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 encountered the topic of assisted suicide as it was my assigned topic for a debate project. At that time, I was immediately interested in the topic as I have an interest in medicine. I found that assignment to be a great way for me to be able to integrate my interest in medicine into an English class, and I hope to continue to expand my knowledge on the topic with this argumentative essay. The controversy surrounding this topic continues to draw me to it as I enjoy learning about different advances in the medical community. Although this is a very controversial topic during my research I did not find that my question of whether or not assisted suicide is ethical affected my personal values or ideas. 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. The authors of this piece are 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. In this article Gostin and Roberts cover a letter that 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 critical when addressing the physician assisted suicide controversy 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. 

Second, an additional article "Suicide", from the Encyclopedia of Bioethics covers an array of points on assisted suicide. 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 few of the points discussed include if assisted suicide should be recognized as a right, as well as how the patient's family and physician should be involved in the decision of 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 point of 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 (Battin para.2). 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. Each component of this article is important information to help me support my claim of legalization of assisted suicide.

A third source titled "What Remains Unsaid About Assisted Suicide" by April Dembosky discusses the underlying complications that come from assisted suicide not being legalized. Dembosky studied at the University of California at Berkley and is a health reporter for news sources such as CNN, NPR, and the New York Times. This CNN piece covers how many doctors are prescribing and providing lethal doses of medication under the table in order for a terminally ill patient to over dose. This article even provided startling statistics on just how many doctors are going through with these under the table procedures. One of the most important things discussed in this article was how it addresses the way that doctors will speak in euphemisms regarding these life or death situations which often leave patients and their families confused. Overall, the information and statistics provided from this source will greatly help support my claim as one of my main arguments is regarding doctor and patient relationships.

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. While I have found lots of information through these articles some of it lends itself more to my argument then others. As I am arguing in favor of assisted suicide to be legalized the information I have found on Brittany Maynard's case has been helpful in providing examples and information that will provide pathos to my argument. Additionally, the CNN article discussing under the table treatments provides me with support for another one of my main claims regarding doctor patient relationships. Each of these sources thus far have helped me better develop my research question and think about my central claims for my paper. 

