Physician-assisted suicide is very controversial. Some people believe in death with dignity and that we shouldn’t have to suffer from terminal diseases if we don’t want to. Others believe that the act of assisting someone to their death is playing God. Many people also think that the practice of physician-assisted suicide corrupts the practice of medicine and the doctor-patient relationship. The Hippocratic Oath states: “I will keep the sick from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.” Many doctors stand firmly by the Hippocratic Oath and believe that they should not stray from these beliefs. By legalizing and allowing assisted suicide, every physician …show more content…
"Physician-assisted suicide isn 't about physicians becoming killers. It 's about patients whose suffering we can 't relieve and about not turning away from them when they ask for help” says Dr. Peter Rogatz. Assisted suicide isn’t an option for most terminally ill patients and even the patients that to decide they want the prescription, up to 40% of them never even take the pills. All doctors for assisted suicide just want to help their patients from living and dying in pain. Others think that assisted suicide should be legal because it will save the United States and the Government money. Over $50 billion dollars is spent of end of life care for terminally ill patients. Many people believe that providing these dying patients with this less-costly option will save the United States enormous amounts of …show more content…
I believe that Physician-assisted suicide should be legal in the United States for many reasons. I don’t believe in letting people live in pain and suffer. I think the option should be open to every terminally ill person in America. The option should always be there for people as it is for animals. One major code of ethics in the medical field is that a physician shall exercise his/her independent professional judgement and I think that should apply to this. If a physician believes that aid-in-dying should be an option to his/her patients then they should be able to exercise those rights wherever they reside. A physician should also always act in the patient 's best interest when providing medical care and provide them with full knowledge of what is going on. I believe that if a physician is talking to a patient about assisted suicide they should provide the patient with every piece of information they have. They should also always do what is best for the patient, which means not misleading them or putting them in any harms way. If Physician-assisted suicide is a valid and safe option for a patient, then the doctor has every right to inform them. These code of ethics are extremely important and should always be in play when physician-assisted suicide is being talked about. I am pro life and I believe that everyone should live life to the fullest. But when you are in nonstop excruciating pain and there is no way of relief, then i truly think that physician assisted suicide
What is a doctor’s point of view? Doctor Michelle Stanford, was served as the chief resident at Children’s Hospital in Denver among many other accolades. Dr. Stanford, states it undermines the integrity of the medical profession; she goes on to quote the American Medical Association “Allowing physicians to participate would cause more harm than good, physicians assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s as healer would difficult or impossible and would pose serial societal risks.” (Prop 106 - Dr. Michelle Stanford).
Physican-assisted suicide is defined as a voluntary termination of one 's own life by administration of a lethal substance with direct or indirect assistance of a physican. (Webster Dictionary, 2011). This topic has been a very controversial subject among so many people from different types of states and countries. The fact that, some physican are agaisnt this and some are fore it can lead to a very huge debet on whether or not to legalize this act. For one moment, imgine that you are in the hospital bed, and you have been getting treated for years now and the doctor just tells you that you have no more hope and starting now, you will be going down hill with serve pain that not even medication will help relive this pain.
In the Newsweek article, “Physician-Assisted Suicide Is Always Wrong,” by Ryan Anderson, it is stated that the legalization of assisted suicide “would be a grave mistake.” Anderson provides a few examples of why assisted suicide is detrimental. One, he states it leads to an endangerment of the weak and disenfranchised in societies. His outlook is that the purported safeguards of eliminating risk has mainly been nonexistent, which in some countries like the Netherlands who has legalized physician assisted suicide (PSA), has lead to doctors administering lethal injections to patients without request. Two, Anderson, sees assisted suicide as a compromise in the practice of medicine.
Physician assisted suicide is a contradiction to the hippocratic oath. It allows physicians to administer lethal medication to a patient upon request and good reasoning. Some may argue that this procedure is unjust, but physician
Instead of doctors taking the easy way out, they should work to find a solution to nurse the patient back to health. Physician-assisted suicide is wrong because it is murder, it puts an emotional burden on hospital employees and family members of the patient by taking part in a purposeful death, and it goes against the religious view that
“The hippocratic oath, one of the most historically common physicians’ oaths, states that, ‘most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death...this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.’” With this being said, in matters of life and death you have to really think and consider what is best for the patient and that you can’t mess with what God has planned. Physicians, well most anyways, believe that God has a plan and for them to mess with it is not right to do. Although, I still believe that euthanasia should be legal because life isn’t worth living whenever you’re in so much pain that life isn’t even worth living anymore.
The cost to keep these patients is cringe worthy and there are very few patients that are wealthy enough to sustain the costs. For those who are not wealthy the cost and burden of debt falls onto love ones. Most family members do not usually think of the costs while they are still on this earth but when they pass away they are left with a huge hospital bill, sometimes leaving people bankrupt. Ronald Dworkin, author of Power for Life, said that "most patients want to spare there love ones with burdens of keeping them alive (193). In allowing these patients to make the choice of ending their lives one can save their loved ones obscene amounts of money and alleviate a
“Legislation that allows people to end their lives automatically creates incentives to seek death as a cost-saving option. The elderly and infirm are seen as burdens and can easily be disposed of. Suicide becomes the easy way out.” (Ben Broussard) Most of the time physicians are against the idea of physician assisted suicide because it goes against their job description and personal beliefs.
After researching both sides of the argument, it is clear that the benefits of physician-assisted suicide outweigh the disadvantages. The benefits of ending a patient’s pain and suffering, minimizing the emotional and financial effects on families, and preserving the right for patients to decide their own fate, supports the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.
“First do no harm”, is the quote that is used over and over to support both sides of the debate over Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide. I dare to ask you one simple question, “How would you want you individual rights to live or no live to be determined?” Should an ancient oath written between 460 -380 B.C. determine your faith; or should your beliefs, wants and wishes rule your outcome? Do your life rally belong to you or can a judge, social society, medical team, legal team, and/or a jury of peers control more of your life than you. I say, “YES” physician-assisted suicide should be legal in all fifty states.
What some people think though is that if we set regulations on the doctors, then the Assisted Suicides will be kept to only those who wish for it, but what if the doctors think a patient is better off dead than alive? What if the physician thinks that the patient is not worth saving or keeping alive? One person says “Of all the arguments against voluntary euthanasia, the most influential is the 'slippery slope': once we allow doctors to kill patients, we will not be able to limit the killing to those who want to die”
Patients have the right to the kind of treatment they want. 3) Conclusion a) Physician assisted suicide can help treat the terminally ill how they would like to be treated. b) The long history of assisted suicide speaks for itself in the matter of if it should be legal or
Many people think that there are too many problems with physician assisted suicide. Physician assisted suicide is a procedure that allows physicians to prescribe their patients a lethal medication that they can inject themselves with in order to die on their own terms. There are specific requirements that the patients must meet in order to receive this medication. Physician assisted suicide is only for patients that have life threatening illnesses and do not have much time left to live. It is legal in numerous places around the world including certain places in the United States.
Legalizing physician assisted suicide can not only be a solution to the shortage of vital organs that are needed, but can also give terminally ill patients the opportunity to save another person’s life. According to a journal article written by Michael Cook, “Organ donation after euthanasia enables those who do not wish to remain alive to prolong the lives of those who do, (BioEdge). By giving patients who no longer have the will to live this option they are able to die knowing that they saved another person. Not only do they get this chance, but the organs recovered from them are more viable for transplants.
The dying patient no longer has quality of life, they have lost their independence, are lonely, are forced to endure inevitable pain, are publicly humiliated, are suffering immensely, and are forced to watch their loved ones grieve because of them. It is an innate Constitutional Right to choose how to die, since we all will die. There comes a point when the poking and prodding becomes too much, when the patient wants to just die in silence in the loving arms of their