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Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

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Right or Wrong
Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) is one of the most controversial, ethical issues in our society today. Physician Assisted Suicide is the voluntary termination of one’s own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect help of a physician. Physician Assisted Suicide has its proponents and opponents. Among the opponents are physicians who believe it violates the fundamental principles of medicine. They believe doctors should not aid in suicides because to do so is incompatible with the doctor’s role as a healer. Proponents of assisted suicide agree that patients faced with an inevitable death deserve the right to end their lives on their own term, free of pain and suffering. The two arguments for and …show more content…

Human rights are basic rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to regardless of nationality, sex, ethnicity, race, religion, language or other status. These rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life, liberty and freedom of expression. These rights cannot be taken away except under certain conditions. For example the right to liberty can be restricted if a person is found guilty by the court of law. Human rights consists of both rights and obligations. States maintain the right to assume obligations along with duties under international law to respect, protect and fulfill human rights. The obligation to respect means that states must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of human rights. The obligation to protect requires, States to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses. The obligation to fulfil means that States take positive action to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights. While we are entitled to our human rights we must also respect …show more content…

We now have good home and hospital palliative care programs, effectively able to eliminate or greatly reduce pain and suffering. Making good use of those medical skills is the hospice program, now helping more than a million persons each year receive sensitive care in dying.
Although Callahan presents a good case in detailing these alternatives, he is wrong in the assumption that pain and suffering should be endured by providing terminally ill patients with medication to ease the pain. A person can be in so much pain but may not seek medication which is a short term alternation. They may seek another option to rid the suffering of long term pain. The ill want an effective solution that is much more dignified for them than having to take medication to ease the pain which does not always suit each person the same exact way.
Callahan continues by making a rather peculiar point that assisted suicide is “not a medical concern” by confirming it is about an individual’s set of values regarding autonomy and self-control in their dying. Uncontrolled pain and death however will always be considered a medical problem. The patient is never going to be fully satisfied until you provide them with the approximate amount of care and choice needed for them to feel in control of their own decisions regarding their own life. If death was not an important medical concern then why are their many patients who feel that they have to commit

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