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The Pros And Cons Of Physician Assisted Suicide

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Becoming a doctor is challenging; one must spend countless hours studying, shadowing, and interning to finally be in the position to help others heal. After learning how to treat the human body and wellness of the mind, the soon to be doctors take the Hippocratic Oath. In that oath, doctors must swear to do no harm, so, when considering physician assisted suicide, doctors are in a difficult position. The patient who wants to die would be one who was suffering greatly, but assisting in their death would be harming the patient. Physicians who have spent their entire life learning to treat without harm are on occasion asked by patients to break the oath they swore to keep, complicating matters significantly. Though these professionals surely sympathize with their suffering patients, they must not be forced or allowed by law or by the patient or by the patient’s family to end life. Physician assisted suicide should not be legal in the United States because some illnesses, though detrimental to the body causing individuals to wish for death, can be treated, because it …show more content…

Depression paired with the battle to be faced to conquer an illness creates a feeling helplessness and a desire to end life. Physician assisted suicide allows people to end their lives without providing themselves the chance to make it through their depression. In 1977 a Swedish study of people who attempted suicide at some time between 1933 and 1942 found that only 10.9% of those eventually killed themselves in the subsequent 35 years (Dahlgren, 1977). Though the study is not referencing terminally ill patients, it does address that if given the opportunity to live and recover once the suicidal moment has passed most chose life. Depression, along with many other ailments can be managed and eventually overcome through the help of

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“The real reason for not committing suicide is because you always know how well life gets again after the hell is over.” People are unable to realize how their situation can be resolved better than having to kill themselves. Terminally ill patients are notorious for taking their lives before they can realize the mistake they are making. They believe that it is best for their situation, however, there are multiple reasons for why they should reconsider their actions before something terrible happens. Doctor assisted suicides should not be allowed because of the effects it has on the deceased loved ones and how more terminally ill patients are overcoming their disabilities.

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Physician-Assisted Suicide and its Ethical Dilemma Alexandra N. Gionta California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Physician-Assisted Suicide and its Ethical Dilemma Introduction As an aspiring nurse in California, an ethical dilemma that I am likely to come across is that involved with patient euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). In voluntary active Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, a doctor administers a treatment upon request of the patient that will initiate their tranquil death. This is usually done in the case that the patient is of a certain age and diagnosed with a terminal illness that causes them suffering. A common misconception is that PAS is the same as euthanasia, but there is a distinct difference between the two.

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If physician- assisted suicide was legal so many patients would be in peace not having to deal with all the pain they went through. The pain these patients are suffering from could continue for who knows how long, they should not have to go through the suffering if they don’t have to. The patient’s

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Physician Assisted suicide is an ethical way to end one’s live because the patients are informed about the steps of the procedure, saving patients the pain and the money associated with the sickness and gives the families

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Sometimes the patient and Physician agree that suicide is in the patient’s best interest. Thus Physician-Assisted Suicide is morally permissible. Objections:

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Although the phrase is not in the actual Hippocratic Oath, one of the most fundamental principles of the medical community is “do no harm”. One could use this principle to support the eradication of Physician Assisted Suicide, but what happens when by trying to do no harm, we actually cause more harm? Physician Assisted Suicide is defined by Merriam-Webster as “suicide by a patient facilitated by means (such as drug prescription) or by information (such as an indication of lethal dosage) provided by a physician aware of the patient’s intent” (Webster). Although often cited as “legalized murder”, it is important to note that Physician Assisted Suicide is requested by the patient, and also does have rules and regulations in their respective

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Do physicians have a higher moral code than the average person? Will they always do the right thing? Many might say yes, but are physicians not human too? Physician-assisted suicide can promote an end to a patient’s suffering when there is no hope of getting better. While The process of ending life during a terrible suffering can be beneficial, the risks of malpractice can be too great to allow.

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Physician assisted suicide is currently legal in five U.S. states with fifteen more states reviewing it within the next year making it an important topic to look at morally and ethically. Physician assisted suicide is the act of an individual killing themselves with the help of a physician, usually by taking a lethal dose of a drug. It is important to point out that the patient first has to request it and they complete the ultimate act. This differs from euthanasia where the physician is the one who ultimately causes the death. Physician assisted suicide is requested because the patient is enduring tremendous pain and suffering which can only be ended with their death (Vaughn 293).

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“Unfortunately, we live in an age when pledges of duty and fidelity of the kind found in the Oath are fast becoming passé... This is most unfortunate. The author of the Oath... understood that killing is not a medical act” ("Do Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide Violate the Hippocratic Oath?"). The Hippocratic oath provides a foundation for the practices of physicians, and because of this, the notion of physician-assisted suicide is completely counterintuitive to the work of a physician. By becoming a physician, people are promising to do everything in their power in order to help not hurt patients.

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Doctors granted one in six requests for lethal prescriptions, and only one in 10 requests resulted in death, according to a survey of more than 2,600 Oregon physicians in the Feb. 24, 2000, New England Journal of Medicine. Of the 221 requests in the survey, 21% were denied because patients had symptoms of depression. Oregon’s policy for assisted suicide provides a careful way in which PAS can be implemented across the

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Physician-assisted Suicide and Ethical Principles The responsibility a physician has to his patients and society is established by medical ethics and is at a greater degree than the law (Sulmasy & Mueller, 2017). The ethical principles, beneficence, autonomy, nonmaleficence, and promotion of fairness and social justice, are the basis for a physician’s duties to his patients. He is a member of a profession with ethical obligations; he is not just a service provider, but a moral advocate. Both medical ethics and the law support the patient’s right to refuse therapy.

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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

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Notably, “Physician-assisted suicide differs from euthanasia, which is defined as the act of assisting people with their death in order to end their suffering, but without the backing of a controlling legal authority.” (CNN par. 3) For this reason, some could make a case that assisted suicide is nothing more than a qualified physician helping a patient willingly end his life, no harm, no foul; however, it is rarely considered that all physicians take an oath that they will do all in their power to care for their patients and give them what they need to heal, not what they need to die. Should this oath be disregarded if the patient wishes to die?

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Jack Kevorkian once stated, ‘Dying is not a crime.’ Most individuals believe the option of physician assisted suicide is unethical but consciously choose to forget that the decision does have positive outcomes. The Hippocratic Oath has become a limb to critics who find the need to justify themselves. Human life entails death! This means as humans we should express the element of death and not look down on people who choose to die because ‘without death- human life does not exit by explanation.’

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The proponents for physician-assisted suicide claim that it should be an option for terminally ill, competent adults to hasten the coming of their death. They truly believe that physician-assisted suicide is “a compassionate response to relieve the suffering of dying patients” (Before I Die: Opinions). This option, according to them, should only be exercised when all medical alternatives have failed, palliative care has failed to relieve agony, the patient requests, to die, and a second opinion agrees that it could be an option. These regulations should prevent wrong decisions of the handicapped, minors, elderly, or other incompetent parties (Before I Die: Opinions). One of the main topics mentioned in the discussion about the legalization

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