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Euthanasia ethical debate
Argument over euthanasia
Argument over euthanasia
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Doctors and Euthanasia
At the center of the euthanasia debate are doctors. In their hands is the authority to act with regard to the early termination of human life.
When doctors graduate from medical school, who should decide if they live or die? The parents? The patients? The government?
In a perfect world, such a cruel question would never be asked. Not long ago, doctors were seen as an integral part of the community where they practiced.
Today, unable to make house calls, relying on exorbitant fees, often able to communicate only with their own kind, physicians are segregated and distanced from their patients and, indeed, from life itself.
The question for any compassionate person is this: Should doctors, whose very existence may be tragically painful for them and their loved ones, have the right to die?
Doctors are often doomed to a life of dependency. We know of several who are not even able to shop for groceries, do their laundry, fix their Mercedes or even clean up after themselves. Instead, they must hire attendants to perform the very basic functions that most of us take for granted.
Doctors are also pathetically reliant upon nurses to tell them how well they are doing, cover up errors and run interference with patients and their families.
Merely to survive, doctors are dependent upon a battery of medical assistants, receptionists, secretaries, accountants, tax lawyers and insurance agents.
Many feel that doctors would die of starvation if their Diners Club card, an artificial means of life support, were withdrawn. Recent articles in respected journals have raised the question of whether doctors have enough awareness of pain to experience suffering.
Having a doctor in the family can, and often does, cause severe stress to even the most stable and financially secure family. It is not unusual for parents to exhaust their financial resources in order to meet the needs of the medical student.
Because of the rising number of doctors, there is a greater need for special education, housing, extensive residencies and teaching hospitals. All are expensive and a drain on government funds as well as family savings.
But the worry is far from over if the medical student should survive to graduation. It takes more than $250,000 per year to support an average doctor's lifestyle, including expensive life supports such as country clubs, tanning parlors, medical societies, European cars, malpractice insurance and decorator furnishings for their offices.
...t’s family should be able decide for the patient whether or not prolonging their life is moral.
There has been a shortage of physicians, lack of inpatient beds, problems with ambulatory services, as well as not having proper methods of dealing with patient overflow, all in the past 10 years (Cummings & francescutti, 2006, p.101). The area of concern that have been worse...
Doctors are well respected within the realm of American society and are perceived with the highest regard as a profession. According to Gallup’s Honesty and Ethics in Profession polls, 67% of respondents believe that “the honesty and ethical standards” of medical doctors were “very high.” Furthermore, 88% of respondents polled by Harris Polls considered doctors to either “hold some” or a “great deal of prestige”. Consequently, these overwhelmingly positive views of the medical profession insinuate a myth of infallibility that envelops the physicians and the science they practice. Atul Gawande, in Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, provides an extensive view of the medical profession from both sides of the operating table
...viewed as a healthy relationship. For those doctors who believe in the death penalty, there should be no sanctions for participating in a legal procedure, which they are doing for the best interests of society, and in the name of justice.
This could also give doctors too much power, which could open the floodgate to non-critical patient suicides and other abuses. Government and insurance companies may put undue pressure on doctors to avoid heroic measures or recommend the procedure (Death with Dignity, n.d.). Overall, the end of one’s life should be left in the hands of that one individual and nobody else. People should be free to determine their own fates through their own autonomous choices, especially when it comes to private matters such as health. No one person’s life should be at the mercy of what other people believe is best.
In early October 1945, the United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia issued an indictment against 24 men and six organizations.2 The indictment appointed against these men and organizations contained four courts: conspiracy to wage aggressive war, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The trial at Nuremberg opened on November 20, 1945.3 For judgemen...
Having the title of a physician holds a great deal of weight, and many obligations. One of doctor 's most important duties is to accommodate his or her patients to the fullest making him or her as comfortable as possible while trying to alleviate all pain in a timely fashion. In certain situations(mostly in the elderly and terminally ill) a doctor is not able to eliminate all pain forcing the patient to live out the last moments of his or her life in agony and misery. Unfortunately, from time to time an individual’s last option should he or she wish to die peacefully would be death. Although assisted suicide seems like a situation where far more problems are created rather than solutions(which is why many encourage assisted suicide to remain
Doctors prefer to never have to euthanize a patient. It is a contradiction of everything they have been taught for a doctor to euthanize someone, because a doctor’s job is to do everything in their power to keep the patient alive, not assist them in suicide. The majority of doctors who specialize in palliative care, a field focused on quality of life for patients with severe and terminal illnesses, think legalizing assisted suicide is very unnecessary. This is due to the fact that if patients do not kill themselves, they will end up dying on a ventilator in the hospital under the best possible care available, with people around them trying to keep them as comfortable as possible. Legalized euthanasia everywhere has been compared to going down a slippery slope. Officials believe that it could be done over excessively and the fear of assisted suicide numbers rising greatly is a great fear. This is why euthanasia is such a controversial subject worldwide. But, even though it is a very controversial subject, euthanasia is humane. Every doctor also has a say in whether or not they choose to euthanize a patient or not, leaving only the doctors who are willing to do this type of practice, for euthanizing patients. Medicine and drugs prescribed by a doctor for pain or suffering can not always help a person to the extent they desire, even with the help of doctors
The Holocaust, genocide, the Final Solution, or World War II; it doesn't matter what you call it, nothing can make the horrific events that occurred any less terrible. From 1939 to 1945 a raging war between the Allies and Axis powers. The Allies, who were made up of the United States of America, led by President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, and Great Britain, led by Winston Churchill. The Allies were trying to defeat the Axis powers made up of Germany, led by the heinous dictator Adolf Hitler, Italy, led by Benito Mussolini, and Japan, led by Hideki Tojo. The war resulted in many casualties, many by civilians who had to part in the conflict. The events that occurred will be remembered forever in text, pictures, and in the mind of those who lived it.
In a 2012 collection of state workforce studies and reports, each state evidently needs more physicians. There are shortages of primary care physicians and specialists in every health professions: dental, mental health, pharmacy, and many others. Previously to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passing, a convergence of difficulties had added to labor force problems. The ACA will inflict additional pressures on the health care labor force.
Doctors had power toward their patients and their interns. As it shows in the book review of The Silent World of Doctor and Patients by Jay Katz; one of the interns said “There is a hierarchy in the hospital, on the top is the attending’s, then is the Chief residence, followed by interns and lastly is the three years’ medical students” and Katz said “Patients can 't trust their physicians to act in their interests…” Patients don’t have the mentality of making a medical decision on their own like an intern can’t make a surgery without an attending watching over them. The capability a patient and intern has is very little to benefit their outcome of health and knowledge.
Every culture has a taboo against murder, including our own. The practice of physician assisted suicide is wrong across all religious and cultural groups. According to Leon R. Kass, M.D., the taboo against doctors killing patients, even on request, "is the very embodiment of reason and wisdom. Without it, medicine will have lost its claim to be an ethical and trustworthy profession." Before a physician is allowed to practice medicine, he/she takes the Hippocratic Oath, which is described by Encyclopedia Britannica as " a pledge to prescribe only beneficial treatments, according to his abilities and judgment; to refrain from causing harm or hurt". This oath has been practiced for more than 2000 years. If a doctor breaks that promise and helps a patient to purposely die, then the oath has meant nothing.
The group’s original intentions were to create a sense of loyalty and respect for tradition, culture and family. The Mafia protected its' members interests and promoted protected individuals and businesses in exchange for loyalty and monetary tribute. As time passed, and the Mafia expanded to the Americas, the Mafia became more “criminal”, engaging in provision of illegal services and collection of taxes in defiance of the “legitimate” government.
There are few doctors care for the patient’s condition more than care about their own interests.
Should a patient have the right to ask for a physician’s help to end his or her life? This question has raised great controversy for many years. The legalization of physician assisted suicide or active euthanasia is a complex issue and both sides have strong arguments. Supporters of active euthanasia often argue that active euthanasia is a good death, painless, quick, and ultimately is the patient’s choice. While it is understandable, though heart-rending, why a patient that is in severe pain and suffering that is incurable would choose euthanasia, it still does not outweigh the potential negative effects that the legalization of euthanasia may have. Active euthanasia should not be legalized because