Essay On Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide

Over the years there has been a great deal of controversy on the issue of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Currently there are five states in the United States that have legislation allowing individuals that are terminally ill and suffering to make the decision if they want to die and how they want to die. California, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Montana are the only states that have the death with dignity legislation. The ethics behind euthanasia and assisted suicide continue to be debated today. Some of the main issues are, is physician assisted suicide murder, what is the difference between letting someone die and helping them die, should we let individuals make the decision how and when they are to die, who do we allow to die with dignity, …show more content…
578). The purpose of the Death with Dignity legislation is to allow patients that are terminally ill to go to their doctors, get a prescription, and hold on to this prescription until the patient decided to take their life by taking the medication. This legislation allows the patients to die on their own terms. Using the teleological view, which focuses on the end result, we can analyze this issue to see as healthcare providers, what is the ethically right thing to do. Natural Law would look at this issue and this legislation as morally wrong. Natural Law states that we have a duty to preserve life and no one is to take the life of another individual. These patients that are terminally ill do not need to be put through extraordinary measures to save their life, but if they are able to live using ordinary measure such as, food, medication, and palliative care, than there is not moral reason, in the eye of Natural Law, to allow them to kill themselves or ask someone to assist them in killing themselves. If we look at the principle of double effect, under Natural Law, it would support giving medications, such as pain medications, to make the patient comfortable even if these pain medications indirectly hasten the death of the individual. Natural Law supports palliative care of the terminally ill and states that when a patient is terminally ill, we do not have a moral obligation to continue the treatment of the disease, but we cannot withhold the basic necessities of life and cannot assist the terminally ill patient in ending their life sooner. Nature, or the disease has to run its course, but treating the symptoms of the patient’s disease and making them comfortable is a moral obligation under natural