Should Government Healthcare Policy Support Physician-Assisted Suicide - Essay Example

English Composition II

July 30, 2020

Research Question: Should government healthcare policy support physician-assisted suicide?

Working thesis statement: For legal, mental, and technological reasons, physicians should refrain from aiding patient suicide due to legal implications, the possibility of desire for death to be an irrational thought, and an abundance of advancements of modern life-saving technologies.

Detailed outline:

• Working thesis in Introduction: For legal, mental, and technological reasons, physicians should refrain from aiding patient suicide due to legal implications, the possibility of desire for death to be an irrational thought, and an abundance of advancements of modern life-saving technologies.
• Hook with descriptive statistics on physician-assisted suicide
• Introduce three primary concerns; legality of physician-assisted suicide, the mental decline among the sick and ongoing technological improvement in palliative care that allows terminally-ill patients to die with dignity

Source 1: Thurston (2019)

Source 2: Emanuel et al. (2016)

• Legal issues
• Permitting suicide can lead to the death of the innocent
• Legalization may spur relative of the ill to seek to be killed to avoid expenses and inconveniences associated with caring for their sick relatives or with inheriting their property.
• The state must protect life as part of its cardinal duty.

Source 1: Vilpert et al. (2020)

Source 2: Hromovchuk and Byelov (2019)

Source 3: Hromovchuk and Byelov (2020)

• Mental issues
• Most terminally-ill patients are often depressed and incapable of making sound decisions.
• Patients may make their mind to be killed at the peak of their pain and change their minds later in the day when the pain subsides-by then, it might be too late
• Engaging in the process may affect the mental health of physicians and nurses negatively

Source 1: Emanuel (2017)

Source 2: Appelbaum (2017)

Source 3: Ripamonti et al. (2018)

• Technological reasons
• Rapid developments within the field of medicine and technology are saving more and more lives each day
• There is an abundance of advancements of modern life-saving technologies that can be tried before settling for mercy killing
• It's prudent to wait for a less radical solution to choose physician-assisted suicide

Source 1: Dierickx et al. (2020)

Source 2: Mills (2019)

Source 3: Waraich et al. (2017)

• Counterarguments
• Physically-assisted suicide would save funds for the patient’s family
• Physician-assisted suicide would save funds for the government
• Efforts used by physicians are better used to treat and attend to more deserving patients, not terminally ill and willing to live
• Government has a primary duty to save lives no matter the circumstances

Source 1: Trachtenberg and Manns (2017)

Source 2: Roy (2017)

• Conclusion
• It may lead to legal ramifications
• The irrationality of the desire to die may invalidate the patient's underlying rights and desire to request physician-assisted suicide
• It's essential to consider the rapid medical and technological development within the domain of palliative care. The potential for savings life far outweighs the urgency for mercy killing. New technological breakthroughs could be introduced at any moment, and that hope can save someone’s life.

Questions

• Learning to conduct research is crucial because it is a skill you will use in academia and your professional life. It improves critical thinking and empowers you to find information for yourself. Consider the process of researching as a whole. What was the most challenging aspect of the process for you? (2-3 sentences)

The most challenging aspect of the research process was coming up with a workable and valid thesis. The thesis is the subject matter of every research paper. It is expressed as a thesis statement at the beginning of the essay. The thesis statement must be robust and sound academic backing for any article to be of high-level academic quality. The process of coming up with an argumentative essay topic was not an easy one. However, due to the many controversial issues affecting the world today, especially medical ones in the COVID-19 pandemic, I was able to narrow down to a topic that has been widely discussed within legal, ethical, and medical domains.

• The working thesis statement is a proposed answer to your research question. It should identify a debatable topic and take a position on one side of that topic. Analyze the effectiveness of your working thesis statement. (3-4 sentences)

A thesis statement's effectiveness is gauged by how specific it is on a given topic and its associated arguments. An effective working thesis statement should be a single sentence that presents one side of a debatable and yet relevant argument. Specificity is, therefore, of importance in determining an effective working thesis statement. Rather than merely stating that "terminally sick patients should not be killed," I delve deep into euthanasia's medical concept. More specifically, I provided legal, mental, and technological reasons against physician-assisted suicide. I offered specific ideas, backed by credible peer-reviewed research on my working thesis statement.

• A detailed outline is a useful tool for laying out the progression of an argument. It allows you to consider the arrangement and organization of your ideas and choose places to incorporate outside source materials. Review your detailed outline and summarize the argument you've presented. (3-4 sentences)

I started by laying out the legal issues against physician-assisted suicide, and they proceeded to the mental health issues and, finally, the technological ones. The process relied on the latest peer-reviewed information as outside source material. To achieve academic veracity of sources, I attempted to rely only on credible peer-reviewed sources of less than five years old. The counterarguments were also presented using a similar format while utilizing reliable peer-reviewed sources. For optimal impact and contrast, the counterarguments were presented with appropriate rebuttals to complete the argument against physician-assisted suicide. The conclusion was also provided to show the thesis statement and a summary of the main arguments.

• You will use the same topic on three of the remaining Touchstones in this course. What kind of feedback would be helpful for you? What are the specific questions you might have as you go deeper

There could be a need to incorporate ethical reasons against the concept of physician-assisted suicide. The kind of feedback I would find helpful include the appropriate structure of the essay, the specific arguments on the thesis, and any additional suggestion on essay formatting and content. Nevertheless, I'm confident that the arrangement and material certainly meet the particular requirements of the project.