Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide Essay

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Introduction

Meaning

Physician assisted suicide is a kind of euthanasia where the physicians provide the deeply suffering patients with the lethal drug dose to end their life on their will, where the patient is the one who administers the drug within himself and no the physician (Brock). The physician is thus an assistant in their ordeal of committing suicide due to excessive pain of terminal illness or the fear of future painful death due to their medical condition. Physician assisted suicide and euthanasia should be legalized and frameworks be made to assist the practice whereby patients are given autonomy over their body and can relish a dignified death rather than a painful one.

Importance

The topic is very important since there have been so many arguments for and against it given to the sensitivity of the topic and traditional moral beliefs on which it was condemned in the past but now several arguments have come forth finding counter arguments for the problems initially stated using the ethical frameworks and values.

Problems with Physician Assisted Suicide

Immoral Act

First and foremost, the act is considered immoral according to various traditionalist views since it involves killing an innocent person (Arras). It violates the moral principle as it takes away the life of an innocent person at the hands of another. This group strongly oppose the idea as it goes against their inherent moral beliefs and justifications. The roots of these perception lies within the religious jurisdiction as suicide is already considered wrong in most religions where the body’s sole domination lies within the God, and not the person himself (Arras).

Euthanasia and PAS are the deliberate killing of an innocent person and not depriving them off their treatment in the case of terminal illness, which is not considered sometimes wrong as it is practiced in United States where the patients chances of survival are less and to relieve them of the suffering, doctors sometimes withhold or withdraw treatments to save the patients from pointless financial and physiological burden (Battin). So even at times, allowing them to die is not considered that immoral than helping them to die as it involves the deliberate fastening of the process of death considered wrong and immoral in majority viewpoints. So even if it is physician assisted, which means that the lethal dose is not directly administered by the physician, it is immoral because it is assisting something sinful and wrong within the traditional and religious boundaries.
Act being done by Physician

Another opposition stems not from the ideology of euthanasia but with the person assisting the act which is physician.

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As physicians should be involved in saving their patients life and not in an act which takes away their life, the act of physician assisted suicide or physician committing the killing himself, is considered wrong (Arras). In Germany the doctors are condemned to cause or assist a patient’s suicide intent, however anyone outside is, by law, not withheld from committing the act (Battin). So a family member, a friend can assist a person in his suicide attempt to save them…

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…patient and the family than actually performing euthanasia. So physicians already involve in cases to allow them to die, which compromises on their individual well-being which is more painful then hastening the process which goes with both the values and is morally right as an act of mercy.

Legal Frameworks

Having concerns for the consequences and the process of something undertaken is justified but not undertaking it just because it has risks of abuse attached is very flawed within itself. The risks and negative consequences can be mitigated through proper legal adoption of the policy with detailed technicalities eradicating all the risk factors. Because this topic is of utmost concern and just because the legalization of PAS and euthanasia has risk attached, those patients can’t be left to deal with the pain and suffering on their own. The patients should be treated at all the levels of treatment to eradicate the pain and suffering of the individual till it not compromises their quality of life, like providing them with clinical treatments if it has a chance of making them healthier again (Arras) but if it is untreatable it is only rational to consider the patient’s request for its own survival and about his own life. Netherlands have also have proper frameworks of active voluntary euthanasia and physician assisted suicide and there is no such abuse of negative consequences as euthanasia cases are very less in Netherlands, showing that it has an effective framework (Battin) as nobody has the duty to die if they can be saved (Ackerman), but if they voluntarily decide….....

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