The Hippocratic Oath was first found in the fourth century B.C. stating; ‘I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan’. (Pickert, 2009) This emphasises the controversy surrounding physician-assisted suicide and whether it should be legal or not. The conflict of the legalisation of assisted-suicide can be traced to religious roots where it is specified in the Ten Commandments; “Thou Shall Not Kill”. This has influenced many Christian sects to be staunchly against physician-assisted suicide, with many other religions following a similar belief that no human has the right to take another’s life or their own life no matter the circumstances. In 1995, the Northern Territory of Australia became the first country in history to pass a law on voluntary euthanasia which was instated …show more content…
This Act allowed Bob Dent to be the first person to use ‘the death with dignity’ policy to end his own life as he suffered from prostate cancer and wanted to be free from the severe pain caused by his illness. However, with federal intervention this law was reversed and meant that physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia became entirely illegal in Australia. (The World Federation of Right to Die Societies, 2016) In contrast, the Netherlands became in the first country in the world to legalise physician-assisted suicide as well as euthanasia in April 2002; but they introduced a strong list of conditions to allow someone to go through with the procedure which included the patient being under unbearable pain, have an incurable illness and be fully conscious to make their demand. The use of a palliative sedation has become extremely popular and was introduced in a range of hospitals with 15,000 cases a year beginning in 2005. (The Guardian ,