To die with dignity is to request death with a solemn aptitude and peace of mind without the misery of pain ending moments during the final days of life. This process is identified as a physician-assisted death. There are many state legal formalities that need to be followed precisely. This is recognized as the Death with Dignity Act, requiring curtain terminal illnesses leaving the patient with six months or less of life. Following these formalities, euthanasia is carried out in two waiting periods, the first being verbally requesting to enact the process, then next filling and using the prescription while carrying out the rest of the patient’s final days. Now to be accepted in beginning this process, a specific illness has to be terminal and reviewed by two physicians on the patient’s given residency, prognosis and mental competence. Currently in the U.S. there are five states with legalized laws following the Death with Dignity Act, and those states are Oregon, Vermont, Washington, California and Colorado.
Physician-assisted death is commonly seen in people who are suffering from malignant tumors that have accumulated throughout the body, leaving a very short amount of time left with friends and family. This process enables the patient to have a more subtle way of passing rather through an excruciating route, and a prime illness recognized for enabling this process would be glioblastoma multiforme. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a malignant tumor found in the brain that starts in the astrocytes which is within the supportive tissues of the brain and spreads rapidly, leaving very short notice on life remaining. A patient suffering from this horrific disease may typically show symptoms of continuous headaches, severe nausea, seizures, vision loss, vomiting, personality changes, and depending on the location of the tumor it may include pain within the body. Patients who suffer from GBM will go through several treatments reason being the tumors will obtain multiple different cells in which they can withstand the varying therapies. A few treatments for this disease will be surgery to remove as many tumors as possible, followed by chemotherapy to slow the growth of the tumors along with radiation. GBM is currently a median survival rate, meaning half the patients suffering from this disease show improvement, while the other half get worse. Depending on the stage the patients in will determine the amount of time remaining for life, which is typically two to three years. Now given that patients older with a more aggressive case are estimated fourteen and a half months with a survival rate of thirty percent within those months. Formation of this disease is still unknown, but the form of cancer can be related to genetics.
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Oregon of the five states was the first state across the nation to declare the Death with Dignity Act which was enacted in 1997. That being said following the twenty-one-year history of patients enabling the process of physician-assisted death, there have been a vast amount reported enabling it. A specific case report which was not too long ago really got the attention of the public and widely opened up the idea of this given option of euthanasia from a physician. Brittany Maynard, who was diagnosed with the terminal brain cancer in January of 2014 and then informed in April she only had six months left to live, decided to enable the process of euthanasia. I chose her report because it caught the public’s eye on the whole meaning of dying with dignity, along with an immense amount of articles written over her final days. She stood strong in her decision in which carried out with the acceptance and love for cherishing her final days with friends and family. She died in November of 2014 at the age of twenty-nine, leaving her legacy with what this option of death can do and the reason on why this can be viable for terminal disease across the spectrum.
Taking into consideration the emotional turmoil it causes on choosing this route of euthanasia, the outcome can tend to be brighter. If I were to be diagnosed with terminal brain cancer being glioblastoma multiforme and given a life expectancy of six months or less with very few options being carrying out treatments, surgery and watching the medical bills multiply immaculately, personally, physician-assisted death would be my choice. Reason being this option would for one be because I don’t want to watch my family witness me deteriorate in some sense of my well-being and life. Secondly, the amount of bills that’d fall right back onto them within months after my passing would be very difficult to overcome due to financial stability and the amount these treatments cost. Thirdly, making the choice of my death with the assistance of my physician would give me the privilege of beating cancer before it beat me, and I firmly believe that right there would be the justifying remark of the whole process. Ultimately making this choice would relieve a lot of the total emotional destruction. Being able to have this option available not only helps patients, but also there surrounding support by allowing the remaining time spent together be cherished maximally, rather through watching the hardships physically being done and emotionally.
Dying with dignity gives you an alternative route by being able to choose death in a manner of beating the disease. This decision has a huge impact on the patient’s surrounding friends, family, and other loved ones, but in the grand scheme of the given particular situation it justifies what the patient's desires are by giving them the option. There is a tremendous amount of acts and trials to end all physician-assisted deaths, like the ‘Death Talk’ which was a case against the process back in September of 2015, but in reality, this is ultimately up to the patients and their remaining amount of life. That is my point of view on the whole process, and a personal choice I strongly believe in. To die with dignity is to request death with a solemn aptitude and peace of mind without the misery of pain ending moments during the final days of life.
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