Should Physician Assisted Suicide be legal
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This document discusses physician-assisted suicide and whether it should be legal. It presents arguments on both sides of the issue. The paper describes how physician-assisted suicide is currently legal in a few U.S. states and how it differs from regular suicide. Both the medical and nursing communities oppose assisted suicide on ethical grounds. However, supporters argue that individuals have the right to make their own end-of-life decisions. The document concludes that there are good arguments on both sides and reasonable people can disagree on this complex issue.
Should Physician Assisted Suicide be legal
- 1. Running head: SHOULD PHYSICIAN 1 Should Physician-Assisted Suicide be Legal? Sharon Cook PHI 103: Informal Logic Instructor Jill Murray September 12, 2012
- 2. SHOULD PHYSICIAN 2 Should Physician –Assisted Suicide be Legal? Physician assisted suicide has been a controversial topic for over a decade. This is still ongoing right now today because in today's society it brings up many ethical questions such as who is the true owner of our lives. Should relieving suffering always be the highest priority or does suffering occur for a reason? Is suicide a purely individual choice? The answers to these questions depend on whom you ask because they are only opinions. My purpose for writing this paper is to describe benefits and disadvantages of physician-assisted suicide and to show what ethical reasoning there is behind each point. "Physician assisted death (PAD) was legalized by referendum in Oregon in the mid 1990s, and there are now 11 years of data studying the practice. PAD was also legalized by referendum in the state of Washington in 2008 and it is currently permitted in Montana since 2009 based on case law" (Quill, T.E., 2012). When one thinks of suicide, we think of a person who takes his or her own life. A patient who is physically capable of suicide will act out and end their life. "In assisted suicide, someone makes a means of death available, but does not act as a direct agent of death" (2001). Providing a way for another to end their life with weapons or pills is assisted suicide. While doing my research I have found that there are many arguments that are for the prohibition of physician-assisted suicide. One that seems to be the more obvious one is that of health care providers. The American Medical Association (AMA) is very outspoken on this topic. The AMA says that PAD goes against the role of health care providers as healers. A health care provider's primary concern is to first cause no harm. Physician assisted suicide breaks the trust one should have between them and their doctor. It seems that this is the worst type of abandonment by a doctor one can have.
- 3. SHOULD PHYSICIAN 3 "The American Nurses Association (ANA) believes that the nurse should not participate in assisted suicide. Such an act is in violation of the Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statements (Code for Nurses) and the ethical traditions of the profession," (ANA, 1985). Nurses as people or individuals are obligated to provide comfort and the least amount of pain toward patients at the end of their lives. Putting one out of their own pain and suffering is providing them comfort. Another reason many are against physician-assisted suicide is that they believe it could lead to involuntary euthanasia. Therefore, advocates of this theory think the only way to prevent this from happening is to prevent physician-assisted suicide. There are other steps taken before ultimately choose death. An increase of opioids for pain, stopping or not starting potentially life- sustaining therapy, or voluntarily choose to stop eating or drinking anything. If everything else tried, fails, than physician-assisted suicide can be a last resort. In contrast, those that are for assisted suicide argues that it is a patient's right to decide whether they want to live or not. People have different opinions and the quality of life is a very personal one. When a health care professional tries to convince a patient to live they are acting as if they are their parent's telling them what to do. Patients usually trust their physicians and what they say can be wrong and persuasive. Physicians do not like to admit when they cannot diagnose something or fix a problem. Therefore, one's pride could be deeply hurt with physician assisted suicide because it is an admittance of not being able to do anything more for their patient. In conclusion, there many arguments for and against assisted suicide, the answer of whether it is right or wrong remains unanswered. One reason there are not any clear answers is that assisted suicide is an ethical issue that is dependent on a person’s values, morals, religion,
- 4. SHOULD PHYSICIAN 4 and experiences. In general deciding whether one is to live or die is a sensitive topic and can stir up strong emotions and opinions. Instead of debating the issues involved with assisted suicide, this paper provides some benefits as well as disadvantages from both sides.
- 5. SHOULD PHYSICIAN 5 References American Nurses Association (1985). Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statements. Kansas City, MO: The Author. Mosser, K. (2011). An introduction to logic. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (https://content.ashford.edu) ProCon.org. (2012, May 18). Top 10 Pros and Cons. Euthanasia.ProCon.org. Retrieved from http://euthanasia.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000126 Quill, T. E. (2012). Physicians Should 'Assist in Suicide' When It Is Appropriate. Journal Of Law, Medicine & Ethics,40 (1), 57-65. doi:10.1111/j.1748-720X.2012.00646.x Whitney, Simon N,M.D., J.D., Brown, Byron W,Jr, PhD., Brody, H., Alcser, K. H., PhD., Bachman, J. G., PhD., & Greely, H. T., J.D. (2001). Views of united states physicians and members of the american medical association house of delegates on physician-assisted suicide. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 16(5), 290-296. doi: 10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.04159.x
- 6. SHOULD PHYSICIAN 6 For NONE final paper Hwang, K. (2005). Attitudes of persons with physical disabilities toward physician-assisted death: An exploratory assessment of the vulnerability argument. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 16(1), 16-21. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/211203154?accountid=32521 NONE Assisted suicide pro and con Doerflinger, R. (1989). Assisted suicide: Pro-choice or anti-life? The Hastings Center Report, 19(1), 16-9. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/222364809?accountid=32521 NONE nurses and assisted suicide Kopala, B., & Kennedy, S. L. (1998). Requests for assisted suicide: A nursing issue. Nursing Ethics, 5(1), 16-26. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/096973398677149390