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.
Should Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal? Dion O. Hales SOC120 Introduction to Ethics and Social Responsibility Prof. Theodore Framan June 22, 2012 Should Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal? While killing yourself is harder than having someone do it for you is that killing yourself requires firmer resolve, Should euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide be legal? Because a patient's last will and last testament should be honored, a competent patient's request to terminate life-sustaining treatment, and it is our moral right to prevent a person from suffering if they suffer from a disease we cannot cure. First, Should euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide be legal?
Assisted suicide should be legal because it is less expensive, it takes the pain away, and everyone should get a choice in what they do. Is a life in pain, really a life? Assisted suicide needs to be done, if a person is suffering; why not help ease it away? It is also an obligation to relieve our fellow human beings suffering and by doing so it will respect the dignity of others. Suffering can not always be ended by giving a patient several medications it is just no the way of life.
Eventually some people and their families might be forced to put financial concerns above the needs of a loved one. Doctors or insurance companies could try to convince some people to opt for assisted suicide rather than the more expensive treatment. This would be an injustice to all humankind. A history professor at San Francisco State University argued that assisted suicide would lead to inequities and would not be limited to those with a terminal illness. “Given the way the U.S. healthcare system is getting increasingly unjust and even savage, I don't think this system could be trusted to implement such a system equitably, or confine it to people who are immediately terminally ill"(Mohler).
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.
The Dangers of Assisted Suicide “Advocates of physician assisted suicide try to convey the impression that in terminally ill patients the wish to die is totally different from suicidal intent in those without terminal illness” (Herbert and Klerman 118.) Physician assisted suicide is when a physician assists their patient in dying upon their request. In some states there are laws giving limitations to who can request such a “procedure,“ but these laws are not enough to prevent the dangers of assisted suicide. Assisted suicide should be illegal in all fifty states because it is immoral, dangerous to society, and can lead to the deaths of millions of depressed people. “Critics of physician assisted suicide believe that doctors like Jack Kevorkian are doing nothing less than playing God“ (Gay 47.)
Executing euthanasia undermines the commitment of doctors and nurses, defeating doctors’ and nurses’ purposes of saving lives. The Hippocratic oath they had taken would be destroyed because of euthanasia. Not only does euthanasia defeat the purpose of medical healthcare, but it also damages
When one withholds the treatment needed for one to survive this is passive euthanasia. This would be keeping respirators away, treatments that are not opposed by the legal system, and procedures. Active euthanasia is purposely bringing death to someone else by certain actions taken (Gorman). In the U.S. individuals have been given the right to make an Advance Directive that gives the person the right as one’s voice when they become unable to make medical decisions. This Directive is assigned to someone they can put trust into so they would be able to know be the persons voice in making decisions (Advance Directives and Medical Power of Attorney).Voluntary euthanasia takes place when a person makes the choice to end one’s life; non-voluntary euthanasia takes place when a person has not asked or consented to death.
I say this for the purpose of my belief in God the creator of at all life. It violates Medical Ethics. The Hippocratic Oath expressly forbids the giving of deadly medicine to anyone who asks. “This ancient document also requires doctors to swear by Apollo and all the gods and goddesses” (Farnell, 2006). It challenges trust between doctor and patient.
The last for of euthanasia is “involuntary” which is done without the persons consent for example when they are in a coma and the doctors know that he/she will not come out of it. All in all euthanasia is an action that is taken only when a person a suffering from a terminal illness in order to alleviate their pain and suffering and has no intentions of causing harm to the person. Every person has the right to life but under extenuating circumstances death seems to be the better option and a person suffering has the right to make that decision. Many people wonder “How bad would the quality of someone’s life have to be before they can choose to end it?” and the answer is that it is a