MEDICAL LAW AND ETHICS

Contemporary Issues in Medical Law and Ethics

Contemporary Issues in Medical Law and Ethics

Introduction

Prior to the dismount to the crux of the specific concerns in medical law, this essay would commence by considering a few of the fundamental ethical and legal principles engrossed while taking into consideration the concerns allied with the field of medicine. Undoubtedly, fierce debates have always been carried out over concerns like euthanasia that have been pursued for decades. We appear to be no closer to consent on those concerns today than we were ages before. However, still there are concerns of sizeable importance that receive petite attention in the media. Are we the possessors of our bodies? Are medical poises likely to be broken? Do patients are indebted or responsibilities along with rights? These and many other questions are associated to medical ethics and law that need to be attended by means of an intelligent debate. Physician assisted suicide and euthanasia are contradictory issues in the ethics and law of medicine. Various arguments may be found in the debate in opposition to the legal feasibility and moral acceptability of dynamic participation of physicians in causing death to a patient (Beauchamp, 2003).

Ethical and legal principles for Euthanasia and Dealing with Dilemmas

Religion

The Catholic religion implicates that along with the acknowledged sins of contraception and abortion, euthanasia is also a sin against the church and God. A letter was written by Pope John Pail II and it was delivered in March of the year 1995 to the Vatican. Pope John Paul communicated his perspectives on the subject of euthanasia in that dogmatic statement. The Catholic Church is of the idea that it is sinful for the people to consider that they may administer the initiation and termination of their lives (Otani, 2010). The church claims, “This temptation could become a major source of concern for the patients suffering from the disease, physicians need to reach the root cause of the problem to resolve this issue, which could be done by the quickening death so the death of an individual could occur in a suitable manner”. Further the church clutches the conviction that there is worth to anguish and we being humans, must recognize that anguish is a very significant part of our spiritual life. Further, being Christians, we must realize that after this life, there awaits the conquest of heave.

However, these doctrines do not cart off the suffering and pain allied to lethal infirmity nor do they lessen the reality or management of the pain. In the field of medicine, there is at all time the issue of morals and ethics for the doctors engrossed in euthanasia. Is it really moral to take away the life of a person when they continuously ask for it? A physician has to take an Oath which is known as an Hippocratic Oath, in which the physician pledges to perform his job with all his optimum capability for the welfare of the society. The issue is, is the welfare ...