A Life Worth Ending: Essay Sample on Autonomy and Mortality

Introduction

The significance of making autonomous decisions has been attracting a lot of interest in different professional fields and the wider society. Decisions on confronting mortality have been one of the intensive issues in the modern medical profession where death with dignity policies have received mixed reactions. In his article, "A Life Worth Ending", Michael Wolff gives an account of his experience with a mother suffering from terminal illness. At the age of eighty-four years, Wolff's mother needed major heart surgery to continue living. Likewise, she had also started to show trivial signs of Alzheimer's disease making her hesitate to go through major medical treatments. With time, the Alzheimer's disease progressed horribly making her feel that she had been robbed humanity (Wolff, 2013). Before losing ability to speak, Wolff's mother would emphasize the suffering she was enduring hoping that the unfortunate would happen to end her life. Following the difficult experience of Wolff's mother and the demands in the modern medical profession, I will argue the possibility of allowing people suffering from terminal illnesses to make a decision to live or die. Therefore, some of the issues I would review include limited access to life-saving surgeries for patients with terminal illnesses and promoting the do-it-yourself exit strategy as a way of dealing with end-of-life problems.

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In some American states such as District of Columbia, Hawaii, Colorado, California and New Jersey among others, individuals facing intractable pain especially those suffering from terminal illnesses such as dementia have been given a chance to make a choice between living and hastening their death (Tannsjo, 2015). Mainly the choice only holds for those people whose medical reports show that they have a few months to live and maybe losing humanity within that period. However, the expansion of death with dignity policies have been raising professional and ethical queries in society. The religious leaders and human rights activists have been advocating against aid-in-dying laws but more people are in support of making their own decision on the amount of pain they should endure to live.

Despite the antagonism surrounding death with dignity statutes, these laws have been giving patients been a way of assuring people control, dignity, and peace during their last days with friends and families. The elderly population has kept on rising because of improved medical services. On the other hand, terminal diseases among the aged population have increased demand for long-term care with some patients suffering because of lack of ample support systems (Tannsjo, 2015). In the process, many loss values with life and live in frustration and distress. As a result, suicide cases have been on a rise, especially among people with mental disorders. The elderly people are more prone to most of the terminal illnesses such as dementia, respiratory complications, and cancer. During their last days, they condemn the long-term care systems and their families for neglecting them and most pass on in a lot of pain and distress. Consequently, the demand for autonomous decisions on physician-assisted dying has been common obliging Americans to reconsider their ethical stance on the issue.

However, the law should defend and promote the principle of the sanctity of human life. Therefore, those that have been opposing death with dignity statutes believe that even autonomy decisions on medical issues have undermined the right to live. Based on sanctity to life, a deliverance panel that meant to inform families of patients that certain surgeries for a given group of people are not authorized should never exist. However, patients expected to succumb to illnesses within a given period such as six months should be advised accordingly to help them make sound decisions with life.

Similarly, elder people and patients who may be suffering from chronic diseases and are expected to succumb should be given an opportunity to make a decision on either to live or die. According to utilitarian theory, an action should be deemed wrong in case there was an alternative with better consequences. In this case, denying patients a chance to make an autonomous decision on their life and subjecting them to suffering, pain, anguish, and distress would be avoided by allowing patients to choose euthanasia. Therefore, in a case where Unitarianism should be considered moral system then policies on death with dignity should be upheld. The deontology doctrine also is in support of these statutes (Almeida, 2014). According to deontological ethicists, passive killing is legal but active killing is prohibited. One may assume that administering euthanasia to kill pain is equivalent to withdrawing a food pipe on a patient suffering from throat cancer. The two mechanisms are not necessarily meant to eliminate the patient but the pain he or she may be going through at that time yet they would still give way (Tannsjo, 2015). Therefore, even do-it-yourself exit strategy should also be promoted for patients whose medical reports indicate they are about to die.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the number of patients suffering from terminal diseases will keep on increasing, as the population keeps aging. Autonomous decisions on medical issues should be promoted to reduce the suffering and distress some of the elderly have been going through in their last days. Therefore, administering euthanasia, enacting death with dignity statutes, and do-it-yourself exit strategies should be endorsed to promote humanity. However, the final decision to take assisted-death should only be made by patients who are mentally stable.

References

Almeida, M. (2014). Rule Utilitarianism and the Right to Die. Is There a Duty to Die? 2(7), 81-94. doi: 10.1385/1-59259-000-4:81

Tannsjo, T. (2015). Moral dimensions. BMJ, 331(7518), 689-691. doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7518.689

Wolff, M. (2013). A Life worth Ending. The Best American Magazine Writing 2013. Doi: 10.7312/asme16225-008