Physician Assisted Suicide Ethics

Physician assisted suicide can be a morally and ethically conflicting topic. The act of a physician helping a patient die can be seen as an act of murder, or as an act of mercy. In John’s case, he has just discovered that he is terminally ill and only has six months to live. Ava, his counselor, is concerned he is not informed enough to make this decision, and she fears he may not be emotionally stable. These are common concerns when dealing with a dilemma like this. Those who support John’s decision to end his life may cite section 1.02 in the Code of Ethics to argue that social workers need to “respect and promote the right of clients to self-determination and assist clients in their efforts to identify and clarify their goals” (Code of …show more content…
While having the patient live for six months would be ideal for some, if they are suffering the entire time, their quality of life is diminished drastically. As it is stated in the textbook, sometimes a limit is reached where there is no ultimate benefit to the patients and their quality of life is not improved whatsoever (Dolgoff, et al, 2012). In instances where medication and therapy cannot improve a person’s condition, their quality of life should be addressed. In John’s case, this would be a strong argument supporting his …show more content…
Palliative care is a form of specialized, medical care for people who only have a limited amount of time left to live. According to Saunders, as cited by Fernandes, palliative care offers a much more humane attitude than physician assisted suicide does. The article goes on to ponder what kind of precedent we would be setting if we consider assisted suicide to be good end-of-life care. It then argues how moral clarity is imperative, and that the conflict between valuing life and ending life are too great to consider physician assisted suicide as an option (Fernandes,