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case study of physician assisted suicide
case study of physician assisted suicide
case study of physician assisted suicide
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The Effects of Assisted Suicide Legalization
While slowly experiencing an eventual death, the pain of a life-threatening disease is unbearable. The constant anguish of a helpless cancer patient, Richard, is driving away all sanity. As he lies there on the hospital bed near his family, Richard finally makes a grave decision. He decides to call upon a physician to end his pain.
The doctor would give him medication which would lead to an inevitable death. As he knows he is going to die within a few weeks anyway, Richard questions the doctor about the medication. “Just give me the word, and I will hand it over to you,” the doctor says. “Let me add, however, that even though it may be an option, do you think it is morally right?” The doctor is obviously an honest, noble man who gives all of his patients his sincere opinion. That, in most cases, is not common in a doctor’s character. Richard is left with those words from the doctor and given time to talk about the situation with his family. After a long discussion, they realize that life is a privilege and should not be taken by choice, no matter how intense the pain is. Weeks later, at Richard’s funeral, the family feels proud of him for enduring the agonizing experience and to die naturally. The choice of physician assisted suicide may be an irrelevant issue to some, but when it comes to terminally ill patients, it is definitely an observable option. These people must realize that taking a life, whether someone else’s or their own, is dishonorable. Assisted suicide should be against the law in all states because it would have an affect on medical procedures, persuade doctors to make the wrong decisions, and change the morality of people around the country.
The people of this country are partially represented by the United States
Supreme Court. In fact, the United States Supreme Court is going to become the final judge of this important issue because two United States Court of Appeals decisions have recently ruled laws forbidding physician-assisted suicide unconstitutional (Court
1). There is no doubt that the effect of the speculations by the highest court in this country on physician-assisted suicide will be as important as anyone has witnessed in a long while. Physician-assisted suicide is one of the most controversial medical issues there is. Although a recent poll shows that 64 to 73 percent of Americans believe doctors should be admitted to end the lives of terminally ill patients under their permission, Americans may not realize what could actually happen if
him when he could have just died from a heart attack, which he had requested.
going to die yet he sees the bright side of it; which is that unlike most deaths, were you
“In quixotically trying to conquer death doctors all too frequently do no good for their patients’ “ease” but at the same time they do harm instead by prolonguing and even magnifying patients’ dis-ease.”
While physicians are supposed to prolong life, both sides can agree that they are also there to ease suffering. Physicians “are not limited to healing,” as people from Geneva University Medical School noted (Martin, Mauron, and Hust 55).Utilizing PAS would allow physicians to ease the person’s suffering. Despite prolonging life, again opponents argue that there are other alternatives to PAS, for example, continuous deep sedation, a form of palliative care. It is a substitute, but stated in an essay, “PAS may be morally more acceptable than CDS” (Martin, Mauron, and Hust56). Regarding that, both sides can agree PAS is the last resort for many. Evidently others feel that due to the costs, “The incentive to save money by denying treatment poses a significant danger” (Golden 829). Money would influence a patient’s judgment, but if they qualify, it would help them more than jeopardize their situation. PAS would help the patients not leave their family in credit card debt. PAS would be the appropriate choice for the
he is wasting away his life. He wonders if he is a part of anything special,
A divergent set of issues and opinions involving medical care for the very seriously ill patient have dogged the bioethics community for decades. While sophisticated medical technology has allowed people to live longer, it has also caused protracted death, most often to the severe detriment of individuals and their families. Ira Byock, director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, believes too many Americans are “dying badly.” In discussing this issue, he stated, “Families cannot imagine there could be anything worse than their loved one dying, but in fact, there are things worse.” “It’s having someone you love…suffering, dying connected to machines” (CBS News, 2014). In the not distant past, the knowledge, skills, and technology were simply not available to cure, much less prolong the deaths of gravely ill people. In addition to the ethical and moral dilemmas this presents, the costs of intensive treatment often do not realize appreciable benefits. However, cost alone should not determine when care becomes “futile” as this veers medicine into an even more dangerous ethical quagmire. While preserving life with the best possible care is always good medicine, the suffering and protracted deaths caused from the continued use of futile measures benefits no one. For this reason, the determination of futility should be a joint decision between the physician, the patient, and his or her surrogate.
first look at the validity of the court and of the entity of authority itself.
had died that week. Dr. Mortimer explains what had happened to his friend. Dr. Mortimer
...d how these determinations effect a physician’s approach to various types of critically ill patients? These types of questions come in to play when one attempts to critically analyze the differences between the types of terminally ill patients and the subtle ethical/legal nuances between withholding and withdrawing treatment. According to a review by Larry Gostin and Robert Weir about Nancy Cruzan, “…courts examine the physician’s respect for the desires of the patient and the level of care administered. A rule forbidding physicians from discontinuing a treatment that could have been withheld initially will discourage doctors from attempting certain types of care and force them prematurely to allow a patient to die. Physicians must be free to exercise their best professional judgment, especially when facing the sensitive question of whether to administer treatment.”
In closing, despite all of the different opinions that people have on PAS, there are many good outcomes that come with the decision. Having the right to make a “choice” is what PAS comes down to. Many argue that it is inhumane, while many will argue that it is a choice. If choosing PAS as a last dying right, then one should respect that choice. It is a choice and only the patient should have the right to choose.
The ethical issues of physician-assisted suicide are both emotional and controversial, as it struggles with the issue of life and death. If you take a moment and imagine how you would choose to live your last day, it is almost guaranteed that it wouldn’t be a day spent lying in a hospital bed, suffering in pain, continuously being pumped with medicine, and living in a strangers’ body. Today we live in a culture that denies the terminally ill the right to maintain control over when and how to end their lives. Physicians-assisted suicide “is the voluntary termination of one's own life by the administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician” (Medical Definition of Physician-Assisted Suicide, 2017). Physician-assisted
Giving a patient this option not only allows him or her to abstain from unnecessary pain, but it also allows the patient to die a dignified death. Colleges of the Boston College Law School Faculty Papers explain their views on assisted suicided to readers expressing, “We believe that it is reasonable to provide relief from suffering for patients who are dying or whose suffering is so severe that it is beyond their capacity to bear…The most basic values that support and guide all health care decision-making, including decisions about life-sustaining treatment, are the same values that provide the fundamental basis for physician-assisted suicide: promoting patients’ well-being and respecting their self-determination or autonomy”. The contributing authors make an excellent point stating the same values that are used in prolonging an individual 's life are the same used in assisted dying. Nonetheless, the majority of the United States remains opposed to assisted dying ignoring the individual’s mental, physical, and emotional pain he or she has undergone.With that in mind, this law also ignores the trauma close family members endure witnessing his or her loved ones face such an undesirable
...feeble. Ultimately, it should be the patient’s decision on when they should be able to give up on the fight of their life. There should be an easy and painless experience such as physician assisted suicide when one feels the need to not experience suffer anymore. In the views of consequentialism the only thing that matters is if the patient finds peace and is no longer in pain. As well with social contract theory, if we are to make physician assisted suicide legal there needs to be a strict set of guidelines and rules set up so patients can be at peace without others manipulating the system. And finally, it is our duty as humans to make sure that all our actions are to be legal and ethical in regards to assisted suicide. Physician assisted suicide will still be a hot topic for years to come and the ever growing debate will help to push it further into the headlines.
Darnay dead. The doctor can not let Darnay die for he has become a large part of