Physician Assisted Suicide Research Paper

Physician-Assisted Suicide is Morally Acceptable From a Utilitarian Perspective
Tiffany Wiedeman
Duquesne University

The right to physician-assisted suicide is a very controversial topic that concerns many people all over the world. There has been much debate about whether a terminally ill patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Physician-assisted suicide is defined as a physician providing a patient with means to kill themselves. The doctor would prescribe a lethal dose of medication to the patient to end their life. From the Utilitarian standpoint, physician-assisted suicide is morally acceptable because the patients should be allowed to end there suffering, reduce the damaging financial
These states include Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Vermont. There are specific requirements to be able to start this process. “You must be a legal resident of the state and at least 18 years of age. You must have 6 months to live and be verified by two independent doctors. You must submit at least one written and two verbal requests. Also, you must have a psychiatric evaluation and be found competent” (“Utilitarianism,” 2012). Utilitarian’s believe physician-assisted suicide is morally acceptable and all 50 states should make it legal. People who are under these conditions should be able to end their suffering and end their lives with dignity. Patients who are close to dying cannot take care of themselves like they are used to. Some patients are unable to breath or eat food on their own and many believe they would rather die with their pride still intact. Many patients feel they do not want to continue the final moments of their lives laying in a hospital bed and hooked up to a ventilator or feeding tube. Some patients would much rather choose to die a peaceful death. Without physician assistance, some people many commit suicide in a much more horrifying way. People who are terminally ill often become lonely and depressed and some experience suicidal thoughts. It would be much easier for the patient and their family members if he or she
When their loved-one passes away, the family would have to struggle with huge hospital bills and possibly large amounts of debt. It is hard for families to see their relatives on a feeding tube and hooked up to other machines to be able to breath. This pain could be lessened if the patient chose physician-assisted suicide because families would be able to say their final goodbyes. “By allowing patients to have this option, we can reduce health care costs, which could potentially lower insurance premiums” (“Crocker”, 2013). It is not necessary to spend thousands of dollars on hospital bills on patients who want to end their suffering. Another reason is doctors and nurses working at the hospital would have more time to work on other patients. This would allow them to save more lives for people who had a higher chance of living and surviving. There is a shortage of medical staff in our country and doctors should spend more of their time to patients that do not want to die immediately. This could also be beneficial to doctors because they could save vital organs of a person going through physician-assisted suicide that could be given to other patients in need. “We have a shortage of organs in this country and there are long waiting lists for organs such as kidneys, hearts, and