Physician-Assisted Suicide
A Review of Relevant Literature and Popular Opinion
Physician-assisted suicide has become a hot topic of late and many people think it is about these physicians becoming killers. This is not true, however, despite the opinions that many hold. The main problem is that many feel that physician-assisted suicide will give doctors too much control over the deaths of their terminally ill patients. This is not the case, however, as physician-assisted suicide will actually give the terminally ill patients more control over their death, and therefore by extension, more control over their life. Not all physicians would be able to do this in good conscience but there are some, most notably Dr. Jack Kevorkian, that feel that they are capable of this type of practice in order to help the suffering of their patients.
Some patients actually request this because they cannot be helped by any modern means to get better in any way and the pain that they are going through in the process of dying is simply too great for them to bear (Rogatz, 2001). Physician-assisted suicide is not legal anywhere in the United States except Oregon but there are strong opinions that indicate that it is unreasonable to stop physicians from performing this kind of service if it is the patient's desire and the only thing that will ease that individual's suffering (Rogatz, 2001). Naturally, if there are pain medications that will help the patient or if there is some strong chance that the patient can be helped and made to get better by normal medical means this should be undertaken.
For those that are terminally ill, however, this physician-assisted suicide is often seen by those patients to be the best option. There are quite a few arguments that want to keep physician-assisted suicide illegal because of the possibilities for misjudgment and misuse of this procedure (Rogatz, 2001). Others, though, believe that all individuals have a right to control what happens to their own body and that physicians all have a duty to relieve the pain and the suffering that their patients are undergoing (Rogatz, 2001). When a patient is competent society strongly recognizes that individual's right to choose what they want done or not done to their body. Self-determination is one of the rights that competent adults have and these individuals are able to indicate whether they want to have treatments such as life-support withdrawn or withheld should they become necessary (Rogatz, 2001).
Suicide in itself used to be illegal throughout the country but that is no longer the case (Rogatz, 2001). However, Oregon is the only state that allows physicians to help an individual take his or her own life to ease pain and suffering (Rogatz, 2001). When patients seek this type of help assistance can be given to them very humanely and if they are left to themselves they often have a lot of uncertainty and confusion over what they might do (Rogatz, 2001). Many of them also hold religious convictions that are strongly affected by ideas of deliberately taking one's own life. The patient is really the only individual that is able to judge whether death is something that is welcomed or feared and if the patient chooses death as a welcoming alternative to the pain and suffering that he or she is facing physicians should be able to administer humane ways of ending a person's life (Rogatz, 2001).
There are key arguments that are made against this type of physician-assisted suicide. The first one has to do with the Hippocratic oath which indicates that a physician should do no harm (Rogatz, 2001). Some believe that doctors would be receiving a license to kill patients if they were allowed to assist in suicide. There are physicians in Oregon where physician-assisted suicide is legal that have helped patients in this way, and many have branded them as murderers (Rogatz, 2001). This is odd because withdrawing treatment that is life-sustaining such as removing a ventilated or feeding tube is generally accepted by most of society (Kass, 1993). This requires a conscious act of will and a definite action by the doctor yet a doctor in that same area cannot prescribe a medication for his or her patient and then leave it up to the patient when and if he or she wishes to take it, knowing that the outcome will be death (Rogatz, 2001).
It is hard to fathom why the prescribing of a medication to induce a peaceful and tranquil death would be seen as murder...
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