Essay Example on Physician Assisted Suicide

Introduction

Assisted suicide, otherwise known as Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS), is the act of taking one’s life with the help of a physician. The practice is subjected to terminally ill people who can no longer sustain the suffering (Snyder & Mueller, 2017). The practice is governed by the medical principle of autonomy, which allows the patients to dictate whether they want to continue in medication or not. In the United States, several states such as Colorado, California, Montana, Hawaii, and New Jersey have legalized PAS (Jordan, 2017). PAS topic is one of the most debated concerning its morality. Those who support it base its operation on helping a person in need by saving them from the pain and anguish of diseases. Those against the practice base their argument on morality, social interests, and biblical teachings (Jordan, 2017). Although many people may say otherwise, assisted suicide is unethical.

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Description

Patients with serious medical conditions may want to give up on life due to too much pain and suffering. These are patients with diseases like cancer, mental illness, heart disease, and other complicated conditions (Jordan, 2017). The physicians are bound to tell them their progress, including when there is no hope for recovery.

In circumstances where the doctors have done their best, and the patient has slim chances of survival, the patient is in some American states allowed to ask for the medical professional’s assistance to end their lives. The PAS is done to remove the patients from the suffering burden. Compared to euthanasia, assisted suicide may be painful.

Unlike in Euthanasia, where the doctor administers a killer drug to the patient, PAS entails patients administering the drugs to themselves with the help of the physician (Joodaki et al., 2016). However, PAS practice does not justify the fact that the patient would die sooner or later. Between 1998 and 2017, at least 4249 patients had PAS drugs prescribed to them (Sulmasy et al., 2018). Out of them, 66.3% ended their lives using drugs (Sulmasy et al., 2018). The majority of those who took their lives were cancer patients.

Therefore, at least 63.1 % who were cancer patients’ cause of death was prescription (Sulmasy et al., 2018). In other words, they were helped to commit suicide. Experts prefer calling the practice physician aid in dying rather than physician aid in suicide as the word suicide has negative connotations.

PAS is a prevailing topic because it is a measure of societal morality standards. The topic has been a cause of debate for the longest time now, and few experts have concluded that PAS is unethical in their studies. Instead, the experts analyze both sides of the topic, ethical and unethical, and leave the audience to make their judgments.

The topic is also crucial in determining whether everything legal is ethical. Besides, the process of ending a life is difficult for physicians as their duties are saving lives. PAS topic also measures the biblical understanding of individuals regarding saving lives. From a Christian worldview, people should not kill, and the physicians are being allowed to do that.

Discussion

Not all patients qualify for PAS, and the few that qualify must meet certain conditions. Those legally allowed to seek aid in dying are those with unbearable suffering without improvement prospective, unbearable mental suffering, incurable conditions, and irremediable medical conditions (Sulmasy et al. 2018). The patient must be suffering to seek this option.

The patient must also voluntarily decide to end their life, and the family members must be informed. However, whether they meet these conditions or not, there is no moral justification for ending someone’s life (Sulmasy et al. 2018). Physicians must never help take a person’s life because it is morally wrong. No matter which country, the general society has its moral codes that identify acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Acceptable behaviors dignify the community people and accord them the necessary respect (Snyder & Mueller, 2017). Going against these set standards is considered a community crime that is still unacceptable even if it may not be punishable by law.

Committing suicide is one of those unacceptable behaviors. Physicians, according to unwritten society, moral rules should not help patients end their lives. The second argument is that it is against the biblical teachings that only God can end life (Snyder & Mueller, 2017). According to the Bible, God is the sole giver of life, and only he should end it. Amongst the Ten Commandments given to Christians in the Bible is “thou shall not kill” (Snyder & Mueller, 2017). The Bible makes it clear that killing is a sin, and no one should kill. The same Bible also teaches that committing suicide is wrong and that those who end their lives will miss eternal life. Consequently, both the patient and the physician are biblically wrong for performing the PAS process. Therefore, judging from the Christian perspective, physician-assisted suicide is wrong.

The other reason why PAS is unethical is that the action is depressing for patients’ families, and the physicians have the duty to save lives and not take them. When patients decide to ask for the lethal injection or drug, they do not make their own decision but also for their loved ones. The families may allow the patients to go but are left in anguish.

According to Jordan (2017), it is a bit consoling to learn that our loved ones died because they failed to recover compared to learning that a prescription caused their deaths. As the family members mourn, they will be wondering whether there was a chance that their patients would have recovered should they have waited a little bit more.

Consequently, they live in regret that they would have done something to save their loved one’s life. The physicians are obligated to protect the lives of patients, preserve their moral rights, and provide the necessary care to save them from death (Joodaki et al., 2016). When the doctor helps the patients end their lives, they will not be protecting them from death. Also, the physicians should uphold the patients’ moral rights like the right to live amongst others.

That way, the physicians will maintain integrity as well as trust in their patients. It is disrespectful for the patients to ask the doctor who should give care towards recovery to help end their lives. It is also undermining the profession of the doctor because it shows that the patient no longer trusts the care given by the physician.

The last argument is that allowing physician-assisted suicide is a ‘slippery slope.’ When the physicians are allowed to aid in ending patients' lives, they cannot be questioned in the event of loss of other patients' lives (Snyder & Mueller, 2017). Other things like legalizing euthanasia will follow suit. Euthanasia is illegal because it is against the ethical conduct of medical professions. However, there will be no much difference in allowing the patients to inject themselves a lethal substance with having the doctor inject it himself.

The basic argument here is that more morally wrong practices will begin in the hospitals so long as assisted suicide is practiced. The ethical perspective of physician-assisted suicide does not seek to allow the patients who are terminally ill to continue suffering in pain but to do the right thing. Doing the right thing may be uncomfortable and cause pain, but that is what moral values are about.

Conclusion

It is unethical for physicians to help patients end their lives. The societal standards have moral codes, which, even though not written, bides the society people. One of the codes is not committing suicide or helping in the practice. The highest number of patients who seek PAS are cancer patients who can no longer continue suffering. The action of aiding in ending life is biblically wrong and is punishable.

From the Christian view, PAS is unethical and should be illegal. Practicing PAS for the medical profession is breaking the ethical code which seeks them to protect the lives of patients through care. The families of the patients who seek PAS are left devastated, wondering what would have happened had the patient waited longer. Although the practice argues that the exercise seeks to protect the patients from continued suffering, ending one’s life is morally wrong.

References

Joodaki, B., Sadeghi, M., Ghani, K., & Mirzaie, M. (2016). Physician-assisted suicide: ethical, jurisprudence, and legal issues. Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, 9(4), 14-29.
http://ijme.tums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_id=5838&slc_lang=en&sid=1.&printcase=1&hbnr=1&hmb=1

Jordan, M. (2017). The Ethical Considerations of Physician-assisted Suicide. Dialogue & Nexus, 4(1), 12. https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/dialogue/vol4/iss1/12/

Snyder Sulmasy, L., & Mueller, P. S. (2017). Ethics and the legalization of physician-assisted suicide: an American College of Physicians position paper. Annals of internal medicine, 167(8), 576-578. https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/abs/10.7326/m17-0938

Sulmasy, D. P., Finlay, I., Fitzgerald, F., Foley, K., Payne, R., & Siegler, M. (2018). Physician-assisted suicide: why neutrality by organized medicine is neither neutral nor appropriate. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 33(8), 1394-1399.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-018-4424-8.