HS 4812 Bioethics Discussion Post Unit 8 Compare and contrast euthanasia with physician-assisted suicide. Discuss your stance on physician-assisted suicide. Due to developments in biomedical research as well as the emergence of new fields in evidence-based medicine and bioethics, end-of-life care is a subject that is becoming more and more relevant. Medical professionals frequently discuss euthanasia and assisted suicide, two concepts that can be both comforting and upsetting depending on the situation. It has been possible to evaluate situations that have helped build helpful definitions for the legal regulation of palliative care and public policies in the various health systems thanks to the evolution of these terms and the events connected …show more content…
Euthanasia can be both voluntary and involuntary, with voluntary euthanasia this means consent is given while with involuntary; this case is when a patient is capable of giving consent. There is also non-voluntary euthanasia and in this case the patient is unable to give consent then a family member or an appropriate person will give consent (Medical News Today, 2023). Meanwhile with Physician assisted suicide this is where a doctor will assist a person in ending their life at their request, it most times is due to long suffering from an ailment. Euthanasia and assisted suicide vary in that the patient makes the final decision in the latter; yet, the terms assisted death and euthanasia can be mixed (Picón-Jaimes et al., …show more content…
Euthanasia is the deliberate taking of one's life to end ongoing agony or suffering, whereas assisted suicide is the deliberate helping or encouragement of someone to take their own life. The level of physician and family involvement is the primary distinction between assisted suicide and euthanasia. The patient must self-administer a lethal dose of medication or take any other action that will end his or her life for it to be termed assisted suicide (Difference.Guru, 2017). The patient is the principal agent in committing suicide, even though the doctor "assisted" it by providing the medications. While in euthanasia, the doctor is mostly in charge of ending the patient's life. In situations like this, medical professionals either give life-threatening medications or stop giving patients the care they need to maintain their health (Difference.Guru, 2017). Reference Picón-Jaimes, Y. A., Lozada-Martinez, I. D., Orozco-Chinome, J. E., Montaña-Gómez, L. M., Bolaño-Romero, M. P., Moscote-Salazar, L. R., Janjua, T., & Rahman, S. (2022). Euthanasia and assisted suicide: An in-depth review of relevant historical aspects. Annals of medicine and surgery (2012), 75, 103380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amsu.2022.103380 Medical News Today. (2023). What are euthanasia and assisted suicide?. Retrieved from.