Physician Assisted Suicide: Introduction To Ethics And Social Responsibility

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Physician Assisted Suicide Louann Morris Soc 120: Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility Megan Reid April 1, 2013 Physician assisted suicide is something that is always a topic for discussion. There are so many people that agree with it for good reasons and so many people that disagree with it for good reasons. During my research I have decided that I am for physician assisted suicide and I want it to be legalized all over the United States. Many people including doctors think that this is morally wrong and it should not be done. However I believe that this is the right thing to do because people who are suffering from their illness should not have to live the rest of the little time they have left in pain and die with no…show more content…
Doctors took a hypocritical oath when they became doctors and they swore never to hurt a patient and always help them. Some doctors believe that allowing their patient to receive a physician assisted suicide is hurting them and not helping them. There is always that question when a doctor considers this but helping someone die because they are in so much pain is helping them. When someone has an illness like that there really isn't much a doctor can do to relieve the pain and ending their life is really the only way that the pain will go away and that is why people want to get this. Consider the difference between euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. Euthanasia is when someone is on life support and you pull the plug so they just die on their own and physician assisted suicide is when a doctor gives them a drug so the patient dies. Is there really a difference there? I do not think that there is. Either Physician Assisted Suicide way you are letting someone die because with euthanasia you stop the life support and just let the person die and PAS they get the drug and the patient has to take it themselves and then they die. When a patient get a PAS you are not forcing them to take it they still have the option not to take it. They get the opportunity to die sooner than they were “supposed” to but they are going to die either way, it’s just this way they don't have to live in pain for the remainder of their life. Euthanasia is legal but PAS is only legal in some states but they are both basically the same thing when you think about it critically. One way you are letting someone die and the other you are giving someone the tools to die. Euthanasia the patient doesn't actually get an opinion because they are not able to but with PAS the patient is saying they want to die and they have to request it more than once so PAS is actually more ethical

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