Assisted Suicide Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Assisted Suicide - Term Paper Example This question is of great value to the society as well as health care practitioners. An answer to this problem can be obtained through arguments that are in favor and not in favor of assisted suicide. According to Webster, assisted suicide falls under the umbrella of euthanasia (McDougall, 2008, p.1). The term euthanasia is referred to as good death, this term is mostly used when health care practitioners ends a patient life in order to help him avoid his unbearable sufferings. Euthanasia is divided into two kinds, active and passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia refers to activities conducted to put an end to a patient’s life; it is even recognized mercy killing. Majority of the jurisdictions around the world has pronounced mercy killing as illegal and has even referred to it as murder. Passive euthanasia refers to an act of allowing a patient to die even when there are available procedures to delay the death. Examples of passive euthanasia include instances when patients den y treatments that can delay the death of a patient, this kind of euthanasia falls under the category of natural death. Body Suicide is term used to refer to an individual’s act of taking his/her own life, assisted suicide is a term used to refer to the help that an individual has while he takes his/her own life. In case of assisted suicide, the healthcare practitioner or the person providing care to the patient provides a method to the patient to take his/her own life and the patient himself, willfully adopts the provided method to put an end to his lie and suffering. Assisted suicide can either fall in the category of active or passive euthanasia, whether an act of assisted suicide is active or passive euthanasia depends on the meaning attach to the assistance provided to the patient. Examples: a drug used to take life is prescribed by a doctor to his/her patient while the doctor knows that the patient wishes to put an end to his life, a nurse supplying a medicine to the pat ient and the drug is used can put an end to the patient’s life and a health care practitioner helping the patient in every step of taking his/her own life, steps include: placement of the drug in the patients mouth, and assisting him in swallowing the drug. Pro Assisted Suicide There are various reasons due to which patients opt for assisted suicide rather than bearing the pain before natural death. One of the reasons is the lack of proper care and inhumane activities conducted by the caregivers in health care centers. This means that individuals are not being properly cared for in healthcare centers due to which a patient’s pain increases and they demand for death. Factors that have been proposed that make an individual wish for assisted suicide are threat of being isolated, pain not being cured, depression, threat of loss, feeling of helplessness and concerns regarding family. Another reason that makes individuals wish for assisted suicide is that patients know that they are ultimately going to die even if they use technology and treatment to delay, thus they opt to die rather than being unable to control their death. Due to these disturbing reasons, patients lose hope and accept death as a better alternative. According to the judicial system of US, a patient or an individual (patient) has a right to decide whether they want to live or die, patients in America obtained the right to accept