Physician Assisted Suicide
Physician assisted suicide is when a physician intentionally and knowingly provides the means of death to another person so that person can use it to commit suicide. An example of physician assisted suicide (PAS) would be providing a lethal amount of drugs or providing a plastic bag and helium, this is only classified as PAS when the person who dies makes the last act in the commitment of suicide. People often use physician assisted suicide/euthanasia interchangeably. Although those two seem quite similar, they are actually very different. Euthanasia is defined as “intentionally, knowingly, and directly taking an action for the purpose of causing death for another person”; this is illegal in every state and is considered …show more content…
With intensive pain and symptoms management, the risk of hastening death can increase unintentionally. This alternative is used when a patient is on enough pain meds to help with the pain while still allowing them to be conscious, but then the pain becomes too much to bear, so it is decided by the patient and physician to increase the pain medication to the point where they are mostly unconscious. The right to forgo a life sustaining therapy means that the patient decides to say “no” to any kind of treatment that would help them recover or keep them alive. For example, an elderly man who was in a car accident and had a spinal injury, decides to decline treatment because he doesn’t want to live in pain for the rest of his life. Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking is exactly what it seems like: they stop eating and drinking to hasten their life expectancy. Someone who would use this could be suffering from a muscle disease where they have a feeding tube and are on a ventilator. Since it is already difficult for him to eat and drink but he doesn’t want to prolong his death, he could stop eating and drinking and would die within two weeks. This last one is most commonly heard of, continuous sedation is when a patient is sedated in order to relieve the …show more content…
Of all these patients, 100% of those reported were concerned about losing their autonomy, or their ability to take care of themselves and 86% were concerned about being able to partake in enjoyable activities that make life enjoyable(Lachman 123). With that being said, at what point is life just not worth it? You should always have the ability to enjoy life, but when it becomes too painful to even stay awake, is it worth it? You never know how much pain they’re in, or how they can even handle
Physician assisted suicide is when a physician intentionally and knowingly provides the means of death to another person so that person can use it to commit suicide. An example of physician assisted suicide (PAS) would be providing a lethal amount of drugs or providing a plastic bag and helium, this is only classified as PAS when the person who dies makes the last act in the commitment of suicide. People often use physician assisted suicide/euthanasia interchangeably. Although those two seem quite similar, they are actually very different. Euthanasia is defined as “intentionally, knowingly, and directly taking an action for the purpose of causing death for another person”; this is illegal in every state and is considered …show more content…
With intensive pain and symptoms management, the risk of hastening death can increase unintentionally. This alternative is used when a patient is on enough pain meds to help with the pain while still allowing them to be conscious, but then the pain becomes too much to bear, so it is decided by the patient and physician to increase the pain medication to the point where they are mostly unconscious. The right to forgo a life sustaining therapy means that the patient decides to say “no” to any kind of treatment that would help them recover or keep them alive. For example, an elderly man who was in a car accident and had a spinal injury, decides to decline treatment because he doesn’t want to live in pain for the rest of his life. Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking is exactly what it seems like: they stop eating and drinking to hasten their life expectancy. Someone who would use this could be suffering from a muscle disease where they have a feeding tube and are on a ventilator. Since it is already difficult for him to eat and drink but he doesn’t want to prolong his death, he could stop eating and drinking and would die within two weeks. This last one is most commonly heard of, continuous sedation is when a patient is sedated in order to relieve the …show more content…
Of all these patients, 100% of those reported were concerned about losing their autonomy, or their ability to take care of themselves and 86% were concerned about being able to partake in enjoyable activities that make life enjoyable(Lachman 123). With that being said, at what point is life just not worth it? You should always have the ability to enjoy life, but when it becomes too painful to even stay awake, is it worth it? You never know how much pain they’re in, or how they can even handle