The Face Of Physician Assisted Suicide Or Pas - 1862 Words

In 2014, Brittany Maynard became the face for those supporting physician assisted suicide or PAS. At 29 years old and newly married, Maynard was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and immediately underwent a partial craniotomy and partial resection. Her tumor came back much stronger, however, and in April she was given six months to live. Maynard’s only treatment option to slow but not stop the growth of the tumor was full brain radiation, but she opted against this because of the unavoidable side effects of hair loss, first degree burns, and the inevitability of death. In consideration of hospice, Maynard feared becoming resistant to morphine and losing her cognitive, motor, and verbal skills. Even more so, she did not want her family†¦show more content†¦As of April, 2015, forms of euthanasia and PAS have been legalized in six countries and four US states (Marker). In North America, the only country where PAS is completely legal currently is Canada. In a 1995 verd ict made by the Canadian Senate (Boudreau and Somerville 1-12): â€Å"[t]he court ruled that laws making physician-assisted death illegal violated Canadians’ constitutional rights in cases where an adult clearly consents to the termination of life and has a grievous and irremediable medical condition. (Larson) This decision has been met with a mostly positive response, with statistics showing that more than four out of every five of the Canadian general public approve of the decision. They attribute this to the freedom of choice to one’s body and medical care that the law modifications permit. Another reason surrounding this response is that: [...] it is no longer a crime to commit or attempt to commit suicide [...] why, then, is it a crime to assist it? What is the difference between suicide and assisted suicide that justifies making the one lawful and the other a crime, that justifies allowing some this choice, while denying it to others?† (Larson) The doctor of a suicidal patient is not considered a murderer if the patient follows through with their plans in the same way that the owner of a gun store is not considered a