A teacher I once had in high school often spoke about her father who lived in a hospice center. His father suffered from dementia for years. She often said that, on his “good” days, he would beg her husband to put a pillow over his head and smother him, to put him out of his misery. If it were legal, her husband would have gladly helped his father and put him out of his misery, but in the state of North Carolina, physician-assisted suicide is illegal. Fortunately, his father passed away this year and is finally free from all pain and suffering. However, if physician-assisted suicide were legal, his father would not have had to suffer for so long. Before we explore the different aspects of physician-assisted suicide, let's take a look at exactly what physician-assisted suicide entails. When the topic of physician-assisted suicide comes up, many people think that it is the same as euthanasia. Euthanasia involves a doctor actively injecting a patient with a legal drug in order to end their life (Engdahl 16). However, this is not the case when it comes to physician-assisted suicide. According to "Assisted Suicide Overview" by Lee Stingl and M. Alexander, physician-assisted suicide is any case in which a doctor provides a patient (usually someone with a terminal illness) the means to kill themselves. This is usually done by providing access to a lethal dose of medication, which the patient then self-administers. In other words, physician-assisted suicide occurs when a doctor helps a patient end their life by prescribing lethal medications (Engdahl 16). Whether or not the patient decides to take the medications is entirely up to them. Currently, physician-assisted suicide is not legal nationwide, it is only legal...... middle of paper ......e he still remembered his family. Works Cited Ebrahimi, Nargus. “The ethics of euthanasia”. Australian Medical Student Journal 3.1 (2012): 73-75. Internet. April 26, 2014. Egendorf, Laura K. Assisted Suicide. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, INC., 1998. Print. Engdahl, Sylvia. Assisted suicide. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2009. Print. Hulkower, Raphael. “The story of the Hippocratic Oath: outdated, inauthentic and yet still relevant.” Einstein Journal of Biology and Medicine 25.26 (2010): 41-44. Internet. April 26, 2014. Lee Stingl, M. Alexander. “Assisted Suicide Overview.” Salem Press Encyclopedia (2013): Search Starters. Internet. April 25, 2014. Quill, Timothy E. “Physicians Should “Assist Suicide” When Appropriate.” Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 40.1 (2012): 57-65. CINAHL. Internet. April 25, 2014. The public domain Catholic Bible. Ed. Ronald L. Conte Jr. Np, 2009. Print.