Physician Assisted Death, Should it be legal in all US Medicine Paper

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PAD Should Be Legalized in All States in the USA
Physician-assisted death (PAD) or suicide is the practice where terminally ill patients are provided with a lethal medication by a doctor to end their life when they want. In other words, it allows severely sick individuals an opportunity to decide when they want to die so that they can end their suffering. In particular, some diseases, such as cancer, are hard to cure or treat when they are in their advanced stages. That is the reason why some states have legalized PAD so that patients can die in dignity instead of suffering from pain, and they will never get better. Some of the states in the United States of America (USA) where PAD is legalized include Oregon, California, New Jersey, Vermont, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Washington, and District of Columbia. In Montana, the court is the one that decides whether a doctor should offer a lethal prescription for terminally ill patients. Only patients with terminal illnesses and who have a prognosis of under six months to live should be prescribed these medications. In states that have not legalized PAD, physicians can be prosecuted for prescribing lethal medications to patients who are terminally ill to hasten their death. PAD should be legalized for terminally ill patients with incurable diseases and who have a short period to live, usually under six months.
PAD is constitutional since it is the patients who choose when they want to die and not their physicians. Although some people get terminally sick and recover, others have diseases that cannot be treated. For example, a patient with a stage four cancer has a short period to live. The remaining part of life is usually painful, particularly when one understands that death is the final outcome. Psychologically, healing is a mental process. As such, many individuals with terminal illnesses and with a short period to live would prefer to take a lethal prescription to end their lives instead of suffering (Quill et al. 245). The primary thing that can give patient energy to overcome pain is when one knows that he or she will recover. Severely sick patients with a short period to live should be given a chance to decide whether they wish to die early or live for the remaining part of their lives, which is painful. These individuals have no hope of being cured, and even if they decide not to take lethal prescriptions, the situation never turns into their favor. For this reason, PAD helps such people to end their suffering since they die in dignity.
States that have implemented the Death with Dignity Act (DDA) did it at different times to help terminally ill individuals to have the freedom of dying with dignity. Oregon was the first state to approve the bill into law in 1997, California in 2015, Maine in 2019, Vermont in 2013, Washington in 2008, New Jersey in 2019, and Colorado in 2016 (CNN). As time goes, other states will join the list as they understand that there is no need to keep a terminally ill patient alive to suffer when he or she wants to die in dignity. Besides, not all people who are prescribed lethal medications take them. For instance, since the DDA was implemented in Oregon, up to February 2019, about 2,217 have received lethal prescriptions, and only 1,459 took them. In California, between January and December 2017, around 577 have been prescribed with a lethal dose, and only 374 ingested it. From 2009 to 2017, approximately 1,401 individuals have received a lethal dose, and only 1,364 deaths have been reported. In Colorado, in 2018, about 125 lethal prescriptions were written by physicians, and only 86 of them were dispensed by pharmacies (CNN). Notably, it is clear that terminally ill patients who get lethal prescriptions are not forced to take it, but they do it at their own time when they are ready.
PAD should be legalized in all states since it enables families to save money they would have used for the upkeep of their terminally ill members who cannot recover. Specifically, when one becomes sick, his or her family members do everything so that an individual can get high-quality healthcare services (Sumner). On that note, families use more money to support a sick person. Some of these people sell everything they have so that they can provide financial support to the ill individual. When it comes to terminally ill patients, some of them require the support of a life machine, which is expensive, particularly if the sick person is kept there for months. As such, PAD gives such patients the perfect alternative to dying in dignity and without leaving their families in abject poverty. Sandeep Jauhar, who is a cardiologist, said that PAD is a reasonable medical procedure that should be given to the terminally ill patients, particularly the elderly citizens (Gonchar). Many families never get tired to support one of their own who might be severely sick. Moreover, they cannot choose whether to end the life of their loved ones since it would be considered immoral. That is the reason why that decision should be left for the patient himself or herself to make to offset the financial burden of his or her family and be free from chronic pain.
For individuals to see the importance of legalizing PAD, it is vital to consider the following case study. Imagine if an 84-year-old cancer patient, Emma Schroeder, who has a life expectancy of under six months. Although the person has signed a directive against artificial life support, she is not satisfied with that decision. She feels as if her remaining part of life will only be full of suffering and that her life will be degraded (Ackerman). Despite the ability of the individual to breathe, she wants her physician to prescribe a lethal dose since she has nothing left to live for. Moreover, the person has accomplished many things she ever wanted in life and would be happy to die instead of staying alive to suffer from both cancer and old age. The above scenario is meant to change people’s perception of PAD. No state allows PAD without considering whether the patient who wants it has the possibility to recover or not. When states take into account whether to legalize PAD or not, they should consider Schroeder’s case. As such, terminally sick patients should be allowed to take lethal medications to end their lives instead of living in pain, isolation, or neglect from family and community members.
One of the primary things that many states that have illegalized PAD fail to understand are that legalizing physician-assisted suicide does not significantly change the rate of deaths. Additionally, not all terminally ill patients take this path. Some of these severely sick people ask for lethal prescriptions, and they never use them. For instance, in the USA, around 20% of doctors receive PAD requests per year, and about 5% of them comply. In Washington and Oregon, there exist about 1% of physicians who are licensed to give lethal medications (Emanuel et al. 85). These doctors are expected to ...