PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE

Physician Assisted Suicide

Physician Assisted Suicide

Introduction

A plea for death by the late Sue Rodriguez from British Columbia Canada, a patient with ALS (commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease) with every intention of taking her own life. Sue was aided in her suicide by A Canadian Physician in violation of Canadian law. Throughout North America, Committing suicide or attempting to commit suicide is not a legal offense. However, helping another human to commit suicide is a criminal act, with only one exception, the state of Oregon. Oregon is the only state, which allows patients, which are terminally ill and in intractable pain to receive a lethal prescription or dose from a physician, causing death. This is called Physician- Assisted suicide or PAS.

Discussion

The ethics of PAS continue to be debated. Some argue that PAS is ethical. Often this is argued on the grounds that PAS may be a rational choice for a person who is choosing to die to escape unbearable suffering. Furthermore, the physician's duty to help their patient at all costs may be a scapegoat to justify the act of providing this type of assistance. These arguments are mostly based on the notion of individuals having the right to govern themselves, patients argue the fact that if they have the right to choose the course of their life, why can they not choose or decide how it will end? This is known as Respect for autonomy. Many patients argue about Justice. Justice requires that we all should be treated equal. So if someone has the right to refuse treatment to hurry death, why can't the complete opposite go into affect to have certain drugs administered inducing death instead of withheld. Others argue that PAS is unethical. Often these opponents argue that PAS completely contradicts the traditional duty of the Physician to preserve life. In addition, many argue if PAS were legal, that abuses would take place i.e. the poor or elderly might be pressured to choose PAS over more complex and expensive options. Other valuable points can be made in this argument, Misdiagnoses. In this case a concern is raised. What if the physician made a mistake? There may be errors in prognosis and treatment, then a life would be taken because of a simple mistake and malpractice can come into effect.

Now what does the medical profession and the general public think of PAS? Many surveys have been taken. Surveys of individual physicians show that half believe that PAS is ethically justifiable in certain cases. However, professional organizations such as the American Medical Association have generally argued against PAS on the grounds that it undermines the integrity of the profession. Surveys of practicing physicians show that about 1 in 5 will receive a request for PAS sometime in their career. Somewhere between 5 - 20 % will be eventually honored. Surveys of patients find that the majority think and feel that PAS is ethically justifiable in certain cases. Mostly cases involving extreme unrelentless ...