Physician Assisted Suicide

1925 Words4 Pages

Physician Assisted Suicide

Physician Assisted Suicide

Physician assisted suicide is murder. Using euthanasia, increased dosage of morphine or injecting patient’s with a lethal combination of drugs to slow his/her breathing until he/she dies is also murder. Physician assisted suicide is morally wrong. The classical theory for physician assisted suicide is utilitarianism because according to Mosser 2010, “utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines the moral value of an act in terms of its results and if those results produce the greatest good for the greatest number.” Utilitarianism will solve the physician assisted suicide problem if all of the physicians will stand by the oath they say. According to the Hippocratic Oath doctor says, “I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.”

Euthanasia, increased dosage of morphine, and a lethal combination of drugs that are administered to patients by the physician or nurse by way of injection is a painless death. Some physicians use euthanasia to help the patient/patients die in comfort without pain and suffering. According to Wiseman, R. 2010, “palliative care physicians would say that good palliative care obviates the need for euthanasia or physician assisted suicide. Removal of life support systems, which include feeding tubes, respirators and cardiac machines, is not euthanasia, nor is it physician-assisted suicide. It is simply good palliative care when it occurs at a point when the dying individual is only being sustained by these measures.”

Committing suicide or attempting to commit suicide is not a crime/criminal offense. However, helping another person commit...

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...lan, H.. (2010). Assisted suicide and the killing of people? Maybe. Physician-

assisted suicide and the killing of patients? No: the rejection of Shaw's new

perspective on euthanasia. Journal of Medical Ethics, 36(5), 306. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from Research Library.

Mosser, K. (2010). Introduction to ethics and social responsibility. San Diego,

Bridgepoint Education, Inc. https://content.ashford.edu

Richelle Wiseman. (2010, December 4). A better way to die. Winnipeg Free Press,H.1.

Retrieved March 15, 2011, from Canadian Newsstand Complete.

Sam McManis. (16 April). Placerville death raises questions of assisted

suicide. McClatchy - Tribune Business News, Retrieved March 15, 2011, from ProQuest Newsstand.

Suicide. (2010). In Black's Medical Dictionary, 42nd Edition. Retrieved from

http://www.credoreference.com/entry/blackmed/suicide

Active Euthanasia: Physician Assisted Suicide is Wrong
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2000 Words | 4 Pages
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1525 Words | 4 Pages
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Physician Assisted Suicide

Active Euthanasia: Physician Assisted Suicide is Wrong