Assisted Suicides :: essays research papers

Assisted SuicidesThe Washington Post September 2-8, 1996Picture yourself in this situation. You go to the desexualize for a routinephysical. You hold back fine. You feel good. All those exhausting workouts at thegym are finally starting to pay off and you actually stuck to that low fat, highvitamin diet youre doctor recommended. You have never felt better. You areessentially the epitome of a healthy, fit hu gentleman being. Then, out of nowhere,you are diagnosed with a disorder of the nervous organization accompanied by chronicfatigue syndrome. The menacingness is permanent and in that location is no cure. It will onlyprogress and worsen with time, and all you can do is wait. What would you do?If you were 42-year-old Judith Curren, a nurse and mother of two smallchildren, youd be in close contact with the infamous suicide assessor, Dr. JackKevorkian, a.k.a. "Doctor Death," discussing your "options." However, harmoniseto an editorial published in The Washington Post, entitled "38 AssistedSuicides," m any people believe that when it comes to matters such as life anddeath, there are no options. The decision to live or die is made by God.Judith Curren didnt agree. With the assistance of Dr. Kevorkian, she died andthe retired pathologist presided at his 38th assisted suicide, fairly confidentthat he will not be prosecuted or even suffer public disapproval.Many of the people who have sought out Dr. Kevorkian have been terribly illand suffering, with no hope of long-term survival. Their stories offeredexamples that built public sympathy for this cause. But from the beginning,even among observers who believe that the desperately sick should be given helpto die, there have been questionable cases. For example, a woman in her fiftiesallegedly suffering from early Alzheimers disease was fit enough to play tenniswith her self-aggrandizing son shortly before dying. Another-said to have had a painful,progressive illness-was found to be free of disease by the county medicalexaminer.The article argued this point, "Is it in any way merciful, compassionate,or healing (a favorite word of Kevorkian fans) to assist in the suicide of amiddle-aged woman who is tired and depressed and married to a man whom sherecently accused of attacking her and who then delivers her to Dr. Kevorkian?Pain is controllable. Depression and fatigue can be ameliorated by drugs.Violent husbands can be prosecuted and divorced. Suicide in such a case isunreasonable. A doctors help in that course is unconscionable."I had mixed feelings on this editorial because I take into consideration twain sides of the argument.