Introduction:
The ethical issues relating to assisted suicide and Assisted Suicide have captured the attention of the public. (Otlowski, 1997) Stunning media hype was attained by the campaign that insists legalization of physician-assisted suicide. Almost everyone got exposed to the notion of physician-assisted suicide even though it has not been legalized anywhere in the United States except Oregon. (Olevitch, 2002) The important step forward that the activists had been dreaming about since the days of Charles Francis Potter for the Assisted Suicide movement was given by hopeful opinion polls and the 1994 vote in Oregon supporting the first law in American history allowing physician-assisted suicide. (Dowbiggin, 2003)
Arguments for Assisted Suicide
Justice expects that all must be treated in the same way. Proficient, incurably ill patients are permitted to speed up death by treatment rejection. For some patients, treatment negation will not be enough to speed up death; for them the only alternative is suicide. Justice insists that we should permit assisted death for these patients. Even though society has keen interest in protecting life that interest decreases when person is incurably ill and has keen wish to end life. A total ban on assisted death greatly restricts personal liberty. Thus Physician Assisted suicide or Assisted Suicide must be permitted in some cases. (Braddock; Tonelli, 1998)
Support for physician-assisted suicide has also come from a few public advocates. Dr. Timothy Quill shows the sympathetic side of physician-assisted suicide in addition to Doctor Jack Kervokian’s ‘death machine’. Dr. Quill, in the story of Diane, attempts to persuade physicians to take sincerely the appeal of a patient to die. The opinion of many of the supporters is that there is a right to choose when and where one dies. (Boyd, 2005) Justice Benjamin Cardozo, in his explanation on autonomy, says that every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to decide what shall be done with his own body. Batlle, after agreeing with Cardozo, recapitulates individual autonomy hitherto viewed within the legal system as an individual’s right to self-determination that includes choices about death and compensates a societal interest in the holiness of life. (Smutny, n. d.)
The Essay on Physical Assisted Suicide Physician Patients Life
... patient and using physician assisted suicide as an excuse. Permitting physicians to participate in assisted suicide would ultimately cause more harms than good. Physician assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician's ... to hasten the death of the patient is equivalent to murder. (Asci, 1996) Another argument against the idea of physician-assisted suicide is the difficulty ...
A strong support of Assisted Euthanasia in medical physicians has come from many studies and in the general public through two published studies. That the physician-assisted suicide should be legal in some cases is the view of 60% of physician in Oregon. Prescription of a lethal dose is the option for 46%. Though fulfilling a request of a patient for a lethal dose was illegal at this time, 7% have agreed to do so. The public and physicians were questioned in the Michigan study. While support for the legalization came from 56% of physicians and 66% of the public, support for a complete ban came from 37% of physicians and 26% of the public. As there is a support for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide irrespective of the various reasons for each individual choice, this in some way needs to be tackled. Another example for the support of physician-assisted suicide in Michigan comes from the reality that Dr. Kevokian has never been found guilty. (Boyd, 2005)
Regard for personal independence consents the validation of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Moral and ethical opinions supporting assisted suicide and Assisted Suicide contains the principle of freedom to control the time, place, and nature of one’s death, putting quality at the end of life above the purity of life. Other factors are the wish to maintain self-respect and personhood in the dying process and resistance to extending life by means of modern medical technology when it is known that care is ineffective. (American Psychological Association, 2001) People have a basic freedom to lead the way of their lives, a freedom that should include control over the time and conditions of their death. In suitable cases suicide can decrease suffering or increase self-respect, and people in these conditions should have the permission to take their own lives. A doctor’s contribution in assisted suicide or Assisted Suicide can encourage an option taken by the patient, depending on his or her own value system. Personal attitudes about the significance of life and the implication of death differ very much. Ascertaining assisted suicide as established options would revere this diversity. (New York State department of Health, 2001)
The Essay on Suicide: Meaning of Life and Dignity
Introduction “One should die proudly when it is no longer possibly to live proudly. ” Friedrich Nietzche said. I have two understanding about his statement. “Go to the hell,coward. ” or “Live in the eternal glory if you dare” And I prefer the later one, thus meaning that, to certain extent, suicide is the behavior of a coward. However it is not easy to simply ...
According to a research study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, patients were encouraged to visit a doctor for their death wish did so after a decisive and attentive process rather than on one’s impulse. The study presenting data that until now has been very limited, involved 35 cases in which patients believed physician-assisted suicide. Researchers worked to get complete information concerning their thought processes, motivations, and experiences by means of interviews with these patients and their family members. The patient’s motivation to take part in physician-assisted suicide was revealed in this study and is found to contain three types of issues, namely, illness-related experience weakness, loss of functional activity or uneasiness or loss of sense of self or identity, and worries about the future. At the time of planning the assisted suicide, none of the patients appeared to be gravely sad. The motivations expressed are comparable to those of other patients who refuse life-sustaining treatment. As per Robert A. Pearlman, lead author of the study, the motivations for physician-assisted suicide recognize issues for physicians to explore with patients who have unceasing illness and life-shortening disease. While addressing the sweeping effects of the illness, including the quality of the dying experience with their patients, the health care providers can take help from these studies. (“Physician Assisted Suicide and Why Patients are motivated to Seek Death” 2005)
Making assisted suicide and voluntary Assisted Suicide legally lawful is a positive step to give people more control over their dying process. Neutrally, there is no single reply as to when in one’s life all things become a saddle and redundant. If freedom is a basic value, then the great inconsistency among people on this question makes it particularly significant that people control the way, situation, and timing of their death and dying. (New York State department of Health, 2001) The principle of autonomy is very much associated with self-deciding capacity. This principle asserts that people should have the freedom to make their own resolution about the track of their own lives at any time they can. Similarly they should also have the right to decide the way of their own dying. As per these discussions, even when options are communally formed they should be valued as independent as long as there is proper assessment of decisional capability. No person should tolerate terminal suffering that is chronic, intolerable, or delayed. (American Psychological Association, 2001)
The Term Paper on Assisted Suicide Patient Life Suffering
... Euthanasia is when the doctor provides the means with which the patient may end his own life whereas physician-assisted suicide is when the doctor causes the patient's ... patient pull the plunger, that is assisted suicide. If the doctor pushed the plunger, it would be euthanasia.' (McCuen 1994 p. 54) Both euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide ...
The dying person should be capable of seeking and getting help in assisted suicide, when the saddle of life overweigh the benefits due to unmanageable pain, acute psychological suffering, damage to his self-respect, or loss of class of life as considered by the patient and when the conditions are not curable. It is also squabbled that assisted suicide for fatally ill people undergoing severe pain can be differentiated from Assisted Suicide used for the purpose of genocide on the basis that it is on the basis of the principles of self-respect, respect, and reverence and is selected and performed by the dying persons, instead of being forced on them in opposition to their will. (American Psychological Association, 2001) Some would disagree that assisted death already happens in secrecy. For instance, morphine drips apparently used for pain relief is a secret form of assisted death or euthanasia. That PAS is unlawful avoids an open argument, in which patients and doctors could take part. Making PAS legally lawful will encourage open discussion. (Braddock; Tonelli, 1998)
The pain experienced by friends and family of the patient is frequently equivalent to or more than the patient himself. Observing a loved one in such suffering for so long is very hard. The stress drawn out for so long is emotional and physically challenging. Generally, the death of patient takes place abruptly or followed by a period when the patient has lost consciousness. The patient gets a chance to say his final goodbyes and end his life with dignity if it is physician-assisted suicide. (“Should an incurably-ill patient be able to commit physician-assisted suicide?”, 2007)
The Term Paper on Physician Assisted Suicide People Patient Death
... 3-32.'Arguments Against Physician-Assisted Suicide.' Yahoo. 1997, web Barnard, Dr. Christiaan. Good Life Good Death: A Doctor's Case for Euthanasia and Suicide.Englewood Cliffs, New ... in Oregon, loneliness was also a factor in the assisted suicide of several patients. Of the fifteen people who took the lethal drugs, ...
Legal arguments assert that it would be in the best concern of dying patients to be able to control methods that are presently being used secretly for assisted suicide. This set of laws would also defend the doctors who are presently fulfilling unlawfully the patient desires out of sympathy. Medical arguments squabble that fit incurably ill patients desiring to opt for assisted suicide may feel deserted by doctors who decline to help them. The censure that medical doctors who help in suicide would be disobeying the Hippocratic Oath is disproved on various grounds. First, the original Oath barring killing also banned abortions, surgery, and charging teaching fees, all of which have been changed to meet modern realities. Second, assisted suicide, unlike euthanasia, does not entail the ending of life by a doctor, as it is the dying person himself or herself who takes the steps to end his or her life. Third, the Oath necessitates the doctors to take all steps required to reduce pain, and some understand this to include assisted suicide when that is the only way pain can be reduced. (American Psychological Association, 2001)
Making assisted suicide and Assisted Suicide legally lawful will not create any dangerous effects for the society and suitable protection can reduce those possible dangers. For instance, in spite of the present ban, assisted suicide takes place. Explicitly allowing assisted suicide in agreement with the necessary protection can thus hearten doctors to converse without restraint with their patients and to discuss with professional colleagues. Permitted consultation with an approved psychiatrist would enhance the identification and cure of many patients who are dejected. Thus, when it is done under cautiously defined situations it would lead to larger professional responsibility and lesser cases of insults. Though there are some criticisms against legalizing assisted suicide or euthanasia, the number of improper deaths is small, and the chances to lessen pain in other cases outweigh the cost. The significance of criticism suggests the requirement for protection, but should not prevent authorizing assisted suicide and euthanasia. (New York State department of Health, 2001)
The Term Paper on Physician-Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia
... means that patients can use to end their lives (physician-assisted suicide) I also make a case for physician-administered death (voluntary active euthanasia) in ... hope that deeper insight will dawn regarding what love bids us do for each other when life becomes a burden rather than ...
Arguments against Assisted Suicide
It has been argued that assisted suicide and Assisted Suicide should be allowed only with severe and clear procedures. (Braddock; Tonelli, 1998) The ultimate means with legalization has the practice of continuing to be the first option; not essentially, killing is contagious but since the concept of life-not-worth-living is prone to several interpretations. (“Brock: Voluntary Active Euthanasia”, 1997) The opponents of the Assisted Suicide advocated that the difficulties behind voluntary Assisted Suicide are that it is biblically erroneous. (Moreno, 2005) It has been opined that to put one self to end or to force someone else to do it for us, is to defy God and the right of God over our lives and his right to choose the longevity of our lives and the mode of death. (Arguments against Euthanasia: Euthanasia is against the word and will of God) Life is the primary and irreplaceable environment for the continuance of all human values and we have a liability to nurture, regard and foster the integrity of life instead of doing harm or destroying it. (Banks; Stevens, 1997)
Another opposition put forth is that it infringes the morals and values in the medical settings. The Hippocratic Oath that the doctors are obliged to uphold is in violation by resorting to doctor-assisted suicide. (Moreno, 2005) It has been advocated that sanctioning the intentional killing of humans primarily weakens the basis of law and public morality. No strategy of protection seems to ever be foolproof. Therefore in practice authorizing ‘voluntary euthanasia’ would give rise to authorization for involuntary euthanasia. Authorization for voluntary Assisted Suicide based on excruciation of hard cases gives rise to its widespread practice on a large scale. It has further been advocated that authorization would generate huge social pressures on very susceptible people to volunteer, resulting in much pressure and ailment. It would weaken the funding and provision of suitable geriatric and palliative care: with expended budgets Assisted Suicide is being visualized as a cost-effective alternative. Actually, it seems to be very cost effective. It would also weaken the funding of research into such areas. It would basically weaken the linkage between elderly or dependent relations and their families, with overwhelming pressures being applied on people to purse the honorable mode and not be a burden. It would also basically weaken the basis of trust between doctors and patients that is at the heart of effective medicine. (Beale; Horner, n. d.)
The Essay on Euthanasia-Assisted Suicide
Webster's dictionary defines the term euthanasia as a painless, happy death. In recent years, a new term - assisted euthanasia has been introduced. This is when a terminally ill patient is assisted in committing suicide by their doctor or even by a friend or relative. There is a story which I read of an Aids patient. As he approached his time of death, he decided that rather than prolonging the ...
As per Ogden, the deliberation between palliation and Assisted Suicide is concentrated by contrasting ethical views, not data. He reviews the results of his study and concludes that for terminal or incurably ill persons who have concluded that their lives are no longer worth living and where there is no scope for recovery, the obligation of continued living are regarded as marks of tyranny. Practically there is no validation for forcing someone to sustain life in such a state, when that coalition is contrary to his/her personal moral beliefs and values. (Ogden, 1994) The critics opined that Assisted Suicide exerts a complicated problem with regard to the capability of a patient to assent for a suicide. Remarkably, it is common that the person who wishes to kill himself is always under pressure. One can never be absolutely confident that they have the voluntary and informed consent of the patient. A normal request put forth before the ailment or injury in shale of a living will cannot be regarded forceful since it is inadequately informed. Contrary to this, if a request is made when an individual is ailing excruciating pain or delirium, it is advocated that the pain and drugs deter him from making a completely validated decision. (California Foundation for Independent Living Centers, Inc, 2000)
It has also been advocated that if taking life is established as medical procedure there is no guarantee for its proper regulation. The controlling methods to secure against exploitation will necessitate an open system, but privacy requirements make such a system unbelievable. The legalized physician-patient association necessitates sealing of all records of treatment and patient condition. Moreover, a climate in which managed care system are motivated by economic considerations enhances the real risk that legal killing will spread out and the profit motive will be infused into the Assisted Suicide consideration. (California Foundation for Independent Living Centers, Inc, 2000)
My Perspective
I take the standpoint of supporting Euthanasia. The obligation to not kill stems from the opposition to killing since it takes human life. We consider the human life to be of a specific quality, ‘sanctity or sacredness’ that necessitates a suitable attitude of reverence. To put the life to an end is to become unsuccessful in expressing this attitude. Under-girding the liability not to kill is considered as an anthropological position. A specific awareness of what human beings are their nature, value and importance. In more universal terms human entails the metaphysical value entailing certain duties and rights. Just like this the metaphysical doctrine grounds the responsibility to not kill, so the same doctrine can in various contexts ground an obligation to kill so the same doctrine can in several contexts ground an obligation to kill. (Flannagan, n. d.)
While the human life is accorded prime importance then we consider it to cherish and foster it. However, this is regarded as the application of force against an aggressor. In reality, failure to apply such force would go against the very spirit it incorporates. While we do not succeed in safeguarding our family and friends from aggression, then it is apparent that we are not successful in valuing their lives. A person who remains idle while a dictator slaughters numerous people or who fails to interfere when they visualize an assailant beat another to death is a person those basically do not succeed in valuing the lives of his/her fellow man. As absurd as it appears, sometimes respecting life means killing. The same standard that justifies our responsibility to not kill mandates killing in specific contexts. (Flannagan, n. d.)
Coma stages deter a patient from his sense of autonomy and dignity and humiliate him into a mere organism with a thumping heart but sans all other purpose or feeling. To safeguard such a biological but numbed existence, or to safeguard life in an extremely ill individual suffering from unmitigated pain and agony, against his revealed desires is the very negation of regard for life. The continuation of useless suffering is a greater evil than accelerating death that is unavoidable. This is a fundamental liberty since the right to die is the final and ultimate pronouncement of the right to life. As the constitution entails an individual the necessary liberty to life, the right to choose the time to die with dignity should also be his/her privilege. Moreover, the liberty to act is not required to be confined unless there are convincing arguments that this clashes with the rights of others. As no such conflict can be represented however, in the case of an extremely ill person, a person has the liberty to die as he chooses. (Raman, 1996)
Sympathy should not be refused to those who necessitate merciful release from a life that has become a meaningless burden and for whom there are no potentialities for remission or cure. Moreover, the life involves self awareness, the ability to interact with others, and to be aware of and react expressively to our environment. While such attributes are avoided for all time to come, life is without quality. Legalizing Assisted Suicide would give rise to regard for self determination. It is axiomatic in a free democratic society that individuals have the liberty to formulate their own conclusions on matters those are basically their own concern. (Herron, 1994)
It is worthwhile to question the burdening of each other with our personal views on life, illness and dying. Why is not probable to accept that people have differed opinions about the real personal concerns of life and death. Why not admit a moral plurality with regard to the end of life. (Abergavenny, 2003) While it is sometimes the old and infirm that chooses self-deliverance, the choice has been made in the light of each individual’s quality of life. Love of life is a primal instinct: none can essentially be convinced to be dead trough the propaganda. However, a conviction deeply held for whatever reason, that the time has come, should be regarded and everyone should have the right to opt for release. (Docker, 2002) This is the real concern that every society with enhanced modern medical care has to replicate upon. (Abergavenny, 2003)
Conclusion
The topic of Assisted Suicide is a contentious one and it inescapably incites strong emotional argument and gives rise to tough beliefs that do not straight away lend themselves to consensual harmony. It is improbable that a decision can be reached which will meet with universal support whenever such clashes of values exist, with apparently little middle ground. It is hard for anyone to anticipate accord on this issue in a society with a plurality of extensively varying moral opinions and faiths. There is an urgent need for the issue of active voluntary Assisted Suicide to be addressed in spite of the difficulties in this area. To conclude, it may be said that Assisted Suicide need to be supported for, in spite of the arguments in favor of the issue.
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