The main aim in the practice of medicine and healthcare is to save lives through treating various conditions ailing the members of society. However, patients could be in certain conditions that are incurable or medically irreversible. Euthanasia is the practice of allowing extremely old patients, incurably sick, or the extremely injured patients to die through administration of a terminal dosage. The practice is also referred to as mercy killing. Euthanasia could also be administered through withholding or withdrawal of treatment. Besides, mercy killing could also be administered through injecting patients with overdose treatment. Euthanasia could be done voluntarily or involuntary. The decision of the patient is significant in the administration of voluntary Euthanasia, while in involuntary Euthanasia, the opposite is true. The legal spellings of various states guide the administration of Euthanasia services. My state is Oregon State. My state in one of the few states in the US which have legal provision for the practice of Euthanasia. The Oregon State constitution in 1999 formulated an act called The Oregon Death with Dignity Act (DWDA), which allowed licensed doctors to administer both passive and active Euthanasia to approved patients. Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) allows the terminally sick patients in my state to end their pain through death. However, the administration of Euthanasia in Oregon State only applies to Oregon residents (Rymowicz & Joshi, 2018). Besides, the patient should have attained the age of 18years and must be diagnosed with a terminal illness that kills within six months. The DWDA requires that before a patient is eligibility for the administration of Euthanasia in Oregon, various factors have to be fulfilled. One of the fulfillments is that the patient should present two verbal requests to a physician, which are separated by a period of 15days. Besides, the patients should provide a written request which is signed by two other witnesses. Before the prescribing of the Euthanasia procedure, the physician should confirm whether the patient has a terminal condition (Rymowicz & Joshi, 2018). Besides, the physician must recommend other alternatives to DWDA. Though not compulsory, the patient should also notify his or her next of kin about the choice. After meeting these demands, the patient is carefully prescribed with the Euthanasia dose. The most iconic recent Euthanasia case in Oregon is the case of Brittany Maynard, 29 years old, who relocated from California in 2018 to Oregon because of Euthanasia service. Maynard was suffering from terminal brain cancer and changed are location after she was diagnosed with the fatal ailment. Maynard decides to move to Oregon to apply for assisted killing when her pain matures to unbearable levels. After the registration of Maynard as an Oregonian applied for the administration of Euthanasia from her residents (Rymowicz & Joshi, 2018). Maynard had an advanced glioblastoma brain tumor, which only lasted for six months six her move to Oregon. The prescription was successfully administered according to the requests of the patient to save her from much pain. Euthanasia, to me, is a legally and ethically upright practice that provides an alternative to patients of ending their pain through death. Euthanasia is a justified practice because it relies on the request of a patient or close members of the family. Euthanasia is a decent human practice that saves fellow humanity from undergoing unbearable pain in extreme conditions that they cannot even recover (Kaplan, 1976). Though critics question the ethical credibility of Euthanasia based on the value for human life, however, the justification of Euthanasia is that it is administered when death is unavoidable. My perception of Euthanasia is justified by the fact that the procedure only provides a patient with the option of meeting death at reduced pain and undue struggles. The legal framework observed before the administration of Euthanasia ensures that the procedure is the medical option that a patient has in the face of a terminal ailment.
References
Kaplan, R. P. (1976). Euthanasia legislation: A survey and a model act. Am. JL & Med., 2, 41-99.
Rymowicz, R., & Joshi, P. (2018). Physician Assisted Suicide Influences Suicide Rates among Older Adults in Oregon. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 26(3), S113-S114.
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