Have you ever had to watch a loved one finish out their life in pain and suffering? If so, then you will know it is very hard to watch that loved one live in agony. Knowing that there is something that could help your loved one, but they do not have access to it is just as hard. Imagine being the person who is experiencing the pain themselves. Physician assisted suicide is when a doctor prescribes a lethal medication to a patient, eighteen years old or older, with a terminal illness who no longer wants to live uncomfortably. The person should be able to make their own decisions about their medical treatment, including if they want to take part in physician assisted suicide. Even though doctors do not want to inflict harm on any of their patients,
…show more content…
This is talking about the misdiagnoses and prognoses that the doctors can make, along with depression. Of course nothing is certain, but in order to take part in physician assisted suicide the patient needs to be seen by multiple doctors to confirm the terminal diagnoses. If the diagnoses is being confirmed by multiple doctors, there is very little margin for error. A patient has to have six months or less to live to be prescribed the lethal medication, so if a patient has one year to live, then they can just wait six months to try to be prescribed the medication. Either way a terminal illness means that the illness the patient has will kill them. The patient will either die slowly and painfully or peacefully and quick. Opponents of physician assisted suicide also say that there could be patients with depression who take part in physician assisted suicide. To be able to take part in physician assisted suicide it is required of patients to see a psychiatrist and be cleared. The psychiatrist is a doctor, which means they know how to detect signs for mental illnesses. Therefore, there shouldn’t be much of problem with missing the mental illnesses. The article “Ethics in Medicine: Physician Assisted Suicide” states “Thus the State has an obligation to protect lives…” (Starks. Dudzinski. White). With that being said, there is a big difference in protecting lives and controlling lives. Depriving patients of physician assisted suicide is crossing that
This is talking about the misdiagnoses and prognoses that the doctors can make, along with depression. Of course nothing is certain, but in order to take part in physician assisted suicide the patient needs to be seen by multiple doctors to confirm the terminal diagnoses. If the diagnoses is being confirmed by multiple doctors, there is very little margin for error. A patient has to have six months or less to live to be prescribed the lethal medication, so if a patient has one year to live, then they can just wait six months to try to be prescribed the medication. Either way a terminal illness means that the illness the patient has will kill them. The patient will either die slowly and painfully or peacefully and quick. Opponents of physician assisted suicide also say that there could be patients with depression who take part in physician assisted suicide. To be able to take part in physician assisted suicide it is required of patients to see a psychiatrist and be cleared. The psychiatrist is a doctor, which means they know how to detect signs for mental illnesses. Therefore, there shouldn’t be much of problem with missing the mental illnesses. The article “Ethics in Medicine: Physician Assisted Suicide” states “Thus the State has an obligation to protect lives…” (Starks. Dudzinski. White). With that being said, there is a big difference in protecting lives and controlling lives. Depriving patients of physician assisted suicide is crossing that