Physician Assisted Suicide
Physician-Assisted Suicide: Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures
Death, while a reality for all people, is still a frightening and unknown experience. That is one of the reasons that physician-assisted suicide is such a complex topic. However, when one is faced with the prospect of witnessing the suffering of a terminally ill loved one and watching them experience unbearable pain, despite the known fact that they will never again be healthy, the issue becomes less complex. Whether an actual experience or an imagined one, it is one of the worst situations an individual can endure. If offered the possibility to end the suffering and relieve the patient or loved one from pain, would you be supportive or would you leave them to suffer? Physician-assisted suicide could be the answer for the select few patients who meet strict requirements and who are in need of relief. Physician-assisted suicide refers to a practice in which a physician provides a competent, terminally ill patient with a prescription for a lethal dose of medication, upon the patient 's request, which the patient intends to use to end his or her own life. (Black) Here is where the controversy arises: should terminally ill patients have the right to choose when to end their lives? Due to the facts that physician-assisted suicide can be constructed to have reasonable laws that ensure it will not be abused and protect the value of human life, relieve suffering patients, and allow citizens in need to exercise their fundamental freedoms to the right of death, physician-assisted suicide should be a legal practice in the United States. It seems to be an obvious decision on the emotional level, but on the legal and moral level, the controversy is not so simple. The act of physician-assisted suicide is illegal in the United States, with the exception of the states of Oregon, Montana and Washington. Although legal, many strict requirements must be met in order for physician-assisted suicide to
Death, while a reality for all people, is still a frightening and unknown experience. That is one of the reasons that physician-assisted suicide is such a complex topic. However, when one is faced with the prospect of witnessing the suffering of a terminally ill loved one and watching them experience unbearable pain, despite the known fact that they will never again be healthy, the issue becomes less complex. Whether an actual experience or an imagined one, it is one of the worst situations an individual can endure. If offered the possibility to end the suffering and relieve the patient or loved one from pain, would you be supportive or would you leave them to suffer? Physician-assisted suicide could be the answer for the select few patients who meet strict requirements and who are in need of relief. Physician-assisted suicide refers to a practice in which a physician provides a competent, terminally ill patient with a prescription for a lethal dose of medication, upon the patient 's request, which the patient intends to use to end his or her own life. (Black) Here is where the controversy arises: should terminally ill patients have the right to choose when to end their lives? Due to the facts that physician-assisted suicide can be constructed to have reasonable laws that ensure it will not be abused and protect the value of human life, relieve suffering patients, and allow citizens in need to exercise their fundamental freedoms to the right of death, physician-assisted suicide should be a legal practice in the United States. It seems to be an obvious decision on the emotional level, but on the legal and moral level, the controversy is not so simple. The act of physician-assisted suicide is illegal in the United States, with the exception of the states of Oregon, Montana and Washington. Although legal, many strict requirements must be met in order for physician-assisted suicide to
Cited: Black, Tony, and Clarence H. Braddock. "Physician Aid-in-Dying: Ethical Topic in Medicine." UW Departments Web Server. University of Washington, Mar. 2011. Web. 26 July 2011. <http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/pad.html>. Fass, Jennifer Weir, Robert F. Physician-assisted Suicide. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1997. Print.