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Argumentative Essay On Physician Assisted Suicide

1163 Words5 Pages

A doctor intentionally taking the lives of one of their patients? There is massive support for these types of programs for their ability to reduce suffering, lower healthcare costs for the terminally ill and give people control of their lives. On the other side of the argument, it removes any hope from an already sad situation, gives too much possibility for misuse and can be considered immoral under the Hippocratic Oath medical providers must take.

Background and History
There are two types of assisted suicide, passive and active. Passive assisted suicide would be removing treatments that preserve the lives of a patients such as medicine, therapy or patients refusing food and water. These instances are initiated by the patients and create a tricky legal situation for healthcare …show more content…

For some, one of the only reliefs for this is the idea that they can end the suffering on their terms without any pain. Jamie Grebosky (personal communication), the chief quality and patient safety officer for Asante Health in Oregon has experience dealing with the patients and procedure of physician assisted suicide. In his experience he says that while there are most likely cases when a procedure has gone wrong leading to further harm, he has never personally experienced it. He believes that it is an effective tool for end of lives care of terminally ill patients.
A big argument against physician assisted suicide from a medical standpoint is the idea that it violates the Hippocratic oath doctors must take. All doctors must swear to do no intentional harm to patients. While it may seem that physician assisted suicide is not innately harmful, but instead aimed at providing peace, there are some that see the intentional ending of a lives unacceptable under any circumstances.
Suicide and

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