PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE

Should physician-assisted suicide be allowed in Canada?

Abstract

Utilitarianism and quality-of-life considerations have increased the pressure to devalue life in terminal situations, leading to ethical confusion among caregivers. Where is the balance between a commitment to life and a commonsense willingness to "let go" when the time comes? This paper explores this balance, using a case history of a man with respiratory failure. This provides an opportunity to define and discuss some commonly misunderstood concepts related to end-of-life care. The ethical principles of terminal care are presented from the viewpoint of both secular and Christian ethics.

Should physician-assisted suicide be allowed in Canada?

Introduction and Background

The care of terminal patients is often difficult and ethically challenging. The standards of competent and compassionate care that characterized a previous generation seem to be wavering, replaced by a post-modern mélange of newer conflicting theories and ethical values.

A shift from deontological principles to utilitarianism has occurred in the past thirty years, corresponding with the rise of the modern bioethics movement (Rae & Cox, 1999). Many members of an increasingly aging population are denied their autonomy on the basis of mental incompetence. The most common cause of the loss of competence is Alzheimer's disease, which may afflict up to 50% of individuals 85 years and older (Alzheimer's disease, 2003).

Discussion

Decisions to withdraw treatment are often based on a lack of higher mental functioning as evidenced by self-awareness and self-control. On such utilitarian ideas of bioethics, there are degrees of personhood as though it was a quantity that one individual could have more of than another. To lose these physiologic parameters means to lose something vaguely called the "quality of life." Such "physiologic personhood" ignores a patient's personal history, and the fact that she has existed for more than a moment of time. Dependency and irrationality, with decisions made by others, would often deny such an individual the right to live.

Utilitarian considerations have even led to a "duty to die" in public discourse, a general sentiment that the elderly should "get out of the way" of the young. A report from a recent medical journal is chilling in this regard: An 85 year-old minister with dementia was abusive and irrational, posing a problem for caregivers in a nursing home. The minister's wife and children agreed that he was "without quality to his life." Therefore, they and the physicians decided to simply turn off his pacemaker to cause his death. In favoring this practice, the authors of the report made a purely utilitarian argument. Their act was convenient for the family, rather than based on any intrinsic value or personhood of the patient (Rymes, McCullough, Luchi, Teasdale, & Wilson, 2000).

People thus face a unique dilemma in today's health-care environment: How should he commit to compassionate and competent medical care within the current establishment, yet take a stand for the sanctity of life and respect for human dignity? Where is the balance between a commitment to life and a common-sense willingness to "let go" when the time comes? This paper will explore ...