How Successful are Organizations Related to Assisted Suicide in the US Research Paper - 1

How Successful are Organizations Related to Assisted Suicide in the US Attempt to Polarize Public Opinion Through the Use of Language in Their Campaign - Research Paper Example In some European nations such as the Netherlands, euthanasia is accepted in some circumstances. The Dutch government has even discussed how physicians who agree to kill their terminally ill patients can be kept from being held responsible for their deaths. Over the past three decades, â€Å"American law in many states has given its citizens more rights over the events that take place in their own lives† (Amarasekara and Bagaric, 399). One of these rights is the right to determine when to discontinue medical procedures that will sustain their lives. The difference between euthanasia or mercy killing and the rejection of medical treatment has not been discussed at depth in public forums. Basically, the frequently used expression of the "right to die" mucks the distinction. In addition, the mass medias exposure of individual cases of euthanasia simply serves to distort the difference between public policy and a private act. There exists a distinct difference between â€Å"what a person might feel is practical in a particular case and what would really occur in the offices of physicians and other medical practitioners if euthanasia and assisted suicide became an accepted medical procedure† (Appel, 2). This topic is of the great significance as the public opinion polls, which always confront this issue by considering whether the members of the public think they will seek this way out if they were struck by a painful terminal illness, usually do not confront the issue of what it would mean if killing was made to be an acceptable practice that can be carried out by medical practitioners without fear of being prosecuted. Assisted suicide takes place when one individual helps another to take his or her own life, either by offering the instrument to commit suicide or by other basic steps. Euthanasia involves direct procedures, like a lethal injection, administered by one individual to end another individuals life.