Physician assisted suicide is suicide by a lethal drug, which is prescribed by a physician. Physician-assisted suicide is unlike euthanasia, as the physician is less involved with the process. While euthanasia consists of administering a lethal dose to your patient, physician-assisted suicide allows the patient to end his or her life with simply a prescription provided by a physician. Physician assisted suicide is consistently a highly debated topic. It is permitted in several countries, but remains illegal in almost all US states. A New York court recently ruled physician assisted suicide as illegal, arguing that it is not a fundamental right of the patient. I agree with this ruling, and will argue that supporting physician-assisted suicide cannot be ethically justified and violates several …show more content…
Before physicians are allowed to practice, they are required to take the Hippocratic oath, which can be summarized as “first, do no harm.” The goal of this oath is to emphasize that the most important aspect of the patient-physician relationship, is making sure the patient is secure from any harm. The Hippocratic oath and the non-maleficence principle go hand in hand. The non-maleficence principle claims physicians should at least not harm the patient if they cannot do any good. Both of these principles for medical ethics suggest the physician should do his or her best to prolong the life of the patient and preclude from causing any sort of harm. Based on these biomedical ethics guidelines, physician assisted suicide can be argued as unethical. For physician-assisted suicide to occur, a physician must prescribe lethal medication to a terminally ill patient. Judges on this case argue "the distribution of prescriptions for lethal dosages of