Terminally Ill People Deciding There Fate

Thomas Lambert

English 102

Gary Walker

Word Count: 1017

Should terminally ill people be able to decide there fate?

Should terminally ill people be able to decide there fate? This is a question discussed among many people, and in many different countries. Its one of the most debated issues in today’s world and they have yet to come up with any laws certain to end the question. There are many opposing view points on the issue. Terminally ill people should be able to decide there fate, unless they have physiological problems, and/or they have a chance of living.

Everyday people die from over a range of different things. Patients spend days, weeks, and months in the hospital suffering through endless pain and non-stop agony. There are many sleepless nights on hospital beds just thinking about how they would rather be dead. People now days would rather die than make themselves and family go through the pain of watching them suffer.

There are many different options for people in these types of conditions. Some of the options include: At home medicare, hospital stay, and a hospice. Terminally ill people are rarely able to decide which one they want to go to. There choices are primarily based on what the doctors have to say, and what the families will pay for.

Most terminally ill patients would rather be in there own home at the time of there death. Improving End-of-Life Care says that of the 530,000 people who die in England each year, just over half die in hospital. But few choose hospital as their preferred place of death and most would rather die at home. (Nursing older people 1) People are often more relaxed and stable when there in an environment they know and are very familiar with. When someone is able to continue living as if nothing had happened, than they can have a more comfortable death. The only problem with this form of care is that this is very expensive. People that live at home in these conditions are required to have twenty four hour nurses on site to care for and tend to them. These nurses are often not covered under most insurance and are pretty expensive and hard to come by.

The next option is to stay in the hospital. These people often have a small chance of living and will require lots of attention and are needy patients. Most doctors try to get there terminally ill patients under control and than send them to a hospice or if the family says than send them to there home. The hospital is mainly just a place to get the patient prepared for dieing and to make sure they have tried everything to keep the patient alive.

The last place but one of the more comforting places for patients to go is a hospice. A hospice is a place that will put the patient in a more comfort environment and allow the family to spend time with the patient before it dies. The hospice is a much more comfortable setting than a hospital and allows the patient to have twenty four hour care. The hospices are also covered under most insurance which can take the burden off the families.

Terminally ill people are rarely able to decide there fate. So now they are beginning to take matters into there own hands by choosing to refuse diet and liquids. “The nurses for these patients said that there patients chose to stop eating and drinking because they were ready to die, saw continued existence as pointless and considered the quality of life poor. On a scale