Term Papers on Patient Assisted Suicide: Whose Example Should Be Followed?

Term Paper Title	Patient Assisted Suicide: Whose Example Should Be Followed?
# of Words	1283
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.13

Patient Assisted Suicide: Whose example should be followed?

     There are many different methods of approaching patients facing the end of their lives. Since technology has increased the ability to sustain life longer, patient assisted suicide has become an increasingly more popular avenue for doctors to explore.   This topic, since it deals with the power over life and death, touches on some of the deepest of human feelings.  The argument over whose or which approach is most viable can become a heated one and could never be solved with one broad stroke since it deals with individuals on such an intimate level.  Both Dr. Jack Kevorkian and Dr. Timothy Quill have there own views on which methods are correct, some of their views are similar and some are quite different.  Both doctors agree that certain people at the end of their lives shouldn't have to suffer any more than they have to, but they differ in the methods in which lead up to the decision process of choosing euthanasia or not.
     The belief that individuals facing terminal illnesses and or certain death in a short period of time should have the "right to die with as much control and dignity as possible" is shared by both Kevorkian and Quill (Quill 434).  There are many cases in which people become sick and life becomes an endless episode phasing between unconsciousness and severe pain. There are also cases in which an individual becomes diagnosed with a disease with no definite cure and faces a road of painful treatment and emotional heartache .  One example of this was Diane's case.  Diane was one of Dr. Quills patients who was diagnosed with "acute myelomonocytic leukemia", a disease with a 25% survival rate with treatment and certain death in at most a few months without treatment (Quill 434).  This disease is very painful to say the least.  She was faced with the decision between a painful treatment process or death.  Diane chose to let the disease run its course, this way she would be able to say her final good-byes to her family.  Her only worry was that in the final stages of her death, would she be able to control herself, or would she slip away in agony.  To avoid this she asked Dr. Quill if he would give her a prescription for barbiturates so that when the end was near she would be able to control her death.  At first, Quill was apprehensive about her decision, but after careful thought he decided that assisting in her suicide would be the most beneficial course of action for her and her family (Quill 437).  He realized that the treatment of the leukemia would be very painful and traumatic, and that the pain she was certain to face was unnecessary.  His belief is that as a doctor, it is his responsibility to serve his patients in whatever way he feels most beneficial.  He states his opinion most clearly when he says:
          "The Hippocratic oath really has two dimensions.  One is
            to preserve life and the other is to relieve human suffering.
                        Usually you are trying to do both but in end of life care you
            take relief of suffering as your priority, and you may use
            methods that may indirectly shorten life.  People have a sense
                        of who they are and what's important in life and want to die
                        with that in tact."(Quill 138)
It seems as though the essence of his work is to maintain an individual's quality of life even if it means death.  In Diane's case, he risked his career and a possible jail sentence in order to make sure that he helped her in whatever way was best, and so he would be able to live with himself.
Dr. Kevorkian shares the belief that a patient should in certain cases be allowed to chose assisted suicide if it m...

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