Physician Assisted Suicide : Comparative Religious Ethics

Abstract: This paper discusses the medical ethics of Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS). Focusing on the ideas of legal vs illegal, the different views of PAS will both be addressed. While active euthanasia is illegal, passive euthanasia, or allowing natural death, is completely legal everywhere. PAS will help patients end suffering for themselves at the end of their lives, as well as the family's. The price of the drug may be expensive but the price of medical treatments continues to rise. The Hippocratic Oath does not support the aid in ending a life, however it has been changed in the past. Many citizens are afraid that is PAS was considered legal, it would grow into something even more illegal being debated. Also, the religious aspect of the end of life had conflicting views as some believe PAS is ending suffering, a good deed, and other believe PAS is not respecting a human life. PAS is only legal in seven states but has gained the attention of many others and other places around the world.

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

Physician-assisted suicide was first made legal in the state of Oregon. (Hendin) In cases of euthanasia, physicians often give lethal doses of a medication to terminate a patient’s life because they’re experiencing intolerable pain. Patients who wish to use the Death with Dignity law in Oregon must be eighteen or older, must be a resident of Oregon, and they must be able to make their own health care decisions. (Sharp 53) However, the law does not require the patient to be in unmanageable pain, they must just have a prognosis of less than six months to live. (Sharp 54) This law seems to be in place to kill patients more quickly to open up hospital space, instead of compassionately ending someone’s suffering.

A patient must meet the requirements in order to qualify for physician assisted suicide. The patient must be “diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months” (Fass, and Fass 846). Being a legal resident of a state that has legalized the procedure and being eighteen years old are also requirements. Another qualification is being able to make and communicate health care decisions. Along with those requirements, there are certain guidelines that must be followed during the process of physician assisted suicide. First, the patient must make two oral requests for physician assisted suicide at least fifteen days apart. A written request that has to be signed in front of two witnesses must also be provided to the physician. The patient then has to be referred to a consulting physician, so that he can confirm the diagnosis and prognosis and approve that the patient is capable of making decisions related to health care. “The prescribing physician must notify the patient of alternatives to suicide, including comfort care, hospice care, and pain management” (Fass, and Fass 846). It is expected of the physician to encourage the patient to tell their family. The physician has to follow rules to dispense the medication after these steps. One rule is to be registered as a dispensing practitioner and maintaining a current Drug Enforcement Administration certificate in order

What is physician-assisted suicide? “Suicide is the act of taking one's own life. In assisted suicide, the means to end a patient’s life is provided to the patient (i.e. medication or a weapon) with knowledge of the patient's intention” (American Nurses Association). Physician-assisted suicide is known by many names such as death with dignity, right to die, and of course, euthanasia. Euthanasia is a much more in-depth term concerning the patient and the type of suicide.

Physician-assisted suicide is defined as a physician providing either equipment or medication, or to inform the patient of the most available means, for the purpose of assisting the patient to end his or her own life. The people’s opinion support PAS according to a poll given in 1998. The majority 33% of people agreed that Physician assisted suicide should be made legal in a variety

their patients, or to assist them in ending their lives? Many people may believe that physicians would never perform the latter, but in actuality one practice does so. Physician assisted suicide is the intentional ending of one’s life brought on by lethal substances prescribed by a doctor. In the majority of cases, the patient is terminally ill and simply does not desire to live any longer. Their physician provides the medication necessary to end their life. Many supporters aver that this practice is merely an act of compassion as terminally ill persons may suffer extreme pain that eradicates any will to live. They also assert that the decision to die is of the patient’s

The topic of assisted suicide was almost never broached simply because it was always considered a touchy subject, that all changed last year. Medically assisted suicide is the act of a terminally ill patient deciding to withdraw all forms of medical treatment to ingest a lethal dose of prescribed medication. As of October 5,2015 California is only one of six states that offer medically assisted suicide. The additional five states include; Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, and New Mexico. Physician assisted suicide rightfully provides terminally-ill patients with the choice to end their life should they meet all requirements and be in the right state of mind at the time of their request.

Although controversial, physician-assisted suicide laws affect thousands of people across the country annually. Physician-assisted suicide is the process in which a doctor prescribes a lethal dose of medication, usually painkillers or sedatives, to a patient to end their own life (Euthanasia Glossary, 1999; United States, n.d.). In many states in which physician-assisted suicide is legal, the patient must be at least eighteen years old, terminally ill and have

When dealing with Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) ethical dilemmas can come into place. Known as Euthanasia allows physicians to cause death to a terminally ill patient. There are many states that passed the law to allow PAS Oregon and Washington are just two of them. There are five total that allow PAS and they are Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Montana, and California. With Montana PAS is a court ruling meaning that you well must go to court and present your case. While, CA, OR, VT, and WA are legislation. You must be least eighteen. a resident of the state, and diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within mouths. On October 27,1997 Oregon created the “Death with Dignity Act”. It allowed people who were terminally ill

Physician assisted suicide is requesting a method of death from a doctor when one is terminally ill. Being told that you have a small amount of time left to live is devastating, but technology eases pain and allows people with terminal illnesses to live longer. Why wouldn’t you want to spend more time with your loved ones? It makes sense to want to spend those hard times with loved ones. It is more than likely that they wish to have the unlucky terminally ill family member around and that they do not mind being their caretakers. Furthermore, ending one’s life is an extreme power that no human should possess, even if the terminal illness means definite death. The act of requesting physician assisted suicide requires a lot of thinking and regards a controversial subject. Being able to decide when to die through physician assisted suicide is an overly powerful thing, faulty, and ultimately unnecessary.

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, as defined by the American Nursing Association, “ is the means to end a patient’s life is provided to

The practice is only legal in the states of Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and California, with Oregon being the first state to legalize the practice in 1994 and California being the latest state to legalize it in 2015. Although the practice is legal within the states mentioned, each state has its own laws and regulations as to who can receive the assisted suicide, in addition to what kind of physician must perform the assisted suicide and what procedures they must take. For example, in the state of Oregon, the patient must have a terminal illness in addition to a prognosis of six months or less to live. The physician providing the service must be either a Doctor of Medicine or a Doctor of Osteopathy and be willing to participate the act. In a different state such as California, the patient requesting an assisted suicide must first submit two oral requests, fifteen days apart, with a written request sent directly to his or her attending physician. California also requires the physician performing the practice to be either a Doctor of Medicine or a Doctor of Osteopathy and be willing to participate the act. (CNN.com) One organization in particular that aids terminally ill patients with information regarding physician assisted suicide is the Final Exit Network. Originally known as the Hemlock Society which was organized in 1980 then over time split into two organizations known as the Final

In 1994, Oregon voters passed the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which exempted, “from civil or criminal liability physicians who, in compliance with specific safeguards, dispense or prescribe (but not administer) a lethal dose of drugs upon the request of the terminally ill patient.” Oregon, to this day, remains the only state within the Union to allow physician-assisted suicide. In 1997, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a landmark case that, although there was no constitutionally protected right to physician-assisted suicide, states have permitted to pass laws allowing it. Thus, the issue of euthanasia remains widely open to philosophical, political, legal, and ethical challenges.