Utilitarianism

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Recommended: conclusion for physician assisted suicide

The United States flag stands to the world as a signal of freedom and most importantly choice. The constitution gives our citizens that right to choose how to live life, how to use our liberty, and how to pursue our own happiness. But what happens when a citizen decides to opt for no life? Is that not a choice? This is the argument for one of the most controversial questions of the past decade, should assisted suicide be deemed legal in the United States? The root of the controversy is the involvement of medical community in such a choice. I will look to find a not an answer but guidance to determine if assisted suicide is an ethical choice. While the issue has no answer that would make both sides of the issue content, Utillitarism and relative ethics can help clear the ethical issue at hand. The utillatirist perspective will help explain how the outcome of physician assisted suicide helps a population with a certain end benefits and changes the quality of life of a person who is on a tight schedule to meet a certain death. Relativism will explain how the circumstances that the human being that benefit from assisted suicide call for a dignified ending.

Utilitarianism will have us look at the outcome of an action as the guiding principle to deem something ethical or unethical (Moser, 2010). The outcome of actions is in a sense the harm or benefit that will remain after it is all said and done. Realistically we cannot expect to find an answer to the question of ethics pertaining to physician assisted suicide. Perhaps the most important aspect to understand about physician assisted suicide is that this choice is guided not to the common person that has just gone through a rough patch and cannot see the end. This choice is directed...

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...he legalization of physician assisted suicide. Not to ignore the wishes of the medical community, we must focus on the wishes of the patient. Again physician assisted suicide is not a way out of a bad situation is a way to approach the inevitable. It is to be held relative to the individual’s personal wishes and medical history and prognosis. No one situation is the same and every single patient needs to be treated accordingly to their own situation. There is not simple answer to this, but we must move forward to help the majority in a dignified way relative to their own special situation. Imagine a fragile person whose color has turned an ash white, hair gone, constantly sick to their stomach, unable to do the most simple of task like hugging their loved ones. How can a heart condemn a human being for wanting to be remembered as more than that in their last days?

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