In California, the End of Life Option Act (ELOA), which would allow an individual who meets certain requirements, and is diagnosed with a terminal illness by their attending physician, to choose to request a prescription medication intended to prematurely end their life, should be passed (California, State Department of Public Health). ... There is opposition coming from people with concerns regarding doctor's ethics, as well as religious groups and disability activists who believe that assisted suicide suggests that the lives of disabled, old, and ill individuals are not worth living. .....

• Word Count: 2139
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It is an act that mercifully ends the life of a hopelessly suffering patient. The Greek word "euthanasia" means "good death" and should be an option for patients who have no hope of recovering or leading healthy lives ("Euthanasia: Some General Information"). Physician-assisted death involves help from a medically qualified practitioner in fulfilling the wishes of a competent, terminally ill patient to end his/her own life. ... Many patients complain their doctors, simply due to their Hippocratic oath, rely on the standard life-prolonged medical technologies. ... They feel prolonged life si...

• Word Count: 899
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Society's interest in life preservation should be lessened when a person is terminally ill and has strong desire to end their life. ... Modern medicine has been enormously successful in saving and extending lives. No one can reasonably deny this, but it exacerbates a problem which has always been an issue, such as how do you treat those patients who are alive, but are not living lives they think are worthwhile, and have no prospects for anything better. There is a strong case for allowing persons who are facing intractable pain or indignities in the final stages of their lives to determi...

• Word Count: 1151
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Physician assisted suicide occurs when a physician provides a patient with the means to end his or her life, which is usually a prescription for a fatal dose of drugs. ... Those who will die within hours or a very few days will soon obtain relief without taking any action, and those who are on life-prolonging intensive care can often end their lives simply by refusing continued treatment. ... The delusion is we don't own our own bodies and lives. ... She took her life on November 01 2014. ... Statistics on Oregon shows that since the Death with dignity act became law more than 1100 peopl...

• Word Count: 1576
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Put simply, it is a substance provided by a doctor to end a person's life. ... Imagine your life as it is right now. ... The opponents of the legalization of physician-assisted suicide believe that the role of a doctor is not to recommend taking away your own life voluntarily, but instead to always to save patients' precious lives by providing the best possible medical treatment available. These people claim that passing a law legalizing physician-assisted suicide violates the principle that doctors should devote themselves to save patients' lives instead of recommending suicide...

• Word Count: 1102
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Mood Disorders Each person may experience periods of sadness and anxiety from time to time in their lives. For most of us these periods of depression pass and we are able to continue with our daily lives, but when we loose our ability to live a healthy lifestyle this is when there may be experiencing mood disorders. ... The people see suicide as a merciful exit from their miserable lives. There is no one cause of depression, there is a point in a person's life when psychological, environmental, and biological, problems push him or her over the threshold for clinical depression. ... ...

• Word Count: 614
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Since both Dwight and the man share moments of false beliefs, Shute and McCarthy display that the devastating lives are so difficult to bear that temporary escapes from reality must occur. ... Shute demonstrates how each character has enough time and resources to ensure that the last days of their lives are fulfilling. ... The characters in McCarthy's novel reflect upon their mistakes and live according to their will instead of fearfully escaping fatal attacks or death from starvation every moment of their lives. ... With that in mind, survival by finding water, food, and shelter creat...

• Word Count: 1772
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Physical pain is not the only reason for wanting to end ones life. ... Euthanasia has become a widely accepted part of their culture and their end of life care. ... Terminally ill patients suffering extreme distress would seldom have the knowledge, the means or the capacity to end their own lives, particularly if they"re confined to a hospital bed. The legalization of voluntary euthanasia would prevent some patients prematurely ending their lives; because they fear they will not be capable of making the choice later, and would be forced to suffer painful or undignified deaths. ... This law sim...

• Word Count: 2439
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

A psychiatric disorder is a mental or behavioral pattern or anomaly that causes either suffering or an impaired ability to function in ordinary life, and which is not a developmental or social norm. ... Thought processes may also be disorganized and the motivation to engage in life's activities may be blunted. ... Most people with schizophrenia suffer from symptoms either continuously or intermittently throughout life and are often severely stigmatized by people who do not understand the disease. ... While schizophrenia is a chronic disorder, it can be treated with medication, psychologic...

• Word Count: 825
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The young adolescents find their lives too painful to endure. ... Young people are dealing with multitudes of social problems, and just when they really depend on or need their families the most, many parents are dealing with mid-life transition crises and may be as confused as their children. ... Teenagers must have three major perceptions in order to feel capable and in control of their own lives. ... Tragically, many adolescents feel they are not able to cope with these ordeals and they then become desperate enough to take their own life. ... In conclusion, many young adolescents find t...

• Word Count: 1431
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Physicians as well as ordinary people struggle to find an answer to the question: "Is there such a thing as a life not worthy to be lived?" Those who support euthanasia seem to imply that, indeed, there is the life that should be terminated. ... You cannot really treat the patients' decision to end their lives as an act of free will since the terminally ill often suffer from depression or a false sense of worthlessness, which may affect their judgment. ... Therefore, when the physician intentionally and deliberately enables an individual to end his life, he acts unethically. ... Yet, gi...

• Word Count: 799
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

I wish to die and I am incapable due to my disability to end my own life. ... Who can value the worth of a human life? ... As Ezekiel Emanuel points out in his article appearing in the Atlantic Monthly, "Our usual approach to people who try to end their lives for reasons of depression and psychological distress is psychiatric intervention - not giving them a syringe and life-ending drugs." ... By destroying these lives are we not violating society's most basic code of conduct that all killing is wrong? ... Value others and other's lives enough to grant them the ability to live, ...

• Word Count: 1510
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

If God has a plan for us, and knows exactly when we will pass, then how is it possible to alter our life at all? ... It is very rare that someone is such a detriment to society that it would be permissible to end his or her own life. ... David Hume believes that if our lives are miserable, it is perfectly permissible to not let it continue any longer. Hume believes that if one does not find happiness in their life, why would they want to endure much more. ... Though his argument may not be fundamentally sound, it makes one value the gift of life, and creates an empathic relationship with those...

• Word Count: 1032
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Research also indicates that the onset of depression is occurring earlier in life than ever before. ... Suicide claims more adolescent lives than natural causes, including heart failure. ... Males tend to "just want to end it," so they go for a more final solution (guns), whereas females tend to try to end their lives in more painless manners (overdosing on medication or painkillers). ... This often-said comment implies that childhood is a carefree, trouble-free period of life. ... People tend to forget that children are powerless and have no control over their own lives. ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Many times parent's are so wrapped up with their own conflicts and busy lives that that fail to see the changes in their teens, or they simply refuse to admit their teen has a problem. ... Today, with single parent families and families where both parents have corporate jobs, the teen may feel he or she is playing "second fiddle" in importance in the lives of their parents. ... They may contemplate and even attempt suicide as a way of either drawing attention to themselves or to just end their lives because no cares about them anyway. ... Regardless of the type of treatment chosen, "it is...

• Word Count: 1099
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Unfortunately, depression can not only have a serious effect on one's life, but in many cases can lead the patient to go as far as taking his/her own life. ... The best way to help both teenage boys and girls alike is through communication, not only is this a major skill needed in life, but can also become a safety net for people in need. ... Surveys show that 1 in 12 teens have attempted to take their lives and even more surprisingly, 1 in 6 have had serious thoughts about it. ... Out of the number of people that have admitted to attempting suicide at elast once in their lives, 2.3 mill...

• Word Count: 2180
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The functionalist perspective will look at how parts of the teenager's lives feel unstable and not in order, which cause other parts to fall apart. This create dysfunction within their lives and affects parts of society. ... Teenagers feel that parts of their lives are not working and are unstable and this dysfunction cause a domino effect on society that impacts it negatively. ... Social classes also have an issue with power struggles because most people believe that if you are in a higher social class then you have no problems and your life is perfect. ... This gap makes it even harde...

• Word Count: 2683
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The third stanza expresses how the townspeople were envious of Richard Cory's seemingly charmed life. ... He most likely had the privilege of being wealthy his entire life, which would explain why he has no interactions with the people who live down town. ... This indicates that even though they admired Cory greatly, they envied his life at the same time, for he was better off than they were. ... The last stanza initially presents the way the townspeople go on living their troubled lives, which are very differently from the life that Cory was just portrayed as living. ... The absence of t...

• Word Count: 809
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Sometimes teens feel so depressed that they consider ending their lives. ... A dramatic change in their eating or sleeping pattern, severe drop in school performance, or giving away of personal belongings shows your teen is either craving attention from you as a parent or friend or he or she is preparing themselves to end their life. ...

• Word Count: 398
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Life, death and all the events and actors they encompass are not easily placed within the parameters of a legal society such as the United States. ... The Supreme Court ruled in the Cruzan case that any competent individual could refuse life saving medical treatment. In my opinion there is absolutely no distinction between refusing extraordinary life saving means and hastening eminent death with physician assisted suicide. ... I believe that the right to end one's own life is a personal, private right that is covered by the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution. ... The state does ...

• Word Count: 908
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Currently, physician-assisted suicide is legal only in Oregon; however this has not prevented terminally ill patients residing out-of-state from seeking physician assistance in ending their lives. ... In 1988, Kevorkian built his now infamous "suicide machine," which allowed him to provide the means by which terminally ill patients could end their lives under his supervision. ... According the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the average life expectancy is currently 77.2 years compared to almost a century ago when it was only 47 years ("Life"). ... Some more common ways of prolonging life ar...

• Word Count: 4057
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Faced with the termination of his job, he begins to examine his past life to determine its value. ... This is the center of our lives as Americans; we all want to accomplish it one way or another. ... He was lucky enough to find a woman who devoted her life to adore him and treated him in a way nobody else would have. ... She was the one that helped him throughout life and the one who helped him to reached the historical dream. ... On the other hand since Willy teaches his sons about the wrong believes and ideas, Happy "does not reach the same level of awareness as his brother, and lives ...

• Word Count: 2201
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Although Shapiro does not give a clinical definition, she says: "Major depression may make you feel as though work, school, relationships, and other aspects of your life have been derailed or put on hold indefinitely. ... " (7) Depression brings nothing but self -loathing, hopelessness, and helplessness to you in every aspect of life making you unable to find joy in anything, new or old interest, employment or school. ... Psychological factors include "unresolved issues from childhood or early life that are manifested later, history of depression, damage to the body (injury, il...

• Word Count: 2277
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

However, the explicit sparagmos imagery of death that hinders the couple from marriage (lines 1334-1371) move the reader's attention away from Haemon's inconsistent family values, and toward a deep sympathy for the young couple who has prematurely taken their lives to fight for the principle of valuing intimate relationships over civil law. ... Not only does Antigone commit suicide, but Haemon, "doomed, [and] desperate with himself", also takes his life by, "by leaning his full weight on the blade, / [and burying] it in his body halfway to the hilt" (lines1362-1364). ... The image ...

• Word Count: 1318
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

At that time, his wife was suffering from terminal cancer and because she felt that there was no quality in the life she had left, she chose suicide. ... This movement led Derek to found the Hemlock Society five years later and today the organization is well known as the "Compassion in Dying and End-of-Life Choices organization.... It has allowed the public to support the idea of having the right-to-die, favoring possible physician assisted suicide when appropriate and has led to patient legal rights including the ability, through medical directives, to refuses any further rather life-sav...

• Word Count: 5515
• Approx Pages: 22
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate