School of Health Ethics Form Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

School of Health Ethics Form - Essay Example The research paper, therefore, is about a survey of a representative of a physician in the United States who can be deemed to care for patients nearing their deaths so as to assess the frequency in which request for assisted euthanasia or suicide and compliance with such requests (Atwood-Gailey, 2003: 2). Euthanasia is said is said to have historical rooting from the Greek language meaning â€Å"good health†. However, over time, the meaning has evolved to mean that one person knowingly leads to the death of the other who is considered terminally or seriously ill and can not be saved from the situation. The main emphasis attached this mercy killing is always to bring to an end the suffering of the later like for example patients diagnosed with bone cancer among other ailments. Within the country, the procedure for taking an away life in order to end is not allowed in all the fifty states, however countries like Netherlands and Belgium practice as it is legal under the law. In s pite of euthanasia not being legal within the country, physician-assisted suicide is legal and being practiced and being practiced in different states within the country. Examples of states practicing physician-assisted suicide are Washington, Oregon, and Montana (Lo, 2009). However, the two are always similar but the main difference depends on who administers the medicine to bring a patient life to an end (Mcdougall, Gorman & Roberts, 2008). In physician-assisted suicide, a physician plays a crucial role in creating lethal medications for the patients, but the medications are always used by the patient at his own time and comfort, however, this is the opposite of euthanasia because the physician here takes an active role in ending a patient’s life.