Assisted Suicide Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Assisted Suicide - Term Paper Example This question is of great value to the society as well as health care practitioners. An answer to this problem can be obtained through arguments that are in favor and not in favor of assisted suicide. According to Webster, assisted suicide falls under the umbrella of euthanasia (McDougall, 2008, p.1). The term euthanasia is referred to as good death, this term is mostly used when health care practitioners ends a patient life in order to help him avoid his unbearable sufferings. Euthanasia is divided into two kinds, active and passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia refers to activities conducted to put an end to a patient’s life; it is even recognized mercy killing. Majority of the jurisdictions around the world has pronounced mercy killing as illegal and has even referred to it as murder. Passive euthanasia refers to an act of allowing a patient to die even when there are available procedures to delay the death. Examples of passive euthanasia include instances when patients den y treatments that can delay the death of a patient, this kind of euthanasia falls under the category of natural death. Body Suicide is term used to refer to an individual’s act of taking his/her own life, assisted suicide is a term used to refer to the help that an individual has while he takes his/her own life. In case of assisted suicide, the healthcare practitioner or the person providing care to the patient provides a method to the patient to take his/her own life and the patient himself, willfully adopts the provided method to put an end to his lie and suffering. Assisted suicide can either fall in the category of active or passive euthanasia, whether an act of assisted suicide is active or passive euthanasia depends on the meaning attach to the assistance provided to the patient. Examples: a drug used to take life is prescribed by a doctor to his/her patient while the doctor knows that the patient wishes to put an end to his life, a nurse supplying a medicine to the pat ient and the drug is used can put an end to the patient’s life and a health care practitioner helping the patient in every step of taking his/her own life, steps include: placement of the drug in the patients mouth, and assisting him in swallowing the drug. Pro Assisted Suicide There are various reasons due to which patients opt for assisted suicide rather than bearing the pain before natural death. One of the reasons is the lack of proper care and inhumane activities conducted by the caregivers in health care centers. This means that individuals are not being properly cared for in healthcare centers due to which a patient’s pain increases and they demand for death. Factors that have been proposed that make an individual wish for assisted suicide are threat of being isolated, pain not being cured, depression, threat of loss, feeling of helplessness and concerns regarding family. Another reason that makes individuals wish for assisted suicide is that patients know that they are ultimately going to die even if they use technology and treatment to delay, thus they opt to die rather than being unable to control their death. Due to these disturbing reasons, patients lose hope and accept death as a better alternative. According to the judicial system of US, a patient or an individual (patient) has a right to decide whether they want to live or die, patients in America obtained the right to accept

The Federal Government's Power through Application of the Commerce Research Paper

The Federal Government's Power through Application of the Commerce Clause - Research Paper Example The constitution however, does not provide an outright explanation for the term commerce. What then can be said to constitute commerce? Over the years commerce has been defined to mean the buying and selling of goods across states, this is known as interstate commerce and within states, which is known as intrastate commerce (Barnett, 2001). In Carter vs. Carter Coal Company1, the Supreme Court defined commerce as intercourse with the main reason of trade. Acts that fall within the concept of commerce are those acts that have a substantial effect to the exchange of goods within and across states. As seen under the commerce clause the federal government has the power to regulate commerce. What does it mean to regulate commerce? Regulating commerce according to Chief Justice Marshall regarding the case of Gibbons .v. Ogden2 means having the power to control the manner in which commerce is to be governed. Chief Justice Melville Fuller also gave a similar definition by stating regulation of commerce to mean the authority to prescribe the set of rules outlining the way the governing of commerce should take place. The federal government is formed out of a union between states and the sovereign power and this power is divided is therefore split between the national government and the various states (Bork & Troy, 2002). Discussion The original need for the commerce clause was mainly to discourage rivalry between those states that had a commercial advantage and those that did not have a commercial advantage. This difference in commercial advantage of states was brought due to the proximity to the harbor. Those states that were close to the harbor had a commercial advantage than those that were not. The commerce clause was initially meant to ensure that United States of America was a place where trade could take place freely without states having to bring up barriers against each other (Forte, 2011) therefore giving rise to rivalry. Originally, the term to regulate was in terpreted as making something regular. This clause was intended to make all the states regular by promoting activities that would encourage free trade across and within states and also to oversee any interference in interstate commerce. Federal power was intended to operate activities that fell within the scope of commerce but the courts kept quiet even when the federal government continued to see the general extension of the commerce clause. A good example is the case of Kidd vs. Pearson3 the court recognized the broad powers of the congress under the commerce clause over the sale of good in interstate commerce. The commerce clause was dormant over the years until the courts started making decisions that differentiated commerce and production (Bork & Troy, 2002) as seen in the case of Carter vs. Carter Coal Company4 the Supreme Court defined commerce as the intercourse with the main purpose of trade. The turning point of courts decisions came in with the landmark case of US vs. Lop ez5 the attempt of the federal government to regulate activities that are not commercial was struck down in a ruling. The court stated that the power of the congress under the commerce clause is limited to only commerce and the power to regulate the carrying of guns was not commercial