...Against Assisted Suicide Physician Assisted Suicide is met with much opposition from medical professionals and patients alike. Some of the main arguments people have against assisted suicide is based solely on the idea that it is “morally wrong.” There are arguments about how doctors could potentially kill the wrong people, (Feldman, 1998) referring to assisting suicide for mentally ill patients rather than terminally ill. Some argue that doctors are supposed to be healers and it’s not a healer’s job to end a life. (Feldman, 1998) Arguments about how legalizing assisted suicide for the terminally ill could potentially mean legalizing suicide for whomever requests it. (Feldman, 1998) The number one argument against assisted suicide, however, is that assisting in another person’s suicide would be playing God. (Feldman, 1998)...
Words: 1211 - Pages: 5
...hospital due to medical complications, bad health, or many other circumstances. Some peoples time living comes to an end suddenly or even within a date the doctors have predicted based on the health of a particular patient. Recently, many patients have took the route of asking a doctor to “Pull the Plug”, otherwise known as “Assisted Suicide”. Assisted Suicide is the process in which a doctor or physician will help a patient decide on the circumstance and time of their death, while still being considered ethical. Assisted suicide is an exceptional decision a person can make to end their life, as harsh as it may seem, but still being humane. A person should not have to suffer and go through the complications of medical procedures and medicines, when in the end their chances of living are very slim. There is much controversy that surrounds the procedure of physicians assisting people on their death. Some of the arguments that are mainly found are the points of Rojas 2 “Euthanasia” and the “Hippocratic Oath” doctors and physicians sware to when...
Words: 3092 - Pages: 13
...Young’s book gives readers an insight of the perspective of those against assisted suicide. Young explains that critics towards assisted suicide fear that people will misuse the lethal dose to hurt others. Although people can misuse the lethal drug, this drug is under lock and watched closely in the states where euthanasia is allowed. One of the arguments that advocates persist on is palliative care, which is a medicine that relieves pain, but an issue that consists with palliative care is that many people with deathly illnesses cannot afford it, which is when assisted suicide becomes their best option. Individuals who are against the action of assisted suicide should not consider it as killing because it is what the patient wishes for. Although...
Words: 264 - Pages: 2
...There has been a lot of controversy surrounding how and when we shall die. Although assisted suicide is legal in some countries, it largely remains illegal in many other parts of the world. Should terminally ill patients be allowed to end their suffering and choose when they die or should it be left to fate to decide when they die? The view from some people is that promoting assisted suicide sends a wrong message to society that taking one’s own life is unacceptable. Doctors who have taken an oath to do no harm have no justification to assist those who want to die. Carrying out such acts would be in violation of their own oaths. They argue that rational reasoning cannot be expected from someone suffering extreme pain. Also raising questions...
Words: 339 - Pages: 2
...intolerable and incurable suffering. Physician-assisted suicide occurs when a physician facilitates a patient's death by providing the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act (AMA Policy on End-of-Life). Due to the fact that this is a controversial subject, it is not widely accepted by many. As of right now, euthanasia is only legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia and Luxembourg, and assisted suicide is only legal in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Albania and in the American states of Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico Washington, and Montana. We control the course of our own...
Words: 1376 - Pages: 6
...February 2017 Physician Assisted Death Although some people say that physicians should not assist in death because it is morally wrong and hypocritical, physician assisted suicide may be the best option for terminally ill patients and should be legal because it ends suffering, allows for organ donation, and gives the patient the dignity of choosing his/her own fate. A very important aspect of why physician-assisted suicide should be legal is that it ends suffering. Terminally ill patients go through much suffering, and it can get to the point where no medication helps with the pain. Only so much of the pain can be managed (Quill, “Dying Patients Should” 61).This is one of the main reasons...
Words: 1459 - Pages: 6
...Cons One of the biggest cons that is used against Physician assisted suicide is the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, Doctors must take to become a doctor. The oath states that a doctor is to never give a deadly drug to anyone that asks and to never make that suggestion. If we want to get technical evetime a doctor prescribes a drug they are giving that person a deadly drug. All drugs have horrific side effects that can-do harm to one’s body, that is why we have follow up appointments to test and retest that our organs are not being damage by the prescribed medication. If a patient that is terminally ill wants to die they could save up their pain medication that had been prescribed by their physician and take their own life. How can it truly be harming a person if by administrating a drug to a terminally ill patient to end their life when they have already been given a terminal diagnosis? The Hippocratic Oath has been changed before with the changes in the medical field, it should be changed again to allow for physician assisted suicide....
Words: 475 - Pages: 2
...Assisted Suicide Shanette Anfield PHI200: Mind and Machine Troy Epps July 31, 2012 Assisted Suicide Assisted suicide is an ethical issue that not only has an effect on the individual, but it also reflects on the society where the individual lives. Euthanasia is an act of someone else ending someone’s life. Assisted suicide is the act of the individual having help in ending their own life. “Physician-assisted suicide (PAS), is slightly different than euthanasia; in using PAS, the patient is provided the means for terminating his or her life, but the patient, not the doctor, ends the life in question” (Mosser, 2010, Chp. 2.3, para. 31). However, not all assisted suicides may involve a doctor. In the United States, Oregon was the first state to pass an assisted-suicide law. Washington is a state that has as recently as 2008 adopted an act that allows residents that have less than six months to live to request a legal dose of medication. Eleven states, including Alabama, Idaho and North Carolina ‘have no enactments which criminalize aiding, abetting, assisting, or counseling suicide” (“Assisted Suicide,” 2010, para. 1-7). Several other states such as Alaska, California and Florida “criminalize aiding, abetting, and/or assisting suicide” (“Assisted Suicide,” 2010, para. 8). I am a Georgian and our law states that any involvement in an assisted suicide is a felony. The main conflict of assisted suicide...
Words: 2279 - Pages: 10
...Assisted suicide is defined as a physician providing a patient the means to take his or her own life. It is done by the administration of a lethal substance usually a type of medication. It is easy to see why this is such a controversial topic, it is dealing with the voluntary death of an individual. Each side has very strong views and arguments on this matter. Many believe that terminal ill patients have the “right to die,” while others say that we as a society have a moral responsibility “to protect and to preserve all life” (Andre, and Velazquez, Assisted Suicide: A Right or a Wrong?). People who are for assisted suicide say that terminally ill patients who are living in severe pain have the “right to die,” and should be allowed to end...
Words: 564 - Pages: 3
...Assisted Death for the Terminally Ill – Yes or No? (2012, October 20). Over my dead body; Assisted suicide. The Economist, 405(8807), 55(US). This article recognizes the increasing acceptance of assisted suicide amongst the public and across the world. Despite so, there are still groups of people who are apprehensive about legalizing euthanasia as they are worried that it may have negative implications. The article gives a detailed description of the requirements that must be met before a person is allowed to go through with assisted suicide. It also uses data to prove that safety measures put in place are being followed and there is barely any abuse of the law in places that legalize assisted suicide. Although voluntary euthanasia is still considered as murder, many doctors in Europe give patients or their family the choice of proceeding with treatment or undergoing passive euthanasia. The article also talks about the possible reasons why people opt for assisted suicide, including loss of independence, dignity, and more. The use of statistics shows that substantial research has been done by the author to prove his point, confirming it is a good source to support the legalization of assisted suicide. As “The Economist” is a reputable magazine, this source is credible and is unlikely to publish articles without prior research. Cassity, S. A. (2009). To Die or Not To Die: The History and Future of Assisted Suicide Laws in the U.S. Utah Law Review, 2009 (2), 515-523...
Words: 1759 - Pages: 8
...Assisted suicide is a very controversial issue with numbers of pros and cons that can affect both national and international codes of ethics. Assisted suicide is emotional and controversial which ranks up there with abortion. The main thing we need to come up with is that is it morally ethical to kill someone even if the person is in pain. And there is way we can answer that without stating all the pros and cons it comes with. Let's start by saying that it goes against religious views and also against medical ethics if it is the doctor or nurse doing the assisted suicide. If the patient is suffering at the end of his life people have the right not to suffer. It should be considered as much of a crime to make someone live who with justification does not wish to continue as it is to take life without consent. Activists often claim that the laws against assisted suicide are government mandated suffering. But this claim would be similar to saying that laws against selling contaminated food are government mandated starvation. Laws against assisted suicide are in place to prevent abuse and to protect people from dishonest doctors and others. They are not, and never have been, intended to make anyone suffer. The legal right to die some people refer to the liberty interest implicated in right to die cases as a liberty interest in committing suicide we described it as the right to die and determining the time and the manner of one's death and hastening ones death for an important...
Words: 971 - Pages: 4
...Physicians-Assisted Suicide Physician-Assisted Suicide is a medical process where a physician supplies a terminally ill patient with a prescription for one dose of lethal medication. The prescription is given to a patient upon request only if the patient intends to end his or her own life because of suffrage from a terminal illness. Today, physicians-assisted suicide is more commonly known as the Death-With-Dignity Act. Recent stories of patients who have attempted to end their own life by lethal medication have made countless headlines concerning the topic throughout many informational sources. Currently, the states of Washington, Oregon, and Vermont are the only three states that have adopted the Death-With-Dignity Act. Physician-Assisted Suicide is among many practices that aid in ending a patient’s life along with DNR’s, DNI’s, and AND’s, when life-sustaining treatments are denied. Physicians-Assisted Suicide is much more controversial than other life ending methods because it enables a patient to end her or her own life in a way that many individuals feel is immoral and unethical. The ethical issues of physicians-assisted suicide are both emotional and controversial, yet healthcare workers deal with a request for this alternative every day. Is physicians-assisted suicide the answer? The question doesn’t come by an easy answer. However, both sides of the debate, either for it or against it, provide strong, concrete points that help truly uncover where the controversy lies...
Words: 3316 - Pages: 14
...“Euthanasia,” “Assisted Suicide” – whatever name people refer to it as, one thing is very certain: it is one of the most passionately debated issues confronting people today. People are generally either for the legalization of physician assisted suicide under very specific conditions or against any form of it altogether. Both sides of the debates present arguments that take into consideration the oral, medical, and ethical implications of their decisions. In the United States, it is not a crime to take one’s own life. But the question is: is there a point when it should be legal for a physician to assist someone in taking their life? Physician Assisted suicide should be a legal option for terminally ill patients....
Words: 802 - Pages: 4
...Legalizing the Right to Your Own Life The term assisted suicide refers to the practice of a physician giving a patient, per their request, a prescription for a lethal drug which the patient would consume as a means of ending their own life. Assisted suicide should be legalized for any and all people who seek this out in order to put an end to their life. People deserve to have a right to their own bodies and lives, so if they choose to put an end to it, they should not be restricted in their access to a way of doing so. Much of the debate over whether assisted suicides should be legalized has to do with whether people have the right to die along with the right to live, whether or not people should have to suffer, the Hippocratic Oath that physicians have to abide by, and religious standpoints. Many of these arguments have an ethical grounding, and deal with the morality of the action of a suicide. Originally, assisted suicide was known as, or synonymous with euthanasia, which is the killing of a person out of and by a doctor’s mercy for that person. Many people tend to equate euthanasia with physician assisted suicide because both involve having the help of a physician. However, physician assisted suicide differs from euthanasia because it requires the patient’s consent and an evaluation of the patient before the patient is given a prescription for lethal drugs. The practice of an assisted suicide where it is currently legal, involves a patient who is terminally ill, and has...
Words: 3217 - Pages: 13
...principles, and how society should precede with this in application of law and legislation. I believe that allowing for Euthanasia globally and nationally will begin to further erode the very moral and ethical fiber that separates man from animal. I further support my stand with the example of abortion, and even though opinion hasn’t changed much in the 40 years since Roe vs. Wade allowed for abortion to take place, still millions of babies have been killed despite to negative opinions about it. My hypothesis on this issue is that if nationally legalized it would lead to an untold amount of elderly, handicapped, ill, poor, and lonely people vulnerable to being put to death against their wishes and before their time. The aim of this paper it too show that indeed legalizing “Euthanasia” or “Patient Assisted Suicide” would indeed lead us down the “slippery slope. This first step for me in this paper would be to talk about the theories and principles behind not being pro-euthanasia. There are a number of ethical principles that are deontological in nature, are part of the natural moral law, and relevant to the kinds of dilemmas that occur in euthanasia cases.Four of them are as follows: 1. The Principle of Autonomy. A competent person has the right to determine his or her own course of medical action in accordance with a plan he or she chooses. We have a duty to respect the wishes and desires expressed by a competent decision maker. 2. The Principle of Beneficence. One should act...
Words: 3593 - Pages: 15
