Morality+and+Controversy+of+PAS

= = Home | Health and Medicine **__What Is PAS?__** PAS is short for physician-assisted suicide and it is defined as a voluntary act of ending an individual's own life with the direct or indirect help of a physician. As PAS stands right now, it is an extremely controversial subject in the field of medicine, as it asks a medical professional to help kill people. PAS and Euthanasia has been a world topic since the 5 th century, 1 but it has had gained support in recent decades. To add to the controversy, PAS is an ethical issue, a moral issue, and a legal issue to the American States as well. In fact, the only states in the United States that have it legalized are Oregon, Vermont, Washington, California, Colorado, Montana, and also the District of Columbia. 2 Every other State has found PAS to be completely illegal.
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 * Image of a Physician from @https://dimensionaldermatology.com/2017/06/28/what-is-the-difference-between-a-physician-and-physician-assistant/ ||

**__History of PAS in America since 1980__** In 1980, a man named Derek Humphry created the Hemlock Society, a right-to-die group based in the United States. The motivation on creating this group came from when his first wife was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer. Humphry helped her commit suicide with the help of a physician. 3 Eventually in the 1990's, PAS was talked about more openly throughout the United States. This was the time when medicine was getting increasingly more advanced and diseases were more likely to be chronic, or persistent, and painful. Individual patients also wanted to have more control over how they died instead of when they died.
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PAS continuously gained opponents and supporters but a strong figure named Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who completely supported PAS, eventually became infamous because of the actions he was willing to take to support it. Kevorkian, also nicknamed "Dr. Death", was an active supporter for PAS in 1985 and went as to make a machine to kill people.

Back to Top **Works Cited** 1. “Historical Timeline - Euthanasia - ProCon.org.” //Should Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal?//, [|euthanasia.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000022].
 * *Warning* - In this video, Dr. Jack Kevorkian talks about his personal experience with the death of his patients and at time stamp 6:10, it shows the footage of Kevorkian in the process of ending a man's life. ||
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2. “State-by-State Guide to Physician-Assisted Suicide - Euthanasia - ProCon.org.” //Should Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal? //, euthanasia.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000132.

3. Harvey, Kathryn E. "Mercy and Physician-Assisted Suicide." //Ethics & Medics//, vol. 41, no. 6, June 2016, pp. 1-2. EBSCO//host//, ezproxy.gsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=116287457&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

__Video Reference __ CNN. “2010: Kevorkian admits helping dozens die.” Online video clip, YouTube. YouTube, 16 Apr. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQmyo6EvUY8.