For others who are more incapacitated, PAS could involve setting up a mechanism whereby the patient merely has to 'press a button' to receive a lethal injection. Physician assisted suicide clearly has consequences for another person since it requires involvement of another. The issue of whether human beings and more pointedly, doctors have the right to help others die has been in the public disagreement for a very long time. The Hippocratic Oath, which was estimated to be written in the fourth century B.C., includes the statement “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I
Assisted Suicide Assisted Suicide Kelly Dickinson PHI: 200 Robert Vaughan June 20, 2011 Assisted Suicide 1 The Philosophical issue I have chosen to write about from the topic of ethics Is Assisted Suicide. According to the Medical Dictionary, assisted suicide is a suicide by an individual Helps another
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.
However, there are many pros and cons to each side of the argument. Physician-assisted suicide is unethical based on the Hippocratic Oath, but is ethical based on the patient’s views – which sometimes outweigh the morals of a physician. Physician-assisted suicide first became an issue when our society decided that it was neither moral nor ethical for a physician to help end a terminally ill patient’s life. According to Katie Pickert, Dr. Jack Kevorkian brought lots of attention to the topic during the “epic assisted suicide battle of the 1990s” (1). People who argue with Kevorkian for physician-assisted suicide feel that by helping a patient end his or her life peacefully is helpful to family and friends.
Physician-assisted suicide as defined under the bill is the right to request lethal drugs by the “terminally-ill” who have only six-months to live. The so-called helpless patients then self-administer the drugs with the intent to end their lives. Physician-assisted suicide is more commonly known as doctor-assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia. The first problem with voluntary euthanasia is that it is biblically wrong. Psalm 71:9 states, “Do not cast me off when I am old, do not forsake me when my strength is gone,” and Proverbs 24:11, “Rescue those being led away to death, hold back those staggering towards slaughter.” Both of these state that we should do the opposite of voluntary euthanasia.
Assisted Suicide: A Person's Right Assisted Suicide has been around for thousands of years dating back to Ancient Greece and Rome (Weikart). Assisted suicide refers to when a terminally ill patient is killed as a way out of the physical and mental pain of their disease. The only place in the United States where physician assisted suicide is legal is In Oregon, where the death with dignity act was passed in 1997 (Stokely). Euthanasia became popular during the 1990's when Dr. Kevorkian would illegally killed terminally ill patients from his home (Stokely). Because each person has basic human rights that cannot be taken away, he or she should be able to make a very private decision about the circumstances and time of his or her own death.
If a person is suffering in unbearable pain and cannot enjoy life then euthanasia would be the best option to help that person die a dignified and peaceful death, rather than a period of lost dignity and prolonged suffering. Current laws state that active euthanasia is illegal in most of the country. Patients can refuse medical treatment and receive pain management, even if the patient’s choices hasten their death. Futile or burdensome treatments, such as life support machines, may be withdrawn under specific circumstances. Under federal and some state laws medical facilities need consent from patients or, in the event of incompetency of the patient, informed consent of the legal surrogate.
Assisting in suicide or any aid considering this question is prohibited in the United States. These actions are regarded as crime (Hosseini, 2012). The only state that legalized assisted suicide was Oregon (Hosseini, 2012). Kevorkian created the machine, which delivered euthanasia drugs intravenously to patients. Other people died due to machine which supplied carbon monoxide to face mask.
It can be broken down into multiple categories which help to give clarity to what exact action is being conducted. Firstly we have active euthanasia which is the deliberate killing of a patient. There is then passive euthanasia where the patient is deliberately allowed to die. Euthanasia is then broken down into three types; voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary. If a patient rationally requests for active euthanasia, this is voluntary.
What can be taken out of a theory is what can be used to define and shape what we theorize today. To discount Durkheim’s theory of suicide would be to disregard a point of view that may help in other ways. The following is the explanation of Durkheim’s theory, the opposing views, Durkheim’s personal writings, and agreeable views to his theory of suicide. The Explanation of Durkheim's Theory Durkheim’s theory of suicide was best described as the relationship between an individual and the society they lived in. The main points of his theory of why people committed suicide are as follows: the degree of an individual’s role in society, social isolation, and being normal to which society would define.