Physician Assisted Suicide Research Paper
Physician Assisted Suicide p. 1
Evelyn Hamm
Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility - SOC 120
Physician Assisted Suicide
Prof. Harold Engle
September 2, 2011
Physician Assisted Suicide p. 2 Physician assisted suicide is a choice that reminds me of the game show “what would you do”. When your so terminally sick and your quality of life is nothing anymore, what does a person do. Anymore there are very few options on how to handle terminal illnesses. You can wait it out and risk all the pain that may or may not come, or you can explore more in depth options with your physician. As a terminally ill patient and hoping to have fulfilled your bucket list, your options are minimal and can have a greater effect on the ones …show more content…
Physician assisted suicide, now more commonly known as physician aid-in-dying or PAD is an available option for those terminally ill patients. Physician aid-in-dying 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 patients request, which the patient intends to use to end his or her own life (Braddock, Starks, Dudzinski, & White 2010). Although it is voluntary and once a person is given the medication it is entirely up to them to decide to take it. Between 1997 and 2001, 141 lethal prescriptions were issued according to Oregon state records but only 91 of those patients actually used their prescriptions to end their life (Singer, …show more content…
6 Many different organizations like the World Health Organization or WHO, are concerned that the nature of the physician - patient relationship will be irrevocably altered for the worse if physicians are given a license to “kill”. (Young). However, advocates for physician assisted suicide like Margaret Battin will argue that physicians whom alone society has entrusted custody of the means of ensuring a good death, have a positive duty to help terminally ill patients in intractable pain who wish to die, which is a duty grounded in the bioethical principles of beneficence and non-malfeasance (Young). Battin points out that patients have not only the negative right to self determination but also the positive right to assistance from a physician. She believes that if a human being is fully emancipated then they are answerable to no one but themselves (Young). Physicians and philosophers who support this topic, along with Battin emphasize considerations such as mercy in the face of immitigable pain; self-determination in matters of life and death; and human dignity as residing in control over the manner and timing of ones death
Evelyn Hamm
Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility - SOC 120
Physician Assisted Suicide
Prof. Harold Engle
September 2, 2011
Physician Assisted Suicide p. 2 Physician assisted suicide is a choice that reminds me of the game show “what would you do”. When your so terminally sick and your quality of life is nothing anymore, what does a person do. Anymore there are very few options on how to handle terminal illnesses. You can wait it out and risk all the pain that may or may not come, or you can explore more in depth options with your physician. As a terminally ill patient and hoping to have fulfilled your bucket list, your options are minimal and can have a greater effect on the ones …show more content…
Physician assisted suicide, now more commonly known as physician aid-in-dying or PAD is an available option for those terminally ill patients. Physician aid-in-dying 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 patients request, which the patient intends to use to end his or her own life (Braddock, Starks, Dudzinski, & White 2010). Although it is voluntary and once a person is given the medication it is entirely up to them to decide to take it. Between 1997 and 2001, 141 lethal prescriptions were issued according to Oregon state records but only 91 of those patients actually used their prescriptions to end their life (Singer, …show more content…
6 Many different organizations like the World Health Organization or WHO, are concerned that the nature of the physician - patient relationship will be irrevocably altered for the worse if physicians are given a license to “kill”. (Young). However, advocates for physician assisted suicide like Margaret Battin will argue that physicians whom alone society has entrusted custody of the means of ensuring a good death, have a positive duty to help terminally ill patients in intractable pain who wish to die, which is a duty grounded in the bioethical principles of beneficence and non-malfeasance (Young). Battin points out that patients have not only the negative right to self determination but also the positive right to assistance from a physician. She believes that if a human being is fully emancipated then they are answerable to no one but themselves (Young). Physicians and philosophers who support this topic, along with Battin emphasize considerations such as mercy in the face of immitigable pain; self-determination in matters of life and death; and human dignity as residing in control over the manner and timing of ones death