When it comes to the decision to end one’s life due to a terminal illness with unmanageable pain a physician is not allowed to assist one in dying. How is one of these situations different from the other? Can one be morally and ethically right and the other wrong? “The two basic moral arguments in favor physician assisted death focus on suffering and autonomy.” (Menzel, 2012) Why would a terminally ill patient be denied the right to ask for assistance in death? When death is imminent and a person is in unmanageable pain they should have the right to decide to end their own life with assistance.
Physician assisted suicide should not be legalized for the simple fact many would give up and take the easy way out. There is currently a pervasive assumption that if assisted suicide and/or voluntary euthanasia (AS/VE) were to legalized, then doctors would take responsibility for making the decision that these interventions were indicated, for prescribing the medication, and (in euthanasia) for administering it .Richard Huxable remarks “that homicide law encompasses various crimes, so prosecutors can choose charges to suit the circumstances. Yet one thing is clear: mercy killing is still killing, equally, murder is murder” Physician assisted suicide is nothing more than cold blooded
Assess this argument: ‘Killing is wrong if and only if it deprives a person of a valuable future life; some terminally ill people do not have a valuable future life; so it is not wrong to kill them’. Voluntary euthanasia is the ending of human life and intentionally relieving pain that a patient is suffering due to a terminal illness such as cancer. By definition, diseases such as cancer, cannot be cured or sufficiently treated and are expected to result in the death of the patient within the near future. As they no longer see the remaining months left of their life valuable, ending their life now seems a rational request. Killing is a form of active euthanasia whereby a person is deliberately causing death of a patient.
I can see both aspects of the argument and can find some right in both sides. I believe murder is wrong, even in times of war, I do understand that Physician-Assisted Suicide can be a humane option when someone has no other alternatives. I do not view Physician-Assisted Suicide as a form of murder. This type of request, when made by a mentally competent patient, takes the aspect of murder out of the equation and categorizes it as euthanasia. When I was 12, my grandmother passed away from Multiple Myeloma.
This relates to doctors who demand a defined and specific diagnosis required for euthanasia. Lennie’s mental disorder is his fatal flaw. He is not a patient with terminal cancer, he is a patient with a deadly contagion with one confirmed death; Curley’s Wife. George is quarantining this disease when he kills George, protecting society and any future victims of Lennie’s innocent wrath. This form of euthanasia is not only an act of mercy towards Lennie, but towards any other potential victims.
There seem to be two overarching principles supporting the legalization of physician-assisted: autonomy and mercy. I believe that “the principle of autonomy, or self-determination insists that terminally ill patients have the right to extricate themselves from pain and suffering and to control as much as possible at the ends of their lives” (Battin, 1998). Many people that support this issue believe patients living in a state of agony due to terminal illnesses have a right to cease their pain and die with dignity. People have the right to choose between life and death during times of immense pain when death is closely inevitable anyway. Some where you have people against the situation.
They also argue that Physician-Assisted-Suicide allows terminally ill patients to avoid unnecessary pain and agony in their final days and also allows the patient to control the manner and timing of his/her own death. Cons Just like there are many pros there are cons to Physician-Assisted-Suicide. Society is fearful of Physician-Assisted-Suicide because they fear being pressured to terminate their lives by the people around them and/or the medical staff. In addition, patients might feel as if they have become a burden to their families and committing suicide will resolve that for his/her family. Another concern would be the message being sent, especially to those who are not terminally ill. Would our younger generation have the understanding that committing suicide is appropriate?
However, if a doctor or another individual assists in the suicide, it is then considered murder. Doctors are supposed to save lives, not take them. Society does not find that ending one’s life, whether personally or assisted, is acceptable. Doctor assisted suicide is one of the top most controversial issues in America (Ertlet, 2011). Dr. Jack Kevorkian was one of the most well-known physician-assisted suicide supporters in America.
This “right to die” should extend to aide a dying or active euthanasia for the terminally ill at their request. Though, as we discuss conditions of death and dying in the content of our own families and friends, we notice a somewhat more complex and dynamic quality of interpersonal activity in these situations. In fact, little about a dying person situation supports a sense of their autonomy in any but the most formal sense. The discussion of assisted suicide was focused on ideas of individual self-sufficiency and self-determination as the values ideally characterizing an individual’s decision to seek and end his or her
The fact is that the government saying that people can choose to end their own lives actually does open up the door for other forms of euthanasia. The best way of preventing government from taking a stance on euthanasia is by making government the absolute defender of life. The government says that the premature taking of a life in any circumstances aside from rare exceptions like self-defense (where a life is being put against another life) is criminal. Whether it is the person ending their own life, getting a physician to do it for them, or ending someone else’s life, it is