suicide fixes this by recognizing the individual civil liberty of the patient to choose and administer PAS. Doctors normally exercise this right by giving pain-relief in lethal doses or withdrawing treatment. As Steck, Egger, Maessen, Reisch, & Zwahlen notes, this is usually after talking to relatives, and even though doctors are normally investigated for overstepping this mark, they are rarely charged. Numerous people welcome this fudge given that it lays limits to PAS albeit with no need to articulate the contentious moral choices involved. This is unethical and unworkable given that the explicit choice to die that should be in the hands of a patient is left in the doctor’s hands. It is hypocritical and goes against the individual civil liberties as society pretends to shun PAS while tacitly and subtly allowing it without safeguards. Physician-assisted dying in its openness will fix this practice of deaths through nods and winks that contravenes individual rights.

Gopal also suggests that, the fear that physician-assisted suicide will be foisted on vulnerable individuals, bullied by rogue doctors, cash-strapped states, panicking relatives, and parsimonious insurers is unfounded. The Oregon experience, where a law allowing PAS has existed since 1997, points to the enhanced recognition of civil liberties. Individuals who choose doctor-assisted dying are in fact insured, well-educated and getting the best palliative care. These individuals are motivated by the desire to maintain their own dignity, pleasure in life, autonomy, and the pain that comes with some conditions. These are factors that embody the civil liberties promise of most governments around the world.

In conclusion, physician-assisted dying is the ultimate protection of individual civil liberties in the ongoing euthanasia debate. Just as people have the right to life, they have a right to autonomy, happiness, and pleasure in life; elements that are guaranteed through the right to choose a dignified death that alleviates unnecessary suffering. Anti-PAS proponents suggest that it will open the doors to a slippery slope of forced death on vulnerable patients, but evidence from Netherlands and Oregon show that this is a myth if strict controls are in place. After all, the right to die for patients has for long been practiced by physicians and relatives on behalf of patients through the withdrawal of medication or prescription of pain medication. Physician-assisted suicide is fixing this subtle illegal practice by placing the right to die in the patient’s hands hence protecting civil liberties.

References

Denton, A., Levett, C., Bradley, S., & Thoma, L. (2016). Death and dignity: Why voluntary euthanasia is a question of choice. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal, 24(6), 18-23.

Gopal, A. A. (2015). Physician-Assisted Suicide: Considering the Evidence, Existential Distress, and an Emerging Role for Psychiatry. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 43(2), 183-190. Retrieved from http://jaapl.org/content/43/2/183

Hoxhaj, O. (2014). Euthanasia – The Choice between the Right to Life and Human Dignity. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 3(6), 279-284. doi:10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n6p279

Sommerville, M. A. (2014). Death talk: The case against euthanasia and physician-assisted Suicide (2nd Ed.). Sydney, Australia: McGill-Queen’s Press-MQUP.

Steck, N., Egger, M., Maessen, M., Reisch, T., & Zwahlen, M. (2013). Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Selected European Countries and US States. Medical Care, 51(10), 938-944. doi:10.1097/mlr.0b013e3182a0f427

Visual Rewrite — Wiseman101

00:00 – 00:01

In the first second we can right the way notice a big white house with the white picket fence and well maintained green bushes around the house. Also we can see how well the grass is cut on both sides. I can conclude that people who live there have a good, high paid steady jobs in order to take care of the house. I would consider themselves as upper mid class. This house appears not to be surrounded by other houses. We could even conclude that this house was constructed by current customer’s house plan. By looking at the shape of this house we could conclude that it was build fairly recent. The big red front door in the center makes us look directly at the center of the shot and not wonder around at first. We can see the side walk with a middle age woman moving towards the entrance. She is wearing a post mail worker uniform that suggests that the current time of the day either early in morning or mid afternoon. She is holding something in her hand, something small to deliver.

00:02 – 00:03

Now we can see that the camera is focused directly at the woman’s face. She is holding several white envelopes. The angle of the camera is shooting above her head, making us concentrate on some image slightly above her, perhaps in the window. Her face impression appears to be surprising. She perhaps sees something that attracts her attention.

00:03 – 00:06

we are looking inside the window from outside point of view. We can see a male’s arm flexing. His arm is fully covered with tattoos. It makes me think that he is a tattoo artist. He also has big muscles which leads to believe he works out and has a very healthy lifestyle. His skin looks young so we could assume he is in his thirties. He is wearing a black tank top, which makes us think that he is plan on staying inside the house. He also has a long black hair going down to his waist. He looks like he could be involved into music industry or, be a part of a local singing band. I would assume he plays an electronic guitar.

00:06 – 00:10

Within 4 seconds of the video we can see the close up of the man’s face. His body moves i side to side in the dancing matter. He is also moving his mouth and it looks like he is singing. He is looking down below him what makes us think that he is playing with someone on the floor or way shorter than him. He is playing with a child.

00:12

At this second we can see a little girl. She looks like she is about 8 to 11 years old. She also looks like this man, so we could assume his is her father or uncle. She is repeating after him, his dance moves and a song they are singing to each other. She looks very engaged in this playing activity with the man. She looks very happy.

00:15

We finally see them both in the picture. They are standing facing each other and continue on with their dancing. The room looks very clean and colored in pink color. It looks like they are in the living room. We can see the pink, kids size bicycle on the bottom left. It has to belong to a little girl. She likes to ride it and stay very active.

00:21

In this part both a man and a little girl are sitting on the floor. She is holding a plastic keddle toy. She is about to pure some imaginary tea for the man and herself. Now it we can clearly assume that both of them are just having a good time playing with each other.

00:27 – 00:34

The screen picture changes to a black screen with #makeamoment writing on it. Now it all comes together that happy moments are in our control, so we could make those moments of happiness. Make happiness be happy.

Bibliography — Wisemann101

The recognition of the right to physician-assisted suicide is a protection of individual civil liberties

Wellman, Carl. “A Legal Right to Physician-Assisted Suicide Defended.” Social Theory and Practice, vol. 29, no. 1, 2003, pp. 19–38. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23559212.

Background: According to Carl, people should be given liberal rights to physician assisted suicide. He states that the rights should be recognized and everyone should be granted the right to choose what should be done to his or her health.

How I sued it: This book enabled me to really understand why there is need for everyone to possess a right to control what to happen to his or her life.

Myers, Richard S. “The Constitutionality of Laws Banning Physician Assisted Suicide.” BYU Journal of Public Law, vol. 31, no. 2, June 2017, pp. 395 408.EBSCOhost, libezp.lib.lsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=123908136&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Background: Richard Meyers discusses some withdrawals form treatment resulted to some establishments to terminate lives of terminally ill patients. Therefore, this did not approve euthanasia. He says there is a thin line between the right to physician assisted suicide and withdrawal form treatment. Myers explains some of the cases of withdrawal from treatments and how it has resulted to some laws banning assisted suicide.

How I used it: This book helped me to understand the present difference between the rights to physician assisted suicide and withdrawal of a patient form treatment. In addition, I have to learn that there are constitutional laws that applies in case laws need to be adhered to regarding assisted suicide.

Loveland, Kristen. “Death and Its Dignities.” New York University Law Review 91.5 (2016): 1279-1315.

Background: Kristen discusses the purpose of dignity and what it means to have a dignified death. She compares the topic with physician-assisted suicide and the aspect of death penalty. The aspect of rights to assisted suicide is compared to death with dignity and if the individual is allowed to die according to her or his wishes, it is made a dignified death. For instance, some patients might be affected form terminally ill diseases like terminally ill cancers; it is respectable to allow these people die in peace.

How I used it: The article made me to understand that there is a dignified death. In this connection. There is need to allow patients who request assisted suicide to be guaranteed the right to do so.

O’Rourke, Mark A., et al. “Reasons to Reject Physician Assisted Suicide/Physician Aid in Dying.” Journal of Oncology Practice, vol. 13, no. 10, Oct. 2017, pp. 683-686. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1200/JOP.2017.021840.

Background: Mark O’Rourke, M. Colleen O’Rourke, and Matthew Hudson worked together to generate some valid ideas and they argued against physician-assisted suicide (PAS). They argue that PAS has an adverse effect for the oncology experts. O’Rourke states that over the past decades, palliative care and hospice care have spread greatly.

How I used it: o used this material to identify various ways in which palliative care can be employed to assist patients to recover from the terminal illness and to reduce any present pain. Very few people can endure terminal pain; therefore, it is possible for hospice care to assist these patients to regain energy.

Gagnon, James D., and Thomas A. Preston. “Autonomy in Physician-Assisted Suicide.” The Hastings Center Report, vol. 30, no. 3, 2000, pp. 4–5. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3528036.

Background: Preston and Gagnon argues that there is no autonomy in patients; all that exists is the choice of a patient to have assisted suicide. They argue that instead of asserting a person’s autonomy PAD is an impediment to it, it is a false perception of creating clinical field of doctors. They claim that autonomy can never be absolute.

How I used it: I used this book to learn that indeed autonomy cannot be absolute for patients who seek physician-assisted suicide. We should learn to see physician Assisted Suicide in relation to normal death.

Quill, Timothy E., and Jane Greenlaw. “Physician-assisted death.” (2008).

Background: Quill, Timothy E., and Jane Greenlaw argues that physician assisted suicide is a significant topic, which has been discussed for a long time. Many governments have tried to implement laws that regulate assisted suicide but little efforts have been made. Grant other are arguing that the rights should net while other are advocating for them.

How I used it: I used this book to identify why there are contrary opinions on who should determine when an individual is to die. I also used it to learn various opinions on why some states have legislated assisted suicide laws and others have not.

Ardelt, Monika. “Physician-assisted death.” Handbook of death and dying 1 (2003): 424-434.

Background: According to Monika, there is need for considerable cases to offer physician assisted rights to patients. This case is only applicable and recommended to patients who are terminally ill and does not have any signs of recovering since they are enduring extreme pain, which is unbearable.

How I used it: I used this book to evaluate what is the best solution for patients who are experiencing unbearable pains from terminally ill patients.

Miller, Franklin G., et al. “Regulating physician-assisted death.” (1994): 119-123.

Background: According to Miller, there are medical technology advancements, which can be used to regulate cases of assisted suicide. Therefore, this should not be the only option to deal with patients with terminal illness.

How I used it: Through this article, I am able to identify means used to relieve pains in patients experiencing terminal illness. I have also discovered various ways to regulate PAS.

Veath, R. M. “Physician-Assisted Death.” JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association-US Edition 272.12 (1994): 979.

Background: According to Veath, it is important for hospitals to develop means of enabling palliative care to patients with terminal illness. With the incorporation of medical ethics, clinical medicine and medicolegal, experts are working to reduce instances of physician assisted suicide.

How I used it: I used this article to learn various approaches used for palliative care and maintenance of medical ethics.

Koch, Tom, et al. “Physician-Assisted Death.” The Hastings Center Report 33.1 (2003): 5-7.

Background: According to Koch, the right to physician-assisted suicide is recommended under two conditions. One when the idea is voluntary form the patient and secondly when the medical condition of the patient is not controllable. Therefore, if the patient is under pain, he or she can requested prescriptions that can assist in terminating the life easily.

How I used it: I used this article to learn when the right to physician-assisted suicide should be used

Grammar Exercise –Wisemann101

If primary caretakers have a negative attitude toward their child, it increases the risk that their child will grow up hostile towards others. And it’s not just aggression toward others – that results from child abuse; a large amount of children raised by abusive parents also harm themselves. The reason for this negative behavior is because the children don’t learn appropriate techniques for handling lifes disappointments. If you aren’t raised with coping skills, you are much likely to act ‘inappropriately’ than if you have developed more reasonable approaches. The affect of poor parenting as reported by Dr. Geoffrey Dahmer in “The Bully Papers”, is that everyone gets the child they deserve.

Open Strong — Wisemann101

Physician-assisted suicide is a situation where the physician assists the patient to end his/her life due to an uncontrollable health condition. When a patient is suffering a chronic disease, which cannot be healed at a particular time or cannot heal completely can request a specific prescription of drugs to end his life to avoid much-prolonged pain. In the scenario, the doctor intends to hasten the dying process of the patient knowingly (Copeland, 87). Sometimes the condition is commonly referred to as euthanasia, but it is different. Some laws and regulations have been set to address the issue of whether physician-assisted suicide is valid and lawful or not. There should be some palliative care and trials in all means before assisting the patient to die. This death shortcut should be the last alternative when all sorts of palliative care have failed to bear fruits (Copeland, 87). Some people have argued that patients have a right for physician-assisted death (PAD); they imply that patients should be allowed to decide what they wish to happen to their lives. This essay analyses the causal and effect relationship that will result in the case of granting people the rights to physician-assisted suicide.

My Hypothesis — Wisemann101

Something about civil rights.
homicide vs. suicide
people have rights
The recognition of the right to physician-assisted suicide is a protection of individual civil liberties.

Robust Verbs — Wisemann101

Original Paragraph:

There is a huge problem in Vancouver with heroin addicts committing crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts. The problem is that there is a large crime rate due to the addicts. It is obvious that addicts have a hard time getting through their day to day lives. Daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because of the fact that they are using. By heroin users being addicted, they will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. The types of crimes committed are those of breaking and entering as well as stealing. There are no limits to where they will go to retrieve this drug so that they can feed their addiction. The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin. It is only trying to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to. By providing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. This will also keep the heroin users out of the hospital. It is pointless that the hospitals have to deal with people that want to use bad drugs or unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills and hard to cope without the drug. This program gives people free heroin in the cleanest way possible. This will in turn fix the city but not the addiction that these people face.

Revised Paragraph:

Heroin becomes a negative ultimate in Vancouver. The crime rate within the city increases, so as heroin addicts to crime ratio. The number one priority for heroin addicts is the fuel their addiction and they accomplish that by committing crimes. There is a program called ” free heroin for addicts” that provides free dosages for addicts. The objectives of the program is to limit the number of addicts in the hospitals. For some, the negative part is that this program does not cure but keeps addicts to be addicted.

Enough About You — Wisemann101

Money seems to have a big role in society; one can’t do much or get far if they don’t have any. Money is valuable in different ways, even when people don’t see it physically. In today’s society, faith must be present in the government and in the banking system that people’s money is being handled in the proper manner; if not, then the money should be hidden under the mattress or around the house. We have no clue what happens in the banks, or how the money being taken care of. We always thought money was simple; people either have some or they don’t—that’s it. However, being introduced to this assignment, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts now seem similar. People don’t actually see their money being transferred. When people get paid, they aren’t handed cash, a physical check isn’t received, the money’s all directly transferred to the bank account, and peoplejust have to trust that they got more money.

Rebuttal — Wisemann101

Although physician-assisted suicide can be regarded as a sound practice, there are valid arguments against its application. First, the constitution recognizes the right to life, and when life and death are compared, life will take precedence (Sommerville, 2014). Allowing physician-assisted dying is a contradiction of the first liberty. It is also possible that legislating doctor-assisted suicide will be the first step on a slippery slope that will involve threats to the vulnerable as premature death is enacted as a cheap alternative for palliative care. This is true when one considers that a dose of euthanasia costs an upward of $50 and kidney failure treatment may cost an upward of $89,000 per year in the US (Steck, Egger, Maessen, Reisch, & Zwahlen, 2013). Unproductive and poor citizens will be targeted and this, again, goes against the right of every American to access quality healthcare. For some people, the contention is absolute and moral. Life is sacred and the suffering that comes with it till one dies confers its dignity and consequently, deliberately ending a human life is wrong (Sommerville, 2014). Finally, how long will it take before physician-assisted suicide becomes involuntary? When relatives approach a 92-year old man on life support and request them to sign the physician-assisted suicide forms, is that not indirectly violating their rights as they have no choice?

The views that physician-assisted dying is immoral and strips human dignity deserves some seriousness but, isn’t autonomy and liberty critical sources of human dignity as well? The right to choose certainly adds value to human life and people should not take a myopic view of ethics without analyzing the laws that make these ethics possible. In the society we live in where the state and religion are separated, it is queer to support the sanctity of life abstractly by exposing particular individuals to unbearable pain, suffering and indignity that comes from some terminal conditions (Denton, Levett, Bradley, & Thoma, 2016). Furthermore, evidence from countries and states where physician-assisted suicide has been enacted shows that the slippery slope contention with regard to widespread physician-assisted suicide is a myth. In the Netherlands for example, Gopal (2015) says that the process of doctor-assisted dying is bureaucratic and highly complex meaning that most applicants are rejected until it is established beyond reasonable doubt that the request is voluntary and will do more good than good. The Netherlands treats physician-assisted suicide as a criminal act if not carried out in the presence of an ethics expert, a legal expert, and the doctor. This implies that strict controls are needed, not blatant rejection, to ensure that this right is protected and not abused.

The argument that life should take precedence over death does not hold water when analyzed from an individual’s rights perspective. Just as people have the right to live with dignity, they also have a right to die with dignity. Medical practice is supposed to alleviate pain and unnecessary suffering in patients (Hoxhaj, 2014). Take the example of a single mother of teenage children having stage four cancer. Undergoing chemotherapy means that her hair falls off even as she consistently vomits while enduring the extreme pain that her children are supposed to watch as they take care of her. Presently, the medical technology we have cannot do any better than chemotherapy and radiotherapy to treat cancer (which generally cannot restore health in stage four cancer) and in the case of this mother, the continuing suffering only robs her of her dignity and those of her children. With physician-assisted suicide, such patients and their families get a right to a dignified end.

Anti-physician assisted suicide proponents argue that death is a natural process that should not be interfered with (Sommerville, 2014). However, doctors have and continue to implicitly exercise the right of dying on the patient’ behalf. Physician-assisted suicide fixes this by recognizing the individual civil liberty of the patient to choose and administer PAS. Doctors normally exercise this right by giving pain-relief in lethal doses or withdrawing treatment. As Steck, Egger, Maessen, Reisch, & Zwahlen (2013) notes, this is usually after talking to relatives, and even though doctors are normally investigated for overstepping this mark, they are rarely charged. Numerous people welcome this fudge given that it lays limits to PAS albeit with no need to articulate the contentious moral choices involved. This is unethical and unworkable given that the explicit choice to die that should be in the hands of a patient is left in the doctor’s hands. It is hypocritical and goes against the individual civil liberties as society pretends to shun PAS while tacitly and subtly allowing it without safeguards. Physician-assisted dying in its openness will fix this practice of deaths through nods and winks that contravenes individual rights.

The fear that physician-assisted suicide will be foisted on vulnerable individuals, bullied by rogue doctors, cash-strapped states, panicking relatives, and parsimonious insurers is unfounded. The Oregon experience, where a law allowing PAS has existed since 1997, points to the enhanced recognition of civil liberties (Gopal, 2015). Individuals who choose doctor-assisted dying are in fact insured, well-educated and getting the best palliative care. These individuals are motivated by the desire to maintain their own dignity, pleasure in life, autonomy, and the pain that comes with some conditions. These are factors that embody the civil liberties promise of most governments around the world.