Doctor Assisted Suicide Research Paper

While the main issue that surrounds physician-assisted suicide is pain control, for the terminally ill, proponents are still unwilling to compromise. However, if both proponents and

Physician-assisted suicide should be legal nationwide. As a former hospital employee, I know first-hand that some diseases can cause so much disability and pain that patients want to end their lives because they have had enough. Something dear to me is personal autonomy, a right of all people. If the patient is competent and wants to end their life, and a health care provider is willing to humanely help end that patient's life, then physician-assisted suicide should be legal and be performed, per the individual's wishes.

In a Netherlands report it tells, “Many physicians who had practiced euthanasia [form of assisted suicide] mentioned that they would be most reluctant to do so again” (Stevens 189). Everyday these physicians are faced with decisions of how to best save their patient. Now they also, have to determine if they can come to terms with ending their lives. The impact on these physicians is tremendous. Kenneth R. Stevens the Vice President of Physicians for Compassionate Care concludes, “Doctors who have participated in euthanasia and/or PAS [Physician-Assisted Suicide] are adversely affected emotionally and psychologically by their experiences” (187). Physicians, who have made the decision to help, face the consequences of their actions. They have helped someone take a life, even if it their own. Death always leaves an impression. Imagine what it must be like to be directly involved with a death. Those men and women in time will have to come to terms with their participation in Physician-Assisted Suicide.

In the United States today, only several states legally recognize physician-assisted suicide as an option for families and terminally ill patients hoping to embrace a death with dignity. Although there is a growing movement to promote access to physician-assisted suicide, the topic is still widely regarded as taboo. As of 2016, the states of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Colorado, New Jersey, and California are the only states to allow full and legal access to physician-assisted suicide. Alongside those states are Montana and New Mexico, which legally offer “aid in dying,” meaning the state allows for physicians to assist in alleviating the longevity of the dying process.

Doctors also try and keep their patients as free from pain and discomfort as possible. Most people take comfort in knowing that their loved ones are receiving the best care possible from their doctors. Not all individuals look down on doctors for respecting the wishes of the terminally ill, even if that desire is to end their lives so that they no longer have to deal with the pain and suffering.

Physician assisted suicide is murder. Using euthanasia, increased dosage of morphine or injecting patient’s with a lethal combination of drugs to slow his/her breathing until he/she dies is also murder. Physician assisted suicide is morally wrong. The classical theory for physician assisted suicide is utilitarianism because according to Mosser 2010, “utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines the moral value of an act in terms of its results and if those results produce the greatest good for the greatest number.” Utilitarianism will solve the physician assisted suicide problem if all of the physicians will stand by the oath they say. According to the Hippocratic

(How to Access and Use Death with Dignity Laws). Even though the patients had decided to end their lives, it still depends on the doctors to make decision for them. The work to be put in a list for an assisted suicide turns out to be very tiring for the patients who are willing to end their suffering very soon. They would be suffering more, as the process requires a lot of works. It is important to legalize assisted killing for those patients who can no longer bear the suffering and for their families who are also in deep agony seeing their loved ones lying on the bed left helpless from the disease they are suffering and whose doctor cannot make better.

Do you think physician-assisted suicide is necessary? In most states physician-assisted suicide is legal but other states want it to be illegal. In the 5 states that is legal, want their patients to have the right to die the way they choose. But in the other states don’t like physician assisted suicide because is cheaper and it harm the patines even more. While some people believe it’s a harm and a sin, physician-assisted suicide should be legalized because it’s economic, patines rights and it’s a calm way to die.

The topic of physician-assisted suicide has become very controversial because of the ethical questions. The physical state of health of the patient, the patient’s personal life, and even the financial pressure of the patient are all factors to consider when contemplating whether or not to legalize this controversial cause of death. Physician-assisted suicide regarding medical ethics states that a physician cannot legally give any patient a lethal injection to end their life, but they can take the patient off of life support in order to increase the process of death. Physician-assisted suicide should be legalized at a federal level and should be morally acceptable for patients who are terminally ill and can no longer be treated to improve their medical situation.

By having a doctor writing a prescription to a terminally patient, a doctor can allow the patient to end their life in a safe, effective and painless way. A lot of patients, who are suffering from chronic, painful, fatal conditions that would eventually bring death, have a strong belief that the only way to stop the suffering for them and their family watching them is suicide. Before the thoughts of a physician assisted suicide the patients would attempt suicide on their own, an act which was not as painless or successful as the doctors option to helping out. The option of the doctor’s choice would be much more painless and faster than the patient attempting it on their own. As one study shows, “Medical illness was a factor in half the suicides in people ages 50 and older and 70 percent of those ages seven years and older. Increased life expectancy, chronic illness, technology advances, and expanded treatment options have all complicated the process of dying” (Mackelprang 315). There is always a good chance that a suicide attempt could go very wrong and have a worse effect on the patient than before the attempt. Although an unsuccessful suicide attempt is a worse case scenario, it should be noted that many suicide attempts are not painless. For patients removing life support, the process is very slow and painful. The suffocation process is not the humane way for any one to have to die. If the patients who were thinking about attempting suicide on their own

The federal legalization of physician-assisted suicide is a conflict of ethics. This is one reason the problem has yet to be resolved. There are multiple sides to this argument. Some people want the government to mandate the legalization of physician-assisted suicide while others believe the practice to be morally unacceptable. Then there are those who do not have enough knowledge on the issue to have an opinion at all. This issue that needs to be brought to Americans’ attention sooner rather than later, because more Americans are being given the opportunity to vote on the topic.

The conclusion of going through with the medicalization of the patient’s suicide could help he or she to avoid becoming “vulnerable to suggestions from family members that they could make everyone 's life easier by ending their own” (“Death” 2) in a more forceful way than perhaps a lethal injection in a hospital.

The process of assisted suicide, or physician-assisted death, is a hotly debated topic that still remains at the forefront of many national discussions today. Assisted suicide can be described as the suicide of patient by a physician-prescribed dose of legal drugs. The reason that this topic is so widely debated is that it infringes on several moral and religious values that many people in the United States have. But, regardless of the way that people feel, a person’s right to live is guaranteed to them in the United States Constitution, and this should extend to the right to end their own life as well. The reasons that assisted suicide should be legalized in all states is because it can ease not only the suffering of the individual, but the financial burden on the family that is supporting him/her. Regardless of opposing claims, assisted suicide should be an option for all terminally ill patients.

Since the advancement of technology and capability of medicine, the debate has risen to a level of which it can’t be ignored. The fact of prolonging someone’s life has to be a factor since it is a possibility of prolonging it comfortably. Before there were advancement of technology and capability of medicine most American died at home, with their love ones around and family doctors which would provide comfort and solace, also in some occasion the doctor would give an extra dose of morphine for the pain or to help asses in death.

Since the advancement of technology and capability of medicine, the debate has risen to a level of which it can’t be ignored. The fact of prolonging someone life has to be a factor since it is possibility of prolonging it comfortably. Before there were advancement of technology and capability of medicine most American died at home, with their love ones around and family doctors which would provide comfort and solace, also in some occasion the doctor would give extra dose of morphine for the pain or to help asses in death.