The topic I chose to cover is physician assisted suicide and whether or not it is ethical and should be legalized in all fifty states. I first became interested in this topic as it was assigned to me in high school for a debate project. As someone who is interested in medicine and new advances in the medical community I found this to be an interesting yet controversial topic that I wanted to learn more about. While researching this topic I did not find that my question of whether or not assisted suicide is ethical affected my personal values. I am a very open minded individual and believe that everyone should be able to make their own educated decisions on these types of controversial topics. My personal connection to this topic would have to be relating to my grandmother. I was extremely close with my grandmother and this past November she passed away after a long and difficult recovery from a series of strokes and seizures after 83 years of being healthy and active. I personally feel that the option of physician assisted suicide would have been a positive treatment option as she was in a tremendous amount of physical pain and suffering, in addition to being depressed due to her lack of ability to communicate with my family. It is in these type of unfortunate situations that our society needs the option of physician assisted suicide. I feel that I am qualified to write about physician assisted suicide as I have done research from credible sources found in the University of South Carolina databases.

My first source from the Journal of the American Medical Association titled "Physician Assisted Dying- A Turning Point?" discusses the 2014 case of Brittany Maynard who took the initiative to move her family from California to Oregon to be able to purse her wish of Physician Assisted Death after being diagnosed with a terminal brain cancer. Maynard wrote to her family and friends explaining that her choice was to preserve the time she had left with her family and go in peace with dignity. The article also covers how the court ruled that federal government could not prohibit physicians from prescribing drugs that would lead to the death of a patient under the laws of the state. Another key point that was addressed was if physician assisted suicide goes against the Hippocratic oath which states that doctors will "do no harm". Other major interests of the article included if this practice devalues human life, if the poor would not be able to fairly access the procedure, as well as the risk of abuse. Each of these topics are important when addressing physician assisted suicide as there are so many things that one needs to account for while considering the legal and medical issues that can come into play with the topic. The author of this piece is Lawrence O. Gostin who has a JD law degree and Anna E. Roberts who has a law degree as well as a degree in international public health. Other affiliates of the piece include Georgetown University Law Center. The credibility of the authors holds up as they hold multiple degrees and are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Second, an additional article "Suicide", from the Encyclopedia of Bioethics covers an array of points on assisted suicide. Some of the first points discussed were whether or not suicide be recognized as a right as well as what should the role of other individuals such as physicians and families be toward those intending to pursue assisted suicide? The piece also mentions that where physician assisted suicide is legal that the rate at which it is used is rather low. The claim of the article is that physician assisted suicide should be legalized in all fifty states as it can be viewed as a right. Some of the major values of the article include addressing how religious beliefs, the states role, and how morality and ethics all play a role in the subject. Another key to this article is how it addresses that most times suicide can carry a negative connotation which causes controversy in the "Death with Dignity Act". This act was passed in 1997 in Oregon which gives terminally ill patients the ability to end their life through a lethal dose of medication. Finally, the piece brings up how it is difficult to define suicide and how that can lead to complications when attempting to pass laws and medical ethics codes. This article is published in the Encyclopedia of Bioethics and is written by Margaret Pabst Battin. Battin is a credible source as she has work published in the Encyclopedia of Bioethics, holds a Ph.D. in philosophy, and is also a professor of internal medicine. 

A third source titled, "Suicide and Assisted Suicide" discusses the history of the "Right to Die" movement and how it began to enhance the autonomy of patients who are terminally ill. The article also discusses the role of physicians in a patient's death. Major interests of the article include how the author states how physician assisted suicide is ethical on the grounds of the basic rights of liberty and being able to satisfy personal values with out harming others. The article also enhances its argument by providing evidence from real life cases. The article "Suicide and Assisted Suicide, Ethics" is written by Margaret Pabst Battin and is published in the Encyclopedia of Bioethics. Battin has lots of credibility as she has a Ph.D. and is a professor at the University of Utah. 

Finally, the research question of whether or not physician assisted suicide is ethical is arguable because there are many obstacles that are keeping it from being legalized in all fifty states yet there are still places where it is legalized. Also, it is often questioned as to whether or not physician assisted suicide goes against the Hippocratic oath as well as if it is moral and if it is constitutional. This is an arguable topic as there are so many different ways that one can pose questions regarding assisted suicide. Many of the arguments are in stasis as they have lots of similar ideas and arguments and for the most part argue for the legalization of physician assisted suicide. The perspective of these sources all influenced me to lean more toward legalizing physician assisted suicide as they provided real cases as well as persuading facts to back up their arguments. Overall, I may need to revise my research question to make it more specific because thus far finding information has been difficult because assisted suicide is such a hot topic right now there is so much information to go through that it makes finding specific information difficult.

