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Hippocratic Oath

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Similar to its violation of ancient teachings of the Bible, the assistance of a physician in medical suicide directly violates the ancient Hippocratic oath, and it is for this reason that many physicians refuse to support legalization of the practice. The Hippocratic oath is a promise, regarding the ethical standards of medicine, that all physicians swear to uphold. The classical oath asserts that “[the physician] will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will [the physician] make a suggestion to this effect]” (Ruggles). On these grounds the oath, developed in the late fifth century BC, directly prohibits the practice of physician-assisted suicide. It is for this reason that some physicians so vehemently oppose …show more content…
The commonly cited Oath provides strikingly insubstantial support for the argument against physician-assisted suicide due to its outdated content and imprecise and archaic language.
While the central premise of the Hippocratic oath is benevolently “to cause no harm,” the standards with which the oath attempts to enforce this have become markedly archaic in the modern world, and should not be held as a valid argument in the counterpoint against assisted suicide. The oath does directly prohibit physician assisted-suicide, however, shortly after this statement the same oath denounces the practice of abortion and even the removal of a bladder stone, practices that are legal and commonplace in modern medicine. In addition to these aspects of the oath that are blatantly inharmonious with modern society, “the ancient religious foundation of the Oath has …show more content…
Included in such decisions, should be the choice to pursue physician-assisted suicide in the case of severe, life-ending illness. A survey conducted of patients seeking life-ending prescriptions in 2015 found that the primary concern of 91.4% of these patients was the loss of patient autonomy (Dugan). These individuals feared that their conditions would progress to yield them unfit to make decisions regarding their own healthcare. If their conditions did progress to this state, it would be entirely to the discretion of family members and physicians to determine how much life-sustaining treatment to provide. It is this—the loss of control of bodily functions, the inability to enjoy life, the descent into utter helplessness—that patients near the end of life fear most. With the loss of autonomy comes the loss of dignity. It is for this reason that individuals with life-ending, painful illnesses must be able to exercise their rights to patient autonomy while they are still physically capable. However, current federal law in the United States restricts this autonomy; policy forbids a patient from making the responsible, personal decision to hasten the end of his or her own suffering. Within the realm of health

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