Title: Reading: (CU3 M5) Other Opinions
Course: SkillsCom CMA 112 14.0 > Section: Credit Unit 3 Module 5

On this particular topic, it is important to acknowledge the viewpoints of others. Review the following statements made by other groups. Pay attention to those who do not agree with you and reflect on their right to have a different opinion.

- Group 1
- Group 2
- Group 3

If a loved one asked for your help with physician assisted suicide, would you support their request or deny them when they were in need? As tough as a question that is to answer, we, decided that we would support Lisa during this hard time. After many years of friendship, we didn’t consider us as being her friend, but more like a sister. Lisa asked us for support because she knew she could rely on her best friend. Isn’t that what best friends are for? We feel if we denied Lisa of her request to go on her own terms, then in some way we would be responsible for her continuing to live in pain.

It is not easy to say goodbye to a loved one, however, it is harder to watch them suffer when you could have helped them. While Lisa is suffering, so is her family. Every day they see her in agony and looped up on drugs. Her kids should not have to view their mother in such way. Lisa would want everyone, especially her family, to remember her when she was well, not about all the suffering she had at the end. They have already gone through this process before, only this time, there is no chance for recovery. It would be unfair to deny her a way to help her family begin to heal. It would be comforting knowing that we helped end her suffering and also aide her family to start their grieving process. As a friend, how can you let them continue living in pain when they have no chance for improvement? After all, if an animal were terminally ill and in distress, you wouldn’t think twice about relieving them from all the pain. When no medicine, doctors, or alternative methods of medicine can cure her, why should she be forced to continue to live in pain?

Symbolically, this would be her chance to “beat” cancer before it beats her.

Should a terminally ill patient be able to choose to end their suffering by Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS)? This is a question that has varying points of view, but who can make the correct decision? Lisa Montgomery found a lump in her breast even though she was otherwise very healthy. When Lisa went to see the radiologist to obtain the imaging results with her husband and lifelong friend, Lisa was given the news that she had a small, cell grade 3 tumor that had already metastasized according to the imaging. She elected to have a bilateral mastectomy along with chemotherapy, which she experienced side effects of loss of her hair, vomiting, loss of energy, and stamina. A year after Lisa’s diagnosis she was cancer-free. Just three months later to be told, once more, that the cancer was back, but now it was in her spine, lungs, lymphatic system, and there is nothing that can be done. Lisa is given a life expectancy of one to six months, and with this diagnosis the family decide to call on Hospice to help with her care. She also consulted with her primary care doctor, Dr. Winters and her oncologist, Dr. Needle. Both doctors have offered her the option of PSA. Lisa has stated that this is something that she wants, but has also asked her husband and her friend, which has been beside her through all of her medical concerns, for their opinion on her decision.

Lisa has been through so much and is taking so many different medications to receive pain relief to no avail. She continues to have a great deal of pain and discomfort even with taking the medications. Lisa spends a significant amount of time resting in bed, as her strength and stamina are diminishing with no expectation for it to improve. It seems that she is suffering a slow and agonizingly painful death. Lisa faces imminent death whether she chooses suicide or not, and suffering to the extent that she has, thus far, it seems rather cruel and inhumane.

We tend to put our pets to rest when they can’t be helped, why we would not have the very same opinion for our loved ones that find themselves in the very same situation. We fight for so many rights and freedoms to have a say over what we can do with our bodies, but we can’t choose when it’s our time to go, in a humane manner, with as much dignity as possible. Quantity of life does not equal quality, especially in this case. Lisa is only ‘existing’ between rounds of pain medication that is not really helping at this point. If she chooses to end her own suffering, then she should be allowed to. Since she lives in Oregon, and according to the Oregon Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) she has met all of the requirements to do so:

1. 18 years of age.

2. Resident of Oregon.

3. Capable of making and communicating health care decision for him/herself.

4. Diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months. It is up to the attending physician to determine whether these criteria have been met.

Death with Dignity Act. (2015, November 12). Retrieved January 5, 2016, from http://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Pages/index.aspx.

For the reasons stated above, we feel that Lisa should, with the support of her husband and friend, consider PSA as an option in her situation. As for so many others that find themselves in her same situation, right or wrong, it is what it is and ultimately, the decision should be left to the patient with the advice of the physicians and specialist that they trust with their life.

Would you be ready to choose life or death for your family and friends? As a group, we decided that the cons far outweigh the pros in considering Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS). There are many things to take into account when choosing a life changing decision like this one, but we narrowed it down and these are the 5 reasons our group chose.

Is the patient in their right mind? The patients that choose PAS could and are most likely depressed and fearful of the future when dealing with these terminal illnesses. These physicians are not psychiatrists and most likely have not diagnosed the mental health of their patients. In Oregon, a recent study of people who took their lives with assisted suicide revealed that one in every six suffered from depression. This shows that not everyone is in their right mind when making these decisions.

How many medical mistakes are made on a daily bases? There are a lot of mistakes made in the medical field and mistakes can also be made in diagnosis of the terminally ill. Botched suicides happen also when the drug given does not work and can cause extreme trauma. There are people who have been diagnosed terminally ill when in reality some of them have many more years to live but choose not to because of one haste diagnosis and the option of PAS.

Long term care for the terminally ill can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Does the government really want to pay for that? Probably not, that is why there is the option of PAS which in turn only costs $30-$50 for the drug, making for an extremely less expensive alternative although it should not be an alternative for anyone.

Lifestyle choice: Legalizing physician assisted suicide may endanger patients with severe disabilities, i.e. severe multiple sclerosis, and run the risk of making assisted suicide a lifestyle choice versus living with a very severe disability.

The mental and psychological affects that this would have on the family and friends in making this choice for them or with them is outrageous. We believe that if you are in that much pain that you have the right to refuse medical help and stop all treatments instead of taking it the extreme and choosing PAS.

In conclusion, PAS is not the way. There are many other options for the terminally ill and suicide should not be one of them.