Roebuck 1 Brittany Roebuck Professor Bertsch ENG.docx

Roebuck 1
Brittany Roebuck
Professor Bertsch
ENGL 1100
8 April 2018
Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal?
In 1997, Oregon became the first state to enact the Death with
Dignity Act (DWDA).
This act allows a person with a terminal illness to make the
decision to end their own life with a
lethal medication prescribed by a physician. Since then, only
four other states have legalized
physician-assisted suicide. I’m interested in this topic for two
reasons. The first being I am
currently making a career change and going back to school for
nursing. I ultimately want to
become a hospice nurse. I believe this is a very relevant topic in
the field of providing comfort
care to terminally ill patients. The second reason is because my
grandpa died of lung cancer and I

spent the majority of his last three months taking care of him.
His time between diagnosis and
when he passed was very quick but also very painful. I can’t
imagine if he had lived for another
year or more how difficult it would have been for him, myself,
and my family. We never
discussed the option of physician-assisted suicide because it is
not an option in the state of Ohio.
My grandpa had a passion for life and living it to the fullest.
Knowing him well, I think if the
option had been available, it would have been something he
would have considered. I wanted to
dive into this topic and find out why in the past eleven years
this law has only been passed in five
states. So, I decided to do some research of my own to find out
the answer to my question:
Should physician-assisted suicide be legal in every state?
When I started researching this topic, I found a lot of
opposition. There are many reasons
people are against physician-assisted suicide. One being
religious reasons. Religious
Roebuck 2

organizations argue that human life is sacred and someone
ending their own life, no matter the
circumstances, is morally and spiritually wrong (“Right to Die”
2). The American Medical
Association also objects to physician-assisted suicide. They
argue that physicians are meant to
heal not kill (2). Another argument states that allowing
physician-assisted suicide would leave
people with mental and physical disabilities open to being
coerced into ending their own lives. If
someone believes they may be a financial or physical burden on
their family, they may be
tempted to consider physician-assisted suicide simply to relieve
that burden. Some people think
instead of helping people die, doctors and policy makers should
be working on improving end-
of-life care (2). There is also an argument that minorities have
less access to health care and
receive less treatment as a result. This may make a pill to end
their lives feel like the only option
for them. (2)
As far as support for this movement, well, there’s less of it.
Supporters argue that if a

person has the right to refuse medical treatment, they should
also have the right to end their own
lives before they lose the ability to take care of themselves
(“Right to Die”2). People argue that
the government has no right to interfere with this choice. Other
supporters argue that it shouldn’t
even be considered suicide. If a person is diagnosed with a
terminal illness with less than six
months to live, this would simply be aiding in the natural dying
process. Supporters also argue
that they have no intentions of telling other people what to do
when the time comes, but if they
end up with a terminal illness that causes them to lose their
ability to take care of themselves and
causes extreme amounts of pain, they wat the option to end their
own lives with dignity. Simply
have the ability to be in control at the end of their life is what
most people who support
physician-assisted suicide are interested in.
Roebuck 3
I decided to conduct some research of my own so that I could
have enough information to

make a decision about my question. First, I wanted to know the
guidelines of the Death with
Dignity Act law in Oregon. In order to use DWDA, the patient
must be a resident of Oregon, 18
years or older, mentally competent, and be diagnosed with a
terminal illness with six months or
less to live (within reasonable medical judgement) (“How to
Access and Use Death with Dignity
Laws”). Two physicians must determine whether all these
criteria have been met. You must
make two oral requests to your doctor at least fifteen days apart.
You must also make a written
request witnessed by two individuals, one of whom is not
related to you, entitled to any portion
of your estate, or an employee of the health care facility caring
for you, or your physician. Once
your prescription has been filled, it is your choice to use it or
not. You must be able to take the
medication on your own. If at any time your disease progresses
to a point where you can no
longer administer the medication yourself, no one else can
administer it for you (“How to Access
and Use Death with Dignity Laws”).
The next thing I did was watch a documentary called How to

Die in Oregon. I wanted to
gain some perspective from people who were actually
considering using the DWDA. The
documentary mainly follows a woman named Cody Curtis who
was diagnosed with liver cancer
in November 2007. This was the type of cancer that has no good
chemo or radiation options. The
option was surgery to go in and remove as much of the cancer
as possible. After her first surgery,
she was in the ICU for fifty days. She had to learn how to walk
again and couldn’t do anything
on her own for six months. She talks about never wanting to be
in that position again. Her cancer
came back with no good options for treatment. She chose to use
the DWDA as her just in case
option. She says she doesn’t want an extra three months if they
are terrible. Her doctor discusses
coming to her decision to write Cody the prescription. She says
she understood it was the best
Roebuck 4
option for her patient to be able to have control. Towards the
end of Cody’s disease, the

equivalent of three 2-liter coke bottles worth of fluid builds up
around her liver, pushing on her
organs causing her tremendous pain and difficulty breathing.
Food no longer tastes good. She
can’t take deep breaths anymore and walking becomes more
difficult. She starts developing
infections in her body, causing her to spike fevers of 104
degrees. She goes from taking little to
no pain medication to taking 10 mg of IV morphine every hour
and is still in pain. Her doctor
explains to the camera how in order for Cody to die naturally,
she would require a hospital bed,
24/7 care, and help bathing and going to the bathroom. She also
explains how there is no way to
know how long it will take for her to die on her own. Cody
waivers back and forth with whether
she will use the DWDA drugs in order to help her die
peacefully. In the end she says, “I thought
I would just drift away but my body is so strong it’s clear that I
wasn’t going to drift away, it was
going to be excruciating and long.” (Richardson). She chooses
to use the medication to end her
own life, surrounded by her family and her doctor.
Another person talked about in the documentary is Randy

Nieldzielski. He is diagnosed
with brain and spinal cancer. This kind of cancer is very painful
and has a grim prognosis. He
tries surgery, months of radiation, three types of chemo, and
removal of the part of the brain that
controls balance, causing him to stumble and fall all the time.
When his cancer came back he
decided he was done with treatment. He tried moving to Oregon
but his doctor informed him he
wouldn’t live long enough to establish residency. He was in a
hospital bed 24/7 screaming in
pain, he was incontinent, he had double vision, and his tumors
made his eyes pop out so he could
no longer close his eyes. He made his wife promise she would
help change the law. The
documentary shows her journey to making physician-assisted
suicide legal in Washington.
Roebuck 5
After watching the documentary, I really got an understanding
of how painful it is for
people with a terminal illness at the end of their lives. It was
incredibly difficult to watch,

however it really gave me great perspective through the eyes of
someone suffering through a
terminal illness. I wanted to gather some information about pain
in terminally ill patients. I found
a study that was done to determine just that. 988 patients were
randomly selected from six US
cities. 50% reported moderate or severe pain. 29% wanted more
pain therapy (Weiss et al 2).
62% wanted their pain therapy to stay the same. 9% wanted to
reduce or stop their pain therapy
(2). There were many reasons for this including: fear of
addiction, dislike of physical or mental
side-effects, and not wanting to take more pills or injections.
Almost half of Americans die in
pain, surrounded and treated by strangers. A CNN/Time poll
shows that 7 out 10 Americans
want to die at home (Cloud et al 2). Unfortunately, more than a
third spend at least ten days in
intensive-care units. 3 out 5 physicians treating dying patients
say they have known the patient
less than a week (2). Many terminally-ill cancer patients die in
horrible pain and oncologists
don’t always know how to take that pain away (2).
When my grandpa was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, I

didn’t know anything about
physician-assisted suicide. It is not legal in the state of Ohio,
and therefore was not on our radar
as part of his comfort care plan. I spent almost every day with
my grandpa from the time of his
diagnosis to when he passed. I went to almost every doctor’s
appointment. What disappointed
me the most was how short his oncologist was with him. Every
time we would see him he would
say that my grandpa’s cancer was “treatable, not curable”. For
us, that was a difficult statement
to understand. He didn’t take much time to explain anything or
answer our questions. He also
spent the majority of our appointments pushing his clinical
study on us. I would have liked to
have found a different oncologist but my grandpa didn’t like to
ruffle feathers. I found a quote in
Roebuck 6
an article from Dr. Fred Meyers, the chair of internal medicine
at the University of California,
about doctors speaking more openly with patients about
diagnosis and prognosis. He said, “Be

honest and say, ‘I don’t think I can cure you, but I’m not going
to abandon you; you’re going to
get a good consultation, we’ll take care of your symptoms and
take care of your family’” (qtd. in
Cloud et al 7). I would have loved this approach from my
grandpa’s oncologist. I would have
rather him been honest with us even if that meant being blunt.
Next, I conducted my own research. I asked thirty people the
following question: if you
or a family member were dying from a terminal illness that you
knew would cause extreme pain
and suffering, would you want the option of physician-assisted
suicide? I asked them for a
simple yes or no answer with no explanation. I didn’t want
complicated answers, just yes or no,
would you like to have the option? Out of those thirty people,
only two said no. That’s less than
1%. I think the key part of the question is would you want the
option of physician-assisted
suicide. I don’t know that anyone could answer for sure if they
would choose to end their own
life in this situation, however having the option is important.
I dove into this question with an open mind. I wanted to weigh
the good and the bad of

the issue. I read the arguments for and against physician-
assisted suicide. I’m not a religious
person and though I respect the religious views of others, I
don’t think it’s fair to use that as a
reason to keep physician assisted suicide illegal. I also think the
argument about doctors healing
instead of harming is not a fair argument. Not everyone can be
healed. Death is a part of life and
I don’t belief doctors are doing their patients harm by helping
them keep their dignity at the end
of their life. I do agree with the argument that end-of-life care
should be better. However, I think
that is a completely different subject. The tipping point for me
was after I watched the
documentary. To watch a real person experience real emotion
and to see their struggle is where I
Roebuck 7
made up my mind. After the documentary, I had a hard time
seeing any other answer to my
question. I do believe physician-assisted suicide should be legal
in every state. When the DWDA
bill was passed in Oregon, Judge Brown said, “I do not know

what I would do if I were dying in
prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it
would be a comfort to be able to
consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn’t deny
that right to others.” (“qtd. in
Right to Die” 1) I couldn’t agree with him more.
Roebuck 8
Works Cited

Cloud, John, et al. "A KINDER, GENTLER DEATH. (Cover
Story)." Time, vol. 156, no. 12, 18
Sept. 2000, p. 60. EBSCOhost,
cscc.ohionet.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.as
px?direct=true&AuthTyp
e=cookie,ip,uid&db=a9h&AN=3538772&site=ehost-live.
Accessed 28 Mar.2018.
“How to Access and Use Death with Dignity Laws.” Death With
Dignity,
www.deathwithdignity.org/learn/access/#Eligibility.
Richardson, Peter, Melody Korenbrot, Greg Snider, and Max
Richter. How to Die in Oregon. ,
2012. Accessed 27 Mar.2018.
“Right to Die: Do terminally ill patients have a right to die
with the assistance of physician?”
Issues & Controversies, Infobase learning, 10 Nov.2016,
http://icof.infobaselearning.com.cscc.ohionet.org/recordurl.aspx
?ID=6342. Accessed 28
Mar.2018.
Weiss, Stefan C, et al. “Understanding the Experience of Pain in
Terminally Ill Patients.” The
Lancet, vol. 357, no. 9265, 2001, pp. 1311–1315.,
doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(00)04515-3.

http://icof.infobaselearning.com.cscc.ohionet.org/recordurl.aspx
?ID=6342
My question: How important is the family environment for a
children’s life?
1. Title: The Quality of Family Relationship for Sibling of
Children with Mental Health Problems, March 2016. Authors:
Ma, Nylanda, Rachel Roberts, Helen Winefield & Gareth
Furber.
Summary: In this article, the authors explore the impact quality
family relationships have on child mental health. The research
has been backed up with adequate literature review which builds
credibility. In essence,the authors explore different family
system theories that act as the foundation of the study. Other
than that the methods used in the review provide comprehensive
research. The different methods of data used in this study
reflect the quality of research. The table shows the
characteristics of included studies which gives a better scope of
the area of study. The systematic review confirmed that the
quality of family relationship affected children life. Despite
identifying various variables that affect children life, the
authors are not convinced by evidence to form any conclusions.
This is because there are multiple variations across siblings and
families. Nonetheless further research should be conducted to
make concrete conclusions
Response: The authors have done a marvelous work. It is no
doubt this source is helpful and broaden readers understanding
on the topic. The article explicitly takes about the quality of
family relationships and the quality it has on children with
mental issues. I could use the article to shed more light on the
subject which is greatly needed due to its long-term detrimental

impact on children. This can be utilized to focus the attention of
readers on the importance of quality family relationship given
the impacts it has on children’s life. This awareness creates an
opportunity for society to improve their relationship for
children with mental issues. This will help promote the quality
lifestyle.
2. Title: Effects of Family Structure on Mental Health of
Children: A Preliminary Study, July-Aug 2017. Authors:
Behere, Aniruddh Prakash, Pravesh Basnet, and Pamela
Campbel
Summary: In this article, the authors point out that family
structure is fundamental because it affects childrens’ mental
health. To make it clear the authors mention that in the 60s and
70s the rate of divorce was relatively high. Furthermore, there
was also a spike on single-parent families. The point the authors
are trying to make is that family structure greatly impacts the
well-being of children. Over the years, the authors reveal that
there has been an increase in change in family structure to about
28% as of 2003.
Response: As society continues to change its imperative to
understand the social not to mention the economic patterns.
Bearing this in mind, I am convinced the article is relevant to
my question. Specifically, the article brings us to speed about
the relationship between family structure and the well-being of
children. By far the article addresses a very important subject
that if understood measures and public awareness can be used to
prevent long-term detrimental impacts of unstable family
structure.
3. Title: Family Functioning and Psychological Health of
Children with Mentally Ill Parents, March 2019. Authors:
Wiegand-Grefe, Silke, Marlit Sell, Bonnie Filter, and Angela
Plass-Christl
Summary: This article explicitly shows the connection between
parental mental illness and its effects on the development of
children. The growing concern is that family’s dysfunctioning is
associated with frequent conflicts and cohesion. As pointed out

family functioning is at the center of proper development of
children. This, therefore, means that in families with food
functioning children are likely to have less psychological
problems and vice versa. The results in the study present a clear
picture of the connection between family life and mental health
problems.
Response: Looking at the outcomes and entirety of the literature
review, there is not a lot to agree or disagree with here. Indeed
the proof is in the facts. This confirms my doubts about my
question. Although it may not seem like so, family functioning
plays a very fundamental role in the children development. This
shows that it is high time parents and members of the society
became aware of family functioning as well as how they address
these issues. In a sense, there is a need to educate the public or
increase awareness about the dangers of the dysfunctioning
family to the children development.
4. NA
5. What have you learned about your overall topic after
reading these sources?
After evaluating these sources one thing is clear family
functioning is very paramount to child life. Based on the
outcomes from these sources, societal patterns like increased
rates of divorce have substantial effects on the development of
children. It is therefore the high time we appreciate the need to
encourage proper children development by facilitating a healthy
and positive environment.
6. In what specific ways could these sources help you answer
your question?
These sources perfectly relate to my question. My main concern
was about the quality of family and its relationship to children
life. The information in these sources provides detailed
information that gives a clear scope about the question.
7. Of all the sources you read, which do you think you'll use
in your paper about this question? Why?
The fact that all sources gave me exactly what I was looking
for, leaves me no choice but to use all of them. Source one

broadened my understanding about the quality of family
relationship to children with mental issues while the second
present the issue in another angle so does the third source. All
the sources will aid in my paper writing.
SOURCE SYNTHESIS
How this source relates to my question (e.g.: provides an
answer; gives history on the question; something else)
How info from this source relates to my own experiences,
observations, etc.
How this source has affected my own thinking about my
question (e.g.: changed my way of thinking; confirmed
something I already thought; pushed me in a new direction; etc.)
Ways I might use this source in my writing project (e.g.: as
background info; as support for a specific point I might make;
as a different way of viewing my question; something else)
Any other notes I want to make about this source
Give identifying info in the boxes below
Make notes in the boxes below
Source 1 (give author name, title, or some other identifier)

Roebuck 1 Brittany Roebuck Professor Bertsch ENG.docx

Roebuck 1 Brittany Roebuck Professor Bertsch ENG.docx

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

More from healdkathaleen

More from healdkathaleen (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Roebuck 1 Brittany Roebuck Professor Bertsch ENG.docx