HCM 540 HCM/540 HCM540 Final Paper

Death and dying is a stressful process, stressful not just for the person dying, but everyone involved. The act of dying has really changed over the years, from where we die to how we die, death is not how it used to be. Thanks to a lot of medical and technological advancements people are now living longer and better lives, which extends the dying process. We all wish to live long healthy lives and die naturally of old age, but sometimes that is not the care. Even though medicine is improving, there are still a lot of illnesses that cannot be treated or prevented. Which raises the topic of assisted suicide of euthanasia, if someone it suffering from a terminal illness what are their option? Do they have a right to consciously end their life? Euthanasia, also known as assisted suicide, physician-assisted suicide (dying), doctor-assisted dying (suicide), and more loosely termed mercy killing means to take a deliberate action with the express intention of ending a life to relieve intractable (persistent, unstoppable) suffering (Nordqvist, C., 2016). The idea of assisted suicide goes as far back as the 5th Century B.C.-1st Century B.C. Where it was then acceptable to autonomously end your life. Today in the United States, assisted suicide is legal in only five states (Colorado, California, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington). Forty-four states consider it illegal, and three states (Alabama, Massachusetts, and West Virginia) prohibits it under the common law. There are also many countries around the where it is considered illegal to help someone end their life, regardless of the circumstances. Assisted suicide is and has been a controversial topic. Differences in moral, ethical and religious background evoke different emotions and interpretation which leaves people torn between pro or con. This paper will go through the complexity and ethical dilemma of dying. As mentioned above assisted suicide is refers to when a patient intentionally and willfully ends his or own life with assistance from a third party (Morrison & Furlong, 2014). Active euthanasia is when
3 Final paper a patient autonomous request the administration of a lethal agent to relieve them from their suffering. In this paper both euthanasia and assisted suicide will be used interchangeably though there are minor differences between them. The other term I would like to mention before delving deeper into the topic is Physician assisted death (PAD). PAD is as the name implies, death assisted by the physician. This assistance is by many different levels of involvement from prescribing medication to providing information that can kill. PAD and euthanasia differ in one major way, in euthanasia, the medical practitioner dispenses the lethal amount directly into the client, and in PAD the physician just provides the agent for to the client. Also, euthanasia comes in two forms: passiv