Physician Assisted Suicide - The practice in which the physician provides a patient with a lethal dose of medication upon the patients request, which the patient intends to use to end their life

Euthanasia – The practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment

Vs.

Physician Assisted Suicide - The practice in which the physician provides a patient with a lethal dose of medication upon the patients request, which the patient intends to use to end their life

Euthanasia – The practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment

Between 1994 and 2006, there were 75 legislative bills to legalize PAS in 21 states and all of them failed.

Currently PAS is legal in only 3 states; Oregon, Washington, and Montana

The right to die should be a fundamental freedom for everyone

Doctors/Caretakers are able to withhold care from a patient to hasten death, but not actually give you Meds in order to end your

life in a pain free, humane way?Why is it legal to let a human suffer, yet to do this to an animal is cruel and inhumane?

Tremendous Pain and Suffering of patients can be saved

Imagine what it would be like to spend six months vomiting, coughing, enduring pain spasms, losing control of excretory functions, etc. Then you must

consider the psychological suffering; i.e. the knowledge that a patient knows he's definitely going to die and the pain is only going to get

worse.

Wouldn't it be more humane to give the patient the option to say when he's had enough?

Death With Dignity

Vomit, drool, urine, feces must be attended to by nursing assistants. Alzheimer's patients suffer

from progressively worse dementia that causes memory loss and incoherent rambling.

Virtually all people want others' last memory of them to be how they once were, not what they ended up being

Health care costs can be reduced

Consider the huge cost of keeping a dying patient alive for several months. You must pay for x-rays, lab tests, drugs, hospital

overhead, medical staff salaries, etc. Medical costs can equal to $50,000-100,000 to keep some patients alive.

Is this the best way to spend our money when the patient would like to die?

Pain and anguish of the patient's family and friends can be lessened

It's emotionally and physically draining to have the stress drawn out for so long of waiting for someone you love to

die. When the patient does eventually die, it's often sudden or it follows a period when the patient has lost

consciousness

Wouldn’t it be better to allow people to be able to say their goodbyes and lessen the stress on peoples families?

Vital organs can be saved, allowing doctors to save the lives of others

We have long waiting lists for hearts, kidneys, livers, and other organs that are necessary to save the lives of people who can be saved. Assisted suicide allows physicians to preserve vital organs

that can be donated to others.

By allowing someone to chose to end their life, its possible to save someone else’s.

Without physician assistance, people may commit suicide in a messy, horrifying, and traumatic way

Which is better - controlled physician assisted suicide or clumsy attempts like taking sleeping pills, jumping off a building, or firing a bullet into one's head? If you were a family member, which would be more traumatic--saying goodbye to a loved one at the hospital

or coming home to see their brains splattered against the wall from a bullet, or having to identify a body?

Unfortunately, if people truly want to die, nothing is going to stop them. If that is the case, let’s give them a more

humane alternative

“Watching my mom die of cancer & the excruciating pain she was in for the last week or so of her life, I WISH she could have chosen Physician Assisted Suicide - NO amount of morphine dulled it for her! That was the most horrible thing in the world (I chose not to spend time with my mother in her final days because I could NOT handle seeing her suffer without breaking down in front of her…which only made it worse)”

-Lissa, Illinois

“My step father had a massive stroke. His mind was gone but his body fought on. They stopped fluids and IV's (in July) and still it took 7 days for his body to dehydrate enough to go into shock and shutdown. Dehydration is painful. He moaned and fought but never regained enough consciousness to say good bye. My mother sat by his bed watching the man she loved suffer completely helpless. Instead, the doctors could have made the diagnosis and with a single overdose of anesthetic put him at peace. I have been with my dogs when their time came... it was peaceful and stress free. They simply closed their eyes and within a few seconds they were gone. Sure beats waiting 7 days”

-DAX, HGS Forum

“My great-grandma is 84 years old... and has just been wasting away the past 5 years or so. She has had multiple strokes, lung cancer, lung and heart disease, and back in November she lost sight in her right eye, and a couple of days ago she lost the eye completely (before she could see shadows).I have heard her say that she is done. she is ready to die. I know she is not happy, and she hates having to rely on other family to take care of her.

I was able to put my horse to sleep when she was no longer comfortable. She was blind, had bad hips, and definitely wasn't happy. I was able to remove her pain, and stop her suffering. Why shouldn't we be able to do this for people when they are ready to leave? My Great-grandma is definitely suffering. and if she could, i know she would choose assisted suicide, and i would be happy for her.”

-Amanda Kern, California

“Watching my mom die of cancer & the excruciating pain she was in for the last week or so of her life, I WISH she could have chosen Physician Assisted Suicide - NO amount of morphine dulled it for her! That was the most horrible thing in the world (I chose not to spend time with my mother in her final days because I could NOT handle seeing her suffer without breaking down in front of her…which only made it worse)”

-Lissa, Illinois

“My step father had a massive stroke. His mind was gone but his body fought on. They stopped fluids and IV's (in July) and still it took 7 days for his body to dehydrate enough to go into shock and shutdown. Dehydration is painful. He moaned and fought but never regained enough consciousness to say good bye. My mother sat by his bed watching the man she loved suffer completely helpless. Instead, the doctors could have made the diagnosis and with a single overdose of anesthetic put him at peace. I have been with my dogs when their time came... it was peaceful and stress free. They simply closed their eyes and within a few seconds they were gone. Sure beats waiting 7 days”

-DAX, HGS Forum

August 2, 1950 – February 12, 1994

“If I cannot give consent to my own death, whose body is this? Who owns my life?”

-Sue Rodriguez

November 15th 1958 - May 11th, 2002

“It’s not life, I’m already dead”

-Diane Pretty

January 28, 1955 – March 19, 2008

“One would not allow an animal to go through what I

have endured”-Chantal Sebire

“My intent was to carry out my duty as a doctor, to end their suffering. Unfortunately, that entailed, in

their cases, ending of the life.”-Dr. Jack Kevorkian