Physician- Assisted Death (PAD), or Euthanasia, is ending a patient’s life with the help of a physician. Euthanasia is painless and the patient would have to be diagnosed with an incurable disease or a terribly painful illness to even be considered. An individual will request euthanasia and will have to see a hospital psychologist to make sure he or she can come to terms with dying. There are many benefits to consider when thinking about euthanasia; the patient will not be in pain or suffer from the illness anymore, safer and more effective than a patient trying to end their life on his or her own terms, hospitals and family members would actually save money, and the patients’ feel more control over their own death. One disadvantage to this is a lot of doctors feel that euthanasia breaks the Hippocratic Oath the physicians are sworn to obey when they graduate from medical school. Euthanasia, when used for the correct reasons, can be a powerful resource for patients who cannot live with their pain.
Smith (2006) states:
You see, real people--that is patients--don 't blithely dismiss the Hippocratic Oath as if it were merely akin to a secret handshake. In their commonsense understanding, the Oath protects their welfare by making doctors honor-bound to always 'do no harm ' (a catchphrase that succinctly summarizes the moral thrust of the Oath, although it does not appear in the document itself). Unfortunately, we live in an age when pledges of duty and fidelity of the kind