Assisted-Suicide Should Be Allowed

1. By: Tamra Bell Assisted-Suicide Should Be Allowed

2. What is Assisted-Suicide? • Assisted-Suicide is a type of suicide where terminally ill patient receives help from a caregiver or physician to medically put them to rest

3. Facts About Assisted-Suicide • Involves one person providing the means and instructions to help another person commit suicide • Assisted suicide is prohibited in 47 states • Attempts to legalize assisted suicide with ballot measures have been defeated in three states • Illegal drugs from Mexico are taken to be used for the suicides

4. People Who Die Without Assisted-Suicide • 40-70% of patients die in pain • Ones who die without assisted suicide suffer every second

5. Reasons Why Someone Would Want To Have Assisted-Suicide • Patients don’t want to be a burden on their family • Right to die • Pain and suffering

6. Where is Assisted-Suicide Legal? • Oregon • Washington • Montana • Netherlands • Belgium • Luxembourg

7. Assisted Suicide Statistics • Between 1994 and 2006, there were 75 legislative bills to legalize PAS in 21 states and all of them failed • The reasons patients gave when requesting PAS in Oregon: • 86% reported a decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable • 100% reported loss of autonomy • 86% reported loss of dignity

8. Pros • People should be able to control their own lives • Fatally ill patients are allowed to end their lives by refusing medical treatments

9. Pros (cont.) • Legal or not, assisted suicides occur, and it would be better if they were brought into the open • Being able to say goodbye • Person still having their dignity

10. Cons • Taking a life is immoral • Physicians can be wrong when estimating the time of death of a patient, causing unnecessary deaths

11. Jack Kevorkian • Known as Dr. Death • Used lethal injections • Helped with assisted suicide • Assisted over 100 people with their death

12. What Is Used for Assisted Suicides? • Sodium Thiopental • Pancuronium Bromide • Potassium Chloride • Morphine

13. A True Story • An Oregon woman dying of breast cancer asked her physician to prescribe a drug that would allow her to end her life • She took the medication • She became the first person in the United States to commit suicide with the help of a doctor legally • This has come to be known as physician assisted suicide

14. Frequently Asked Questions • Is assisted suicide safe? • Should people be forced to stay alive? • Does people have the right to die? • Shouldn’t people be able to die with dignity?

15. My Grandpa • My grandpa had Alzheimer’s • He was forgetting who we was • He couldn’t feed or change himself • He took off all his finger nails • He forgot how to walk and busted his lip; he had to get 6 stitches • Being 14 or 15 and taking care of a 65 year old man was hard for me and my sister

16. In 2009, my grandpa forgot how to chew his food; he died • We took it really hard but it was a big relief • But if we would of brought up assisted suicide to him, it would of helped us out • We wouldn’t of had to buy diapers for him or spend money for him to go to a nursing home so we could have vacation • But the main reason is, we could of said ‘Goodbye’ and he would of died with dignity

17. Misunderstanding • Matthew Donnelly loved life • But he wanted to die • Matthew found out he had skin cancer • He lost his nose, left hand, two fingers and part of his jaw • Doctors said he had a year left • He was in severe pain • He pleaded to be put out of his misery • So his brother walked to the hospital, and shot and killed his brother

18. Your Opinion • If you had an ill family member that you watched suffer, would you want them to get assisted suicide?

19. Conclusion • I think assisted suicide should be allowed because: • It lets people die with their dignity • People should have a right to say when enough is enough