Physician Assisted Suicide
There is conflict in the United States on whether Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) should be legal or not. The Medical dictionary states that PAS is “voluntary termination of one 's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician.” There are currently an innumerable amount issues affecting the concept of Physician Assisted Suicide. These issues include; physicians perspectives, patient’s perspectives, the difference between Physician Assisted Suicide and euthanasia, religion, money, ethics, assisted death, and also laws.
Physician Assisted Suicide has negatively and positively affected our medical field. Physicians also have different opinions of Physician …show more content…
It is thought by the public that PAS has not lead to compassionate care for patients both in the Netherlands, and in the legalized states within the U.S. In the Netherlands, 50% of PAS cases go unreported and 25% of the physicians have admitted to ending a patient 's life without their consent. It has become apparent that patients can receive assisted death without proving they are seriously suffering. Also the patient is not forced to undergo any psychiatric evaluations before they receive PAS. There is an extremely low number of safety precautions that prevent a patient from unreasonably having assisted suicide in the Netherlands, but there are laws in place in the U.S. to protect patients from abuse and unjust doctors. Physicians from the Netherlands stated that they would be “most reluctant to do it again”. “It nags at your conscience” stated another. One physician admitted a statement that obviously revealed his view of PAS, “I wonder what it would be like not to have these cases in my practice. Perhaps I would be a much more cheerful person.” In the Netherlands 16% of the physicians reported that performing PAS negatively affected their medical practices. In the United States 53% of physicians found comfort in aiding a patient with Physician Assisted Suicide. The …show more content…
Saving money may benefit the other patients who can be saved. The health care cost would be reduced which would also reduce insurance premiums. It may be felt that the nurses and doctors time could be freed up which would allow them to spend more time on the patients who are saveable or who have a better prognosis. When PAS occurs, the patient 's vital organs can be saved. The result of this would be that more lives will be saved from a person who was willing to donate their organs to a patient who desperately needed them. In “Physician Assisted Suicide as a Real Option,” Leo Chan and Donald Lien write that there are still financial costs associated with PAS such as use of medical facilities, medications, healthcare, and the cost of the provider’s care and decision making, etc. They also mention, however, that if the benefit of doing away with chronic pain or mental anguish and stress with the terminal illness is greater than the costs, as a result PAS may be a rational choice. Another point of view in their paper is how if life after a terminal illness diagnosis is made to be less painful and/or less mentally stressful and depressing the benefit of euthanasia decreases sharply. Perhaps more money should be spent addressing pain management and how to properly manage and treat anxiety and depression during terminal illness and
There is conflict in the United States on whether Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) should be legal or not. The Medical dictionary states that PAS is “voluntary termination of one 's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician.” There are currently an innumerable amount issues affecting the concept of Physician Assisted Suicide. These issues include; physicians perspectives, patient’s perspectives, the difference between Physician Assisted Suicide and euthanasia, religion, money, ethics, assisted death, and also laws.
Physician Assisted Suicide has negatively and positively affected our medical field. Physicians also have different opinions of Physician …show more content…
It is thought by the public that PAS has not lead to compassionate care for patients both in the Netherlands, and in the legalized states within the U.S. In the Netherlands, 50% of PAS cases go unreported and 25% of the physicians have admitted to ending a patient 's life without their consent. It has become apparent that patients can receive assisted death without proving they are seriously suffering. Also the patient is not forced to undergo any psychiatric evaluations before they receive PAS. There is an extremely low number of safety precautions that prevent a patient from unreasonably having assisted suicide in the Netherlands, but there are laws in place in the U.S. to protect patients from abuse and unjust doctors. Physicians from the Netherlands stated that they would be “most reluctant to do it again”. “It nags at your conscience” stated another. One physician admitted a statement that obviously revealed his view of PAS, “I wonder what it would be like not to have these cases in my practice. Perhaps I would be a much more cheerful person.” In the Netherlands 16% of the physicians reported that performing PAS negatively affected their medical practices. In the United States 53% of physicians found comfort in aiding a patient with Physician Assisted Suicide. The …show more content…
Saving money may benefit the other patients who can be saved. The health care cost would be reduced which would also reduce insurance premiums. It may be felt that the nurses and doctors time could be freed up which would allow them to spend more time on the patients who are saveable or who have a better prognosis. When PAS occurs, the patient 's vital organs can be saved. The result of this would be that more lives will be saved from a person who was willing to donate their organs to a patient who desperately needed them. In “Physician Assisted Suicide as a Real Option,” Leo Chan and Donald Lien write that there are still financial costs associated with PAS such as use of medical facilities, medications, healthcare, and the cost of the provider’s care and decision making, etc. They also mention, however, that if the benefit of doing away with chronic pain or mental anguish and stress with the terminal illness is greater than the costs, as a result PAS may be a rational choice. Another point of view in their paper is how if life after a terminal illness diagnosis is made to be less painful and/or less mentally stressful and depressing the benefit of euthanasia decreases sharply. Perhaps more money should be spent addressing pain management and how to properly manage and treat anxiety and depression during terminal illness and