Sometimes Life Gets Tough

Alexus Hughes
5/18/12
Honors Biology
3rd hour Throughout the history of the entire world, things have constantly been changing. Societies have been created and flourished, humans evolved, new technologies have been created, and new theories discovered. However, with so many advancements in the human world, there are some things that cannot be stopped from happening or change. Organisms can get an illness at any moment in their lives from many different causes. Some illnesses cannot be cured, can cause unbearable symptoms or pain, and can cause you to lose your life, such as cancer. If a person is terminally ill, their illness will be the cause of their death no matter how much treatment is received. …show more content…

The slippery slope argument is also a strong belief for opponents to
Hughes 4 euthanasia and PAS. Summarized, they are as follows. 1. The patient must have an incurable condition causing severe, unrelenting suffering. 2. The patient must understand his or her condition and prognosis, which must be verified by an independent second opinion. 3. All reasonable palliative measures must have been presented to and considered by the patient. 4. The patient must clearly and repeatedly request assistance in dying. 5. A psychiatric consultation must be held to establish if the patient is suffering from a treatable depression. 6. The prescribing physician, absent a close preexisting relationship (which would be ideal) must get to know the patient well enough to understand the reasons for her or his request. 7. No physician should be expected to violate his or her own basic values. A physician who is unwilling to assist the patient should facilitate transfer to another physician who would be prepared to do so. 8. All of the foregoing must be clearly documented. (Rogatz). By creating requirements to be met before PAS could be received, this would solve the slippery slope argument. Another major argument against euthanasia and PAS is the abuse of these rights. The use of lethal prescribed drugs by physicians has not been used much or gotten out of control (in Oregon, where PAS is