Physician Assisted Suicide - Essay Example

SMARTHINKING's E-structor Response Form (Your marked-up essay is below this form HOW THIS WORKS: Your e-structor has written overview comments about your essay in the form below. Your e-structor has also embedded comments [in bold and in brackets] throughout your essay. Thank you for choosing SMARTHINKING's OWL; best wishes with revising your paper! Welcome back to Smarthinking's OWL, Arcenia. My name is BonnyY, and I will be helping you with your research paper today. *Strengths of the essay: Your passion towards this topic is apparent in your tone, which is so important in an effective argumentative essay. Organization: Arcenia, has your professor asked that you organize your essay with headings The reason I ask is because I am not sure why you have titled the first section of your essay 'proposal." Is the purpose to propose the topic and arguments supporting your essay in this section If so, you have done just that, but it is rather long based on the overall length of your essay. Also, you refer to your essay with statement like, "A number of sources will provide an overview" and "Some sources represent the idea" Again, if you are required to include a lengthy proposal where your purpose is to share where you want to go with your essay, this is completely acceptable. On the other hand, these phrases seem trite. Readers rarely appreciate statements where the author refers to their essay. For example, phrases like, "This essay will reveal the mysteries of genetic testing" seem mundane when the author can simply state the obvious, such as, "Genetic testing, though a seemingly mysterious concept, is a fascinating study worth understanding." Do you see the difference The content is the same but the wording of the second creates more interest. Arcenia, one thing your proposal is still missing is a clear thesis statement that provides us with the specific direction your essay is headed. Yes, we can tell the essay is about physician assisted suicide and your position is against it, but you don't offer your supporting arguments yet. I would like to read a thesis that better clarifies not only your main idea but your supporting ideas as well. Also, I think you should define assisted suicide in your introduction so your readers will have a clear understanding of what it entails before moving into your reasons for opposing it. For instance, some people may think it only pertains to pulling support systems from patients who will die without them (such as feeding tubes or breathing machines). Content Development: Your previous e-structor has inserted some questions within your previous draft and has included some comments that have you yet to address. I urge you to read over your previous submission and make those recommended changes because they will strengthen your essay. If you are not sure how to do this or what exactly you need to add, you can always talk to an e-structor in a Whiteboard session for additional help. My added suggestion is to always explain why you have chosen each piece of research for your essay. What point is it supporting and how does it relate to your thesis *Arcenia 1000740 has requested that you respond to the Grammar & Mechanics: Most of your grammatical mistakes seem to be simple typos that you will be able to easily correct once you proofread your essay. One suggestion is to reread your essay backwards, that is one sentence at a time beginning with the last sentence. This technique sometimes helps writers discover errors because they are not focusing on the content. Also, when you have time, let your essay sit for a day or two, and then return to proofread it by reading it out loud or having someone read it to you. Many times, when we read the work that we have just recently written, our minds see what we meant to type rather than what is really on the paper. Therefore, when we have time to let a finished essay sit for at least a day or two, we can come back to it and discover grammatical errors that we overlooked the day we originally wrote the essay. *Arcenia 1000740 has requested that you respond to the Sentence Structure: Your sentence structure is fine, Arcenia. Summary of Next Steps: Review your previous e-structor's comments and make those suggested changes pertaining to content. Elaborate upon your research by explaining how it supports your thesis. Determine the purpose for your proposal section to make sure you have written it properly. Consider revising your thesis so it is more specific. Carefully proofread your final draft. Thanks for sharing your essay with me, Arcenia. I enjoyed reading it and hope my suggestions are helpful as you continue to revise your essay. If you have further questions, don't hesitate to return to our OWL or visit an e-structor in a Whiteboard session. -Bonny Find additional resources in SMARTHINKING's online library: You can find more information about writing, grammar, and usage in SMARTHINKING's student handbooks. You can visit the SMARTHINKING Writer's Handbook or the SMARTHINKING ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) Writer's Handbook. ******************************************************************************* Please look for more comments in your essay below. Thank you for visiting SMARTHINKING. We encourage you to submit future essays. ******************************************************************************* Proposal Among all the right to life issues in America today, there is one that it seems many people don't want to talk about. No, I'm not talking about abortion, or stem cells, but the blatant abuse that is known as assisted suicide, and any doctors involved in this activity should be prosecuted severely. [Avoid first person point of view and contractions because they are both too casual for an academic research paper.] A number of sources will provide an overview of arguments for and against assisted suicide by analysing evidence from the Netherlands and Oregon where it has been legalized. The argument against euthanasia is that human life is of absolute value; it is unacceptable to kill intentionally. While the main focus of the sources is on the law, they also widely represent moral aspects of the problem. Some sources represent the idea that assisted suicide will result in the loss of trust of a doctor, because the main maxim of a physician is to do no harm to a patient. One more argument against can be based on the fact that the 1990 survey in the Netherlands showed that only 18 percent of all euthanasia was reported to the government with the proper documentation, the number has since risen to 41 percent in 1995. [Because this information is not common knowledge, it needs to be documented with a parenthetical citation.] Two risks that cannot be managed in the legalization of assisted suicide are the patient's feelings and medical misdiagnosis (Bitten, 1998, p. 438). Misdiagnosis, such as the example above, is inevitable, no matter how careful medical personnel act. Bitten (1998) reports, "The first is the risk of medical mistake, including a misdiagnosis of competence of competence or terminal illness" (p. 438). Death is final. A medical mistake resulting in an assisted suicide cannot be reversed once the patient dies. One of the persuasive examples is one which describes a man who suffered a kidney disease but was refused to be treated with euthanasia. The diagnosis turned out to be mistaken and he felt better in some time, spending about a year with his family (Humphrey, 2006). This shows just how careful a doctor must tred the line, and how their decisions may not always be the wise ones. Legalized assisted suicide can go terribly wrong, even pro-assisted suicide advocates realize this. One researcher, Humphrey, (2006), an active member of the right-to-die campaign is one who expresses the difficulties of euthanasia for the mentally troubled. The main idea is that although mental illness can be as painful as physical, it is much more difficult to define the necessity and possibility of assisted suicide in every single case. For example, it would be much more difficult to assist suicide for somebody who is in a deep depression. The author claims that the idea of assisted suicide, especially for mentally ill, meets enormous opposition from doctors, church leaders and politicians. Humphrey (2006) advocates for legalized assisted suicide, but does not necessarily want legalized assisted suicide for everyone. It is important to notice that mental illness as well as a physical one may cause tremendous pain, thus it's much more difficult to define whether or not the patient can be healed. Even those standing for assisted suicide in general claim that euthanasia for mentally ill people is less studied aspect and for now should be prohibited. (Humphrey D., 2006). Release or Slippery Slope The physician-assisted suicide can be defined as medical doctor helping a patient to die by prescribing a lethal overdose. Although the drug can act passively or actively, it doesn't matter, as it is resulted in killing of a man or woman. Life is priceless and invaluable gift, which cannot be taken away or given away. That is why, even a person in pain and illness, nobody should commit suicide or ask for help in it. By proposing a physician to become a killer, it goes against every physician first duty; to do no harm. Is it possible to be sure that every single example of euthanasia will not spread to the disabled adults who are not terminally ill and cause a so-called "slippery slope", when the financial costs of treatment or pressures from the family will cause the decision of the patient to have physician-assisted suicide performed. Somerville (2002) asserts there is "minimal or minimum extension of' life that is not worth having or not worth the cost involved. Semantics can be used to justify withholding treatment" (p. 19). Somerville (2002) also predicts "overusing euthanasia in the future, were it introduced, would come from an overemphasis on communal claims (for example, cost saving in health care) at the expense of individual rights" (p. 42). Expenditures would become a factor whether someone lived or died. Is there really a price tag one can put on life One more reason against it is that mysterious are the ways of the Lord, and nobody, even the best doctor can claim to know exactly that there is no way out. It often happens that a man or a woman who failed to commit a suicide later thanked God for the lesson he or she had. Why deprive ill people of this right (Gorsuch, 2006). In the Netherlands, where assisted suicide is legalized, the issue is not about religion. Foley (2002) states "The Dutch, he points out, tend to equate morality with religion, and most see themselves as nonreligious" (p. 120). This quote shows that the decision does not need to be a religious one, but simple a matter of moral character. Anti-assisted suicide advocates normally take religion more into consideration, than the pro-assisted suicide. Euthanasia History Another nation in the very near past legalized euthanasia for the very ill, The Third Reich. At first, only the very ill were assisted to die, then it became who the government determined were unworthy to live. People with "Low or merely mechanical productivity, irremediable illness, or the duration of institutionalisation sufficed effectively to sign a person's death warrant" (Burleigh, 1997, p. 124). Treatable conditions were then cause for euthanasia, such as Bipolar (Manic Depressive), loss of limb, even a toe, any mental illness, Haemophilia, and many other illnesses. The Nazis used the same arguments as the pro-assisted suicide advocates of today. The Nazis even justified euthanasia through religion. Burleigh (1997) reports: Although the Creator had certainly imposed illness upon the destiny of mankind, the most severe forms of idiocy and the totally grotesque disintegration of the personality had nothing to do with the countenance of God. (p. 134) Once assisted suicide is legalized it is only a matter of time until these mistakes are all fully realized, and it may be too late to save people who had other opportunities. Conclusion Too many factors show that assisted suicide is wrong. From a logical perspective, as well as medical malpractice or misdiagnosis, to even assisted suicide being implemented by a patient influenced by impoverished relatives, one can see the myriad of things that can go wrong. A doctor assisted suicide goes against the Hippocratic Oath. How can a doctor go against the Hippocratic Oath by assisting in a suicide, and then treat other patients by following the Hippocratic Oath Religiously suicide is wrong in many different cultures, so assisted suicide would be frowned upon by many in the religious community. Life is precious; it should not have been decided by mere mortals. References Battin, M. P. (1998). Physician Assisted Suicide. New York: Routledge. Burleigh, M. (1997). Ethics and Extermination: Reflections on Nazi Genocide. Humphrey, D. (2006). Why assisted suicide for the mentally troubled is so problematic. http://www.assistedsuicide.org/as-for-the-mentally-troubled.html Foley, K. M. (2002). The Case Against Assisted Suicide: For the Right to End-Of-Life Care. United States of America: John Hopkins University Press. Gorsuch, N. (2006). The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Somerville, M. A. (2002). Death talk: The case against euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Canada: Mcgill-Queen's University Press. Read More