Doctor Assisted Suicide

Adonis Duarte

ENC 1102

Prof. Noonan

18 Mar 2013

Group Project

Doctor assisted suicides should be allowed

Everyday hundreds of people are being diagnosed with a terminal illness and are

giving a shelf life of a couple months to a few years. Terminal illness is a term used to

describe a disease that cannot be cured or treated and that is expected to result in the

death of the patient within a short period of time. It is human nature for a patient that is

diagnosed with a terminal illness to start a vigorous fight for his or her life. They will take

a cocktail of medication every day, they will go many radiation and or chemical treatment,

some will volunteer in a research program hoping that they might help find a cure. A

couple of months have passes since the patient has been diagnosed, the patient has

become dependent of the medication, the trips to the hospitals, appointments with various

specialists and the exposure to radiation is starting to take a toll on the patient’s body, he

or she starts contemplating suicide. However, they do not want to die that’s why they are

fighting to live since the start, just that some people are stronger than others and some

will commit suicide to get away from their misery. Working for the vascular department at

the University of Miami Hospital, I interact with terminal ill patients on a daily basis and I

can easily distinguish the patient that is a fighter and the patient, that in a couple weeks,

we will be receiving a death certificate with suicide being the cause of death. For this

reason is why I think doctor assisted suicides should be allowed. When somebody is

willing to die and accepts the thought of him or her taking their own life, there is almost

nothing anyone can do and I think it will be a less emotional impact on the family if they

are informed and prepared with an assisted suicide that having to find there love one

dead by another cause. Doctor assisted...