PhysicianAssisted Suicide Essay Research Paper PhysicianAssisted SuicidePhysicianassisted

Physician-Assisted Suicide Essay, Research Paper

Physician-Assisted Suicide

Physician-assisted suicide happens when a person commits suicide with the help of a physician. A physician supplies information and the means of committing suicide to a person so that they can easily terminate their own life. The physicians do this either by a prescription for lethal dose of sleeping pills or a supply of carbon monoxide gas. .The awesome decision to live or die belongs not to the courts, to attorneys, to hospitals, to doctors, to nurses, or to any other group, but to the person whose life it is. (Egendorf 140). If physician-assisted suicide were generally available, a small percentage of people would request it. Physician-assisted suicide is a very serious matter in which many patients consider under certain circumstances.

Many people argue over the issue if an individual has the right to end their own life, or if it.s only God.s decision. According to Jenny Murphy, .every individual has the right to end their own life. (Online). On the other hand, the choice between life and death belongs to God, not to an individual. Ill patients suffering a lot of pain may not be competent to make the decision of wanting to live or die. Even though a small percentage request physician-assisted suicide, in reality, some people do. People seeking physician-assisted suicide are for many reasons. These people are the terminally ill, people who feel their life is not worth living because of intractable pain, people who repeatedly ask for help in committing suicide, and/or people who are in sound mind and not suffering from depression. There are so many problems the patient is experiencing, that they feel the only answer is assisted suicide.

Many dying patients, who are not to the point where they feel the only answer if assisted suicide, have adequate access to pain controlling medication. In some cases the medication is not the answer. The patients may ask for assistance in dying. Most people who would ask for assistance in dying may mean someone.s quality of life has shrunk to zero.

Another possibility is that someone simply wants to die with dignity before they become very sick from illnesses such as Huntington.s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, AIDS, or Alzheimer.s (O.Keefe Online). Another reason a patient might ask for assistance in dying is because they find themselves useless and can.t even manage taking care of themselves. They may be totally dependent upon someone, feeling like an infant, which is difficult to handle.

There are many beliefs concerning physician-assisted suicide. Some people believe in it, some don.t, some partly believe in it, (depending on circumstances), and some don.t care. The people of communities who believe in physician-assisted suicide believe that ill patients should be allowed to end their lives with dignity, and physician-assisted suicide is a .compassionate solution. to human suffering and should not be .criminalized. (Murphy Online). The people who don.t believe in physician-assisted suicide say doctors should help the ill patients with their lives, not put an end to them (Murphy Online). They consider physician-assisted suicide as killing a patient, which is a very serious matter.

The medical community has many beliefs on this issue. Some physicians are willing to help patients die in some situations. Other doctors strongly oppose the idea of helping someone die. They say, .If someone assists you with your death, you have not committed suicide, you have been killed. (Katz 4C). The Hippocratic Oath was laid by new physicians for ethical professional behavior. Hippocrates, a Greek physician of 5th Century BCE, wrote this oath. .His writings not only had a great impact on the content of Greek medical thought, but also on the ethics of medical practice. (Egendorf 124). Not only is the American Medical Association opposed to physician assisted suicide, they have taken an oath to do everything in their power to aid the sick . not end their life.

Like the people of communities and the medical community, the Christians are also strongly against physician-assisted suicide because they believe it violates one.s natural desire to live, it harms other people, and life is the gift of God and can only be taken by God. They believe that in helping the terminally ill to kill themselves, we are .colluding not only in their dehumanization, but our own.(O.Keefe Online).

A common question asked by the media, courts, legislatures and professional societies is, .Should assisted suicide be only physician-assisted.. According to Kathy Faber-Langendoen, the nurses, social workers and clergy should have more of a contribution in assisting suicides because suicide should be humane and effective to appropriate cases (482). Physician involvement is necessary and they have potential roles in assisting suicides. These roles consist of seven steps. The first step is assessing the request for assisted suicides. This step helps the patients consider alternatives, often with the hope that they will find an acceptable option to suicide. The second role is preparing the person for dying which is self-explanatory. The third step is providing the means. Physician involvement in assessing diagnosis, prognosis and the full range of treatment options. The fourth step is providing support, which is very important. This support should take