Hippocratic Oath On Physician Assisted Suicide

Performing a physician assisted suicide is an act of great kindness, not murder as those against it would have one believe. It is compassionate to end people's suffering, especially when they have nothing to live for. When a patient is untreatable and in agony, then the only options is to treat the symptoms and make the patient more comfortable.

Physician assisted suicide (PAS) has been debated for many years now. Is physician assisted suicide right or is it wrong? Many people have very different views about this issue. Some supporters feel that people should have the moral right to choose freely what they will do with their lives as long as they do not harm others. This right of free choice includes the right to end one's life when they choose. While you have some supporters who oppose any measures of permitting physician assisted suicide argue that physicians have a moral duty to preserve all life. To allow physicians to assist in destroying someone’s life violates the Hippocratic Oath to "do no harm." Opponents of physician-assisted suicide also believe that better pain management

Who is ethically harmed by physician assisted suicide? The family members that believe that suicide is against their family’s religion may consider themselves ethically harmed. The doctors who feel that assisting in the suicide is against the Hippocratic Oath may feel that this is unethical, but as stated in End-of-life issues in the acute and critically ill patient, “ Patient autonomy is a respect for an individual's right of self-rule. It implies that a patient best knows his/her own goals and values relating to medical interventions. In addition, patients have the right to make decisions that may conflict with the recommendations of family members and health care providers,” (Savory & Marco, 2009) According to the utilitarianism argument physician assisted suicide is ethical.

The word suicide gives many people negative feelings and is a socially taboo subject. However, suicide might be beneficial to terminally ill patients. Physician- assisted suicide has been one of the most controversial modern topics. Many wonder if it is morally correct to put a terminally ill patient out of their misery. Physicians should be able to meet the requests of their terminally ill patients. Unfortunately, a physician can be doing more harm by keeping someone alive instead of letting them die peacefully. For example, an assisted suicide can bring comfort to patients. These patients are in excruciating pain and will eventually perish. The government should not be involved in such a personal decision. A physician- assisted suicide comes with many benefits for the patient. If a person is terminally ill and wants a physician assisted suicide, then they should receive one.

People have been questioning the ethics of physician assisted suicide since the late 18th century. According to medicinenet the definition of physician assisted suicide is “the voluntary termination of one 's own life by administrating a lethal substance with the direct assistance of a physician.” This would typically come into play if/when a critically ill patient wants to end their suffering. Confirming with the State-by-State Guide to Physician-Assisted Suicide, 5 states have

Physician-assisted suicide can be described as the act of a terminally ill individual obtaining a lethal prescription in order to exercise their right to die with dignity. Though physician-assisted suicide is highly controversial, it is legally practiced in a small number of states within the United States. Much of the controversy surrounding physician-assisted suicide relates to the social, political, and ethical questions and considerations concerning the practice. Regardless

Suicide is one person’s personal decision; physician-assisted suicide is a patient who is not capable of carrying the task out themselves asking a physician for access to lethal medication. What people may fail to see however is that the physician is not the only healthcare personnel involved; it may include, but is not limited to, a physician, nurse, and pharmacist. This may conflict with the healthcare worker’s own morals and there are cases in which the patient suffers from depression, or the patient is not receiving proper palliative care. Allowing physician-assisted suicide causes the physician to become entangled in an ethical and moral discrepancy and has too many other issues surrounding it for it to be legal.

The United States is a nation founded on freedoms and liberties, giving each citizen the ability to make their own life decisions. This freedom includes all aspects of one’s life, including medical care. With freedom comes responsibility, and this is true in terms of physician-assisted suicide. The ongoing struggle between those in favor and those opposed to this subject has ravaged the medical field, bringing into question what is morally and ethically right. The fact of the matter is that physician-assisted suicide is neither morally nor ethically acceptable under any circumstance. Not only is it a direct violation of a doctor’s Hippocratic Oath, but it is not constitutionally binding. Physician-assisted suicide would also lead to

Physician-assisted suicide is “the voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician. Physician-assisted suicide is the practice of providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication for the patient to use with the primary intention of ending his or her own life” (MedicineNet.com, 2004). Many times this ethical issue arises when a terminally-ill patient with and incurable illness, whom is given little time to live, usually less than six-months, has requested a physician’s assistance in terminating one’s life. This practice with the terminally ill is known as euthanasia. Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia is a controversial topic

Physician assisted suicide is immoral in the case of people who are alive and desire to terminate their life. However, there are extreme cases when hastening the dying process is justified in the circumstances of individuals who are in intense physical impairment.

Is physician assisted suicide morally right? This has been a controversial subject for some time now. People are wondering whether or not it is the most humane thing to do. If dogs can be putdown, why not people? The reason is in that question. They are people. Every life is important, no matter how long it may be. Instead of finding a way to get rid of people faster, the government could put those efforts in something more positive. If other people are considering whether or not the patients’ life is valuable, the patient could question it as well. Physician assisted suicide will put pressure on terminally ill people to die more quickly because it’s cheaper and because the patients may have low self-esteem.

For instance, Hippocratic Oath, giving hope that things could change or that in the short time they have left to live they could accomplish a lot. Doctors take a Hippocratic Oath, this isn’t a legal contract, but they still use it as an ethical guide. In the Oath midway though you reach a promise, “to never give or suggest that a person takes a deadly drug” (Tyson, "The Hippocratic Oath Today"). The oath also emphasizes that you do not “play God”. Since doctors look to this oath as a guide, would it be fair to ask them to assist in suicide. Ethically a Physician must do everything possible to reduce a patient physical suffering. There are other options. The world of medical technology that has many advances and resources that can prolong a person’s life. So it would seem that assisting a patient in suicide would be moving backwards in

Although it is illegal for a doctor to help, when a patient is suffering they have to help. This has caused doctors to already help their patients to die in other ways. The doctors are not physically killing them, but coaching them through their lives. According to the internet source Idebate, opinion polls taken show that about fifteen percent of doctors already practice assisted suicide on justifiable circumstances and about half of the profession would like to see it legalized.

Euthanasia was first introduced in ancient Greece and Rome around the fifth century B.C. Occasionally, abortions and mercy killings were performed. 1 The Hippocratic Oath is an oath taken by physicians, which states that the physician will treat the ill to the best of their ability, to preserve a patient’s privacy and to teach the secrets of medicine to the next generation. 2 Many of the physicians didn’t follow the Hippocratic Oath and if a patient asked to be poisoned, certain physicians would comply with the patient’s request. 1 Euthanasia wasn’t a topic of discussion in the Middle Ages and if someone committed suicide, the law in Europe was that the body had to be “dragged down the streets or nailed to a barrel and left to drift downriver” (procon.org). 1Euthanasia was a big topic of discussion during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries but people continued to turn down euthanasia and assisted suicide. 1 In 1828, the first American law made assisted suicide illegal. 1 It wasn’t until the 1930’s that people started to support euthanasia in the United States and in England. 1 Americans grew less fond of euthanasia around World War II when Hitler and the Nazis killed hundreds of thousands of people using euthanasia. 1Their tactics included starvation, gassing and administering drugs to their prisoners. 1 In the late twentieth and twenty first century, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia. 1Belgium soon followed the

: I would not have a hard time working with a physician who is assisting suicide with a patient who is suffering from a terminal illness or going through pain and suffering. I believe this is morally acceptable for a physician to assist a patient with suicide because the patient just as well could commit suicide on his or her own. Physicians should be allowed to end the terminally ill by painless means, especially if the patient or the family requests it. Although, this does not go against the physician’s Hippocratic Oath because it states that they must care for matters of life and death, but it is within the power to a take a life with responsibility and awareness. However, it does state that physicians should not play God; again, this Oath is contradictory because how can you help end a life without playing God. Yet, how can you help end pain and suffering without any medical means? According to the code of ethics, the physician would be doing his duty by comforting the patient who is in extreme pain, by medical treatment or assisting suicide. I feel that assisted suicide should be utilized for individuals who have terminal illness and suffering from extreme pain, but only as last resort to all other failed attempts of possible treatment. I would rather see the physician end the patient’s misery rather having them suffer with debilitating effects for the rest of their illness, or dying alone without the help of the physician.