The Debate Surrounding Physician-Assisted Suicide

Physician-assisted suicide is the practice in which a doctor prescribes a terminally ill patient with a lethal medication as a form of active, voluntary euthanasia. These patients, rather than suffer slowly and painfully, often request this procedure as a means of experiencing a more “dignified” death. The debate surrounding this issue is a heated one, especially among the general public whose attitudes are deeply influenced by the level of patient pain and discomfort (Frileux et al. 334). At the heart of the issue is the conflict between a patient’s right to choose between life and death and, as expressed by one social scientist, “society’s obligation to protect its most vulnerable members from hastened and not completely voluntary death” (Ardelt 424). The healthcare field acknowledges the role of medical technology, which has extended the lifetime of many patients through life support therapies like feeding tubes and dialysis, in creating a lower quality of life characterized by an agonizingly prolonged and costly dying (Martin 54). This phenomenon has made physician-assisted suicide a highly relevant and compelling issue today. But, while some defend physician-assisted suicide as a form of medical autonomy for the terminally ill, others contend that such voluntary euthanasia is too extreme a solution for most situations and improvement in patient and palliative care is a more acceptable option and would help maintain the patient-doctor relationship. The purpose of this literature review is to present these scholarly perspectives in an attempt to provide a relatively expansive overview of the attitudes relating to physician-assisted suicide in the medical community, with an eye to how they compare with public opinion.

In “Eu...

... middle of paper ...

...anasia acceptable?." Journal of Medical Ethics. 29.6 (2003): 330-6. Print.

Martin, Brian J. "Techniques to pass on: technology and euthanasia." Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society. 30.1 (2010): 54-9. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. .

Martyn, Susan, and Henry Bourguigon. "Physician’s Decisions About Patient Capacity: The Trojan Horse of Physician-Assisted Suicide." Psychology, Public Policy and Law. 6. (2000): 1-13. Print.

Momeyer, Richard A. "Does Physician Assisted Suicide Violate the Integrity of Medicine?." Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. 20.1 (1995): 13-24. Print. .

Twycross, Robert J. "Euthanasia-aphysician's viewpoint." Journal of Medical Ethics. 8.2 (1982): 86-95. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. .