Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is the voluntary termination of a person’s life with the assistance of a physician in a controlled environment allows a quick, painless, and dignified death for those suffering from terminal illnesses. The arguments against physician-assisted suicide are ineffective because it gives terminally ill patients the right a dignified death. Today, five states have legalized physician-assisted suicide, sparing families in those states from watching their loved ones go through unbearable suffering and pain.
The question of assisted suicide, and later physician-assisted suicide, has been long debated. During the seventh century in America, suicide and assisting suicide was illegal. Even during the seventh and eighteenth …show more content…
This leads to the sixth argument against physician-assisted suicide, which is the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. Physician-assisted suicide is said to violate this oath that every doctor must take. The Hippocratic Oath argument has been deemed contradictory. For example, the United States would rather accept removing a ventilator by the wish of a patient, but when a physician prescribes a drug that a patient voluntarily takes, society does not find it acceptable. A physician that prescribes the drug is actually doing it within the Hippocratic Oath. The physician releases the patient from intolerable circumstances. The modern oath states, “I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required.” A physician is required to do whatever they can for the patient and try his or her best to stop the patient’s pain and discomfort. If the amount of pain becomes unbearable for the patient, the physician would be asked by the patient to prescribe the lethal drug. Doing this would still remain within the Hippocratic Oath because the physician would be using extraordinary measures to benefit the patient and relieve them from
The question of assisted suicide, and later physician-assisted suicide, has been long debated. During the seventh century in America, suicide and assisting suicide was illegal. Even during the seventh and eighteenth …show more content…
This leads to the sixth argument against physician-assisted suicide, which is the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. Physician-assisted suicide is said to violate this oath that every doctor must take. The Hippocratic Oath argument has been deemed contradictory. For example, the United States would rather accept removing a ventilator by the wish of a patient, but when a physician prescribes a drug that a patient voluntarily takes, society does not find it acceptable. A physician that prescribes the drug is actually doing it within the Hippocratic Oath. The physician releases the patient from intolerable circumstances. The modern oath states, “I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required.” A physician is required to do whatever they can for the patient and try his or her best to stop the patient’s pain and discomfort. If the amount of pain becomes unbearable for the patient, the physician would be asked by the patient to prescribe the lethal drug. Doing this would still remain within the Hippocratic Oath because the physician would be using extraordinary measures to benefit the patient and relieve them from