Physician-Assisted Suicide should be legal under certain circumstances
Kayanna Johnson
Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
The purpose of this paper is examine the use of Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) in certain patients in a bid to support its legalization in all states. In this paper I will argue that the use of PAS in patients who are terminally ill, in non-terminally ill patients who undergo intolerable pain, or in patients who are terminally or non-terminally ill who fear a loss of dignity and control over their body in the end stages of life is permissible. I will first define PAS and VAE and attempt to characterize suicide. I will then concentrate on the different historical views of PAS over
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It is these same increases that have generated a fear for unnecessarily prolonged, costly, painful, and, undignified deaths. The fear of this unnecessarily long process has led to the increase in calls for legalization of PAS from patients who are not willing to undergo such a process. With PAS being illegal in most states and the recent shift in medicine to a focus on patient autonomy the question must be asked, “Should PAS be legalized?” The opponents of PAS make many interesting points, some of which will be discussed, but I will propose arguments to these objections in order to show that PAS should be legalized in certain situations.
Definition of PAS and VAE
PAS is the physician’s act of providing a patient with the medical means necessary for suicide (Bernat, Gert, and Mogielnicki, 1993). PAS requires for the physician to assent to a competent patient’s rational request for the necessary medical means for committing suicide. In this case, death is not caused directly by the physician’s actions, but rather indirectly. Therefore, a suicide is termed PAS if the physician’s participation is necessary but insufficient for death.
VAE is when the physician agrees to a competent patient’s rational request for the physician to administer the necessary medical means to cause death which usually follows immediately after the act. In VAE, the physician is directly causing death, therefore, is killing the patient. Since a death by VAE is a direct result of the
Physician Assisted Suicide Is it Right or Wrong? The ethical issues of physician-assisted suicide are both emotional and controversial, as it ranks right up there with abortion. Some argue physician assisted suicide is ethically permissible for a dying person who has choosing to escape the unbearable suffering at the end of life. Furthermore, it is the physician’s duty to alleviate the patients suffering, which at times justifies providing aid-in -dying. These arguments rely a great deal on the respect for individual autonomy, which recognizes the rights of competent people to choose the timing and manner of their death, when faced with terminal illness.
Physician assisted suicide or PAS is a controversial topic in the world today. But the important question is, should physician assisted suicides be allowed in cases such as: the patient’s suffering is far too great and there is no chance of them getting better? This is a highly debated issue, that has activist groups on both sides fighting for what they think is the right thing to do. Physician assisted suicides can stop the excruciating pain a patient is in, especially if there is nothing that can be done to stop the pain. Or it can be done for a patient that fully understands that there is nothing that can be done to save their life, so as not to put their loved ones into financial hardship. In this
In homes across the world, millions of victims are suffering from fatal and terminal illnesses.With death knocking on their door, should these people have to endure pain and misery knowing what is to come? The answers to these questions are very controversial. Furthermore, there is a greater question to be answered—should these people have the right and option to end the relentless pain and agony through physician assisted death? Physician-Assisted Suicide PAS is highly contentious because it induces conflict of several moral and ethical questions such as who is the true director of our lives. Is suicide an individual choice and should the highest priority to humans be alleviating pain or do we suffer for a purpose? Is suicide a purely
Physician-assisted suicide or PAS for short is one of the most controversial subjects we as a society discuss. Not only is it a controversial subject, but an ethical dilemma faced by patient and physicians alike. There are two types of terms associated with this type of death, physician-assisted suicide, and euthanasia. PAS is a term to describe a death where a physician prescribes a medication that is administered to the patient to assist in ending one’s life. As for
Since terminally ill patients are already free to refuse hydration and nutrition and thereby bring about death, there is no compelling need to legalize PAS. James Bernat, Bernard Gert and R. Peter Mogielnicki claim “that lack of hydration and nutrition does not cause unmanageable suffering in terminally ill patients.” Their basic point is that patient refusal or hydration and nutrition already provides a feasible and much less problematic alternative for patients who desire to shorten the dying process.
Physician assisted suicide can help relieve people from physical and emotional suffering. PAS can help someone die with dignity when he is ready instead of going through unbearable pain for the last six months of his life. Physician assisted suicide is a compassionate response to relieve the suffering of dying patients. People may argue that medical technology is always changing and can help patients live longer, but in reality medical technology can just prolong the pain that terminally ill patients feel. One of the top reasons that terminally ill patients choose PAS is because of the pain. For example, Lillian Boyes, who had rheumatic arthritis, begged her doctor to assist her to die because she could not take the pain she felt for any longer (“Right”). Some people feel like they are a burden to their families when they
1. (problem – PAS): In today’s society, Physician Assisted Suicide is one of the most questionable and debatable issues. Many people feel that it is wrong for people to ask their doctor to help them end their life; while others feel it is their right to choose between the right to life and the right to death. “Suffering has always been a part of human existence.” (PAS) “Physicians have no similar duty to provide actions, such as assistance in suicide, simply because they have been requested by patients. In deciding how to respond to patients ' requests, physicians should use their judgment about the medical appropriateness of the request.” (Bernat, JL) Physician Assisted Suicide differs from withholding or discontinuing medical treatment, it consists of doctors providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication to aid in the use to end their life.
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
Many people overlook what physician assisted suicide really is, so what is physician assisted suicide? Physician assisted suicide, often referred to as PAS, is when a terminally ill patient decides to end his or her life by being prescribed to use a lethal substance with the indirect help of a doctor (“Medical Definition of PAS”). PAS is similar to euthanasia but is not the same thing, assisted suicide is when the physician is not present, and as for euthanasia the physician is present. The process of PAS is quite simple, a physician prescribes a lethal medication to a patient with the intention of suicide (“Medical”). For example, “a doctor can prescribe lethal drugs two days after receiving a written request” (“Medical”). However, it is
Thesis: When it comes to the topic of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), some experts believe that an individual should have the option of ending their life in the event that they have been given six months to live with a terminal illness or when the quality of their life has been vastly changed. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question whether physician-assisted suicide is medically ethical, would be overly abused to the point where doctors might start killing patients without their consent. Whereas some experts are convinced that just improving palliative care would decrease the need for someone to want to end their life before it happened naturally.
In today’s society, suicide, and more controversially, physician assisted suicide, is a hotly debated topic amongst both every day citizens and members of the medical community. The controversial nature of the subject opens up the conversation to scrutinizing the ethics involved. Who can draw the line between morality and immorality on such a delicate subject, between lessening the suffering of a loved one and murder? Is there a moral dissimilarity between letting someone die under your care and killing them? Assuming that PAS suicide is legal under certain circumstances, how stringent need be these circumstances? The patient must be terminally ill to qualify for voluntary physician-assisted suicide, but in the eyes of the non-terminal patients with no physical means to end their life, the ending of their pain through PAS may be worth their death; at what point is the medical staff disregarding a patient’s autonomy? Due to the variability of answers to these questions, the debate over physician-assisted suicide is far from over. However, real life occurrences happen every day outside the realm of debate and rhetoric, and decisions need to be made.
Physician-Assisted Suicide which is also known as PAS has been a topic that has been highly debated for years, it gives patients in critical medical conditions the right to end their lives. Many people think that PAS and euthanasia are the same, while both actions include medications in lethal doses, Physician Assisted Suicide is when a doctor makes a patient’s death less difficult by providing him or her with a lethal dose of medication such as barbiturates or a combination of medications to allow the life ending act or to refrain the patient from receiving treatments that are used to prolong a terminally ill patients life. The physician lends the knowledge but the person does the act. While, euthanasia is when someone actually administers
A policeman witnesses a man trapped underneath a burning truck. Desperate and in pain, the man asks the policeman to shoot him and save him the pain of dying a slow and insufferable death. As a result, he shoots. The policeman’s dilemma is commonly referenced in support of physician-assisted-suicide, or PAS. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are interchangeable terms which both lead to the death of an individual. Voluntary PAS is a medical professional, usually a physician, who provides medication or other procedures with the intention of ending the patient’s life. Voluntary PAS is the administration of medicine with the explicit consent from the patient. In terms of this paper, we focus on voluntary physician-assisted suicide in the
Physician assisted suicide should be morally permissible. Patients who are in constant suffering and pain have the right to end their misery at their own discretion. This paper will explore my thesis, open the floor to counter arguments, explain my objections to the counter arguments, and finally end with my conclusion. I agree with Brock when he states that the two ethical values, self-determination and individual well-being, are the focal points for the argument of the ethical permissibility of voluntary active euthanasia (or physician assisted suicide). These two values are what drives the acceptability of physician assisted suicide because it is the patients who choose their treatment options and how they want to be medically treated. Patients are physically and emotionally aware when they are dying and in severe pain, therefore they can make the decision to end the suffering through the option of physician assisted suicide.
There are a few different forms of physician-assisted death, such as active, passive, and assisted suicide. To some people they may mean the same thing but in reality, they are quite different. Active euthanasia is when a physician physically injects the patient with a drug that ends their live or in some way is the direct result of the patient’s death. Passive euthanasia is the result of something taken away from the patient that results in their death, such as removing a breathing tube or stopping treatment. Physician assisted suicide is the result of lethal medication given to the patient for them to take on their own time when they are ready to end their life. Some people see these different forms as being the same while others see them as being different. There are four ethical principles that become involved in conflict with these forms of euthanasia. These principles are beneficence, autonomy, non-maleficence, and justice, which act against each other sometimes in the cases of euthanasia. Beneficence is the duty of the physician to have the welfare of the patient is their first concern. This principle sometime goes against euthanasia because of the fact the physicians are stopping treatment, which results in the death of the patient. Many argue this act is the result of not thinking of the patient’s welfare. Another principle is autonomy, according to Steve Pantilat, “Autonomous individuals act intentionally, with understanding, and without controlling influences”