Community physicians have been around almost as long in some capacity, dealing with these sufferings with the technology available. Helping people deal with their suffering is a high calling, and how far this calling is taken is the topic of this work. How far should a physician go to ease suffering? Physician assisted suicide is a method for doctors to manage a voluntary patient death without administering the lethal medication. Doctors prescribe the medication and the patient administers their own death.
Physician assisted suicide should be a right given to all people who are suffering from a painful, degenerative, or deadly condition. Anyone who might never enjoy the luxuries of living a happy and healthy life again. Though several ongoing debates are against physician-assisted suicide, ethicists are still not the one who is responsible to make this decision. Patients have the right to free will and human dignity that gives them the right to choose physician assisted suicide. Being able to have this choice allows the patient to maintain some control over their devastating situation.
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.
should physician assisted suicide be legalized? A current event Critical thinking and computer logic February 13, 2012 Should physician assisted suicide be legalized How to handle end of life care is a decision fraught with ethical, moral and legal issues that have plagued us for generations. End of life care is a uniquely personal journey that can only be experienced once. While many of us have witnessed, and even supported someone making the journey, we are an outsider who at best struggles for understanding and acceptance of what the dying person wants, and needs. On one side of the coin we have individuals who believe that your right to self determine is second to the sanctity of life.
Nevertheless, the technologies also prolong the dying processes, leading some people to question whether modern medicine is forcing patients to live in unnecessary pain when there is no chance they will be cured. “Passive euthanasia—disconnecting a respirator or removing a feeding tube has become an accepted solution to this dilemma. Active euthanasia perhaps an overdose of pills or a deadly injection of morphine remains controversial “(McDougall,
Beyond the science of pharmaceuticals is the science of care, a role which encompasses how pills affect our physiology. Critics argue that were placebos to be encouraged in the practice of medicine, patients could delay other treatments with longer- lasting benefits. Similar to the placebo effect, in which a fake medication can give patients the benefits of having taken the real drug, the nocebo effect is the little-studied fact that patients taking a fake drug can also experience real negative side effects. "In one remarkable case, a participant in an antidepressant drug trial was given placebo tablets—and then swallowed 26 of them in a suicide attempt. Even though the tablets were harmless, the participant's blood pressure dropped perilously low."
The Pros and Cons of Assisted Suicide Linda Daniels HCA322: Health Care Ethics & Medical Law (BGE1234A) Instructor: Kymberly Lum September 24, 2012 The Pros and Cons of Assisted Suicide Assisted Suicide is a widely devised topic among the medical field and on a personal level. In this paper we will discuss the options for assisted suicide, the United State states that do approve of it and some of the states that do not approve of assisted suicide. I personally approve of assisted suicide and I will go over the reasons I do approve of it. This is such a diverse subject and we all have our own opinion on assisted suicide and who is to say who is right and who is wrong but let’s get started on this diverse subject and see where you stand. There are three states in the United States that approve assisted suicide they are the following states Washington, Oregon, and Montana.
Medical Ethics of Active Euthanasia Abstract This paper explains what active euthanasia is and how it ethically has an effect on the practice of medicine. As time passes there are increasing numbers of terminally ill cases, such as cancer or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. These patients endure physical symptoms other than pain often contributes to suffering near the end of lift. Most physicians and their patients strive to for cures. However, there are some patients who give up and opt to end their life by way of active euthanasia.
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
“Many physicians say they would be clouding their roles as healers if they helped patients to die” (Buchanan 36.) Physicians even take the Hippocratic Oath, which states that “a physician promises to help the sick and never to cause harm” (Buchanan 36.) As Daniel E. Lee, a reporter for the Hastings Center, says “Meaning and hope are possible in all of life’s situations, even in the midst of suffering” (17.) If the United States were to nationally legalize assisted suicide, it would be a disaster, not only because the way it would go against our morals, but the way it would negatively effect today’s society. “Janet, Sherry , Marjorie, and Susan were not terminal by accepted medical definition…[they] were not Kevorkian’s patients in any traditional sense.