Euthanasia Essay - The Need for Physician Assisted Suicide :: Free Euthanasia Essay

The Need for Physician Assisted Suicide Man is born with death in his hand. We all will die. We may be able to postpone death but we cannot avoid it. We all die of something, somewhere, somehow. Although we cannot avoid death, we can control the death caused by a terminal illness. We can determine how, when, where, and with whom we die. Right now at this time, there are over 10,000 patients in the United States that are in a permanent vegetative state. Also there are thousands of handicapped infants born each year. With the technology we have today, we are able to help people survive for long periods. About two million Americans die every year. About 85% of them are in an institution. 80% involve a decision by someone to try to prolong life or to let it go. It is estimated that around four of every five Americans will die of lingering, chronic illness, which cannot be cured but can be artificially prolonged. Odds are not in your favor to die naturally at home. The following are some thing to clear up any confusion about assisted suicide and euthanasia. Euthanasia is act of mercifully ending the life of a hopelessly suffering patient; taken from a similar Greek word meaning "easy or good death" Physician-Assisted Suicide - assisted by a qualified medical practitioner in fulfilling the wishes of a competent, terminally-ill patient to end his/her own life, usually by means of lethal injections. The difference between the two is during euthanasia is when death itself occurs, it's carried out by the doctor but in doctor-assisted suicides, the patient fulfills the final step of terminating his/her own life. "Passive" Euthanasia is ending a patient's life by withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments, and "Active" Euthanasia is causing a virtually painless death by means without which life would continue naturally, usually referring to lethal injections and lastly, suicide is the act of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally. A very well talked about doctor who assists in suicide is Dr. Jack Kevorkian. He has pointed out the benefits of assisted suicide. Some of those are that it reduces patient's suffering family and friends of patient. Dr. Kevorkian also asks his own patients to donate vital organs or undergo a critical medical experiment, which helps science, medicine, society, and the lives of others.