Assisted Suicide - Research Paper Example

Assisted suicide can be in form of Physician assisted suicide, whereby the physician provides the means for death, or Euthanasia which occurs in three forms which include; voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia is whereby the patient gives his or her consent for the termination of his life while non-voluntary is whereby the consent of the patient cannot be acquired maybe due to the reason that he or she cannot make independent decision for example in a child.

Involuntary euthanasia refers to the situation whereby the patient is assisted to die against his or her will (Sissela, 2005). This essay will discuss issues concerning assisted suicide revolving around the following scenario. “You are the manager of the Cancer Center in a small suburban hospital. For the past two weeks you have worked closely with your nursing staff because they have been expressing “Burn Out” (frustration, dissatisfaction, or lack of interest in a job) as a result of the increase in the number of patients coming to the center who were diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Nancy Nurse confided in you that she is particularly saddened about the rapid decline in Mrs. Jones’ health, a 30 year old single mother. She decided that the next time Mrs. Jones comes in for her treatment, she is going to give her an extra dose of a narcotic that could potentially end her life.” The bill of rights protects each and every person against threats to life whether self imposed or otherwise. This means that it is a crime for a person to terminate his or her life through suicide and in fact if not successful, one may face punishment through imprisonment.

However, there have been heated constitutional debates on the legality of physician assisted suicide, whereby some support the act while others oppose it based on moral and religious basis (Manning, 2002). In the