Physician-Assisted suicide is when a patient has a terminal illness and requests that a doctor prescribe them medication to end their life. There are already states in the US that allow it. According to Varadarajan, Freeman, and Parmar (2016), these states are, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, and in Bernalillo County in New Mexico (p. 1019). These laws allow the patient to take control of their own body and decide what they think is best for themselves, rather than having the law tell them, “no”. There are many necessary steps to allow patients to get physician-assisted suicide. For example, according to Dieterle (2007), in Oregon, a few of these steps are, written and oral requests, an age requirement, and confirmation of the illness
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According to Rurup, Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Weide, &Wal (2005), reasons a patient asked for physician-assisted suicide are, “pointless suffering, not wanting to be a burden on their family anymore, pain, vomiting and fear of suffocating” (p.160). This means that many patients believed that their present pain was unnecessary because their illness would eventually take their lives. They did not see a point in their suffering if the end was going to ultimately be the same. With physician assisted suicide, they would die without the pain and suffering. This would also give their families closure because they would know that their loved one passed on in the way they wanted, sparing the emotional pain of the …show more content…
Dieterle (2007) refers to this as, “the physician’s intent” and then goes on to say that an argument against physician assisted suicide is, “ Doctors should not kill; this is prohibited by the Hippocratic Oath. The physician is bound to save life, not take it” (p.138). This means that the doctor’s role should be to heal, not kill. Patients go to their doctor to get treatment and to get better and become healthy again. Many people argue that this should be the only role of the doctor, to make a sick person better, but sometimes that cannot happen. They are left with no other option than to try to make the patient as comfortable as possible while the patient is
According to Rurup, Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Weide, &Wal (2005), reasons a patient asked for physician-assisted suicide are, “pointless suffering, not wanting to be a burden on their family anymore, pain, vomiting and fear of suffocating” (p.160). This means that many patients believed that their present pain was unnecessary because their illness would eventually take their lives. They did not see a point in their suffering if the end was going to ultimately be the same. With physician assisted suicide, they would die without the pain and suffering. This would also give their families closure because they would know that their loved one passed on in the way they wanted, sparing the emotional pain of the …show more content…
Dieterle (2007) refers to this as, “the physician’s intent” and then goes on to say that an argument against physician assisted suicide is, “ Doctors should not kill; this is prohibited by the Hippocratic Oath. The physician is bound to save life, not take it” (p.138). This means that the doctor’s role should be to heal, not kill. Patients go to their doctor to get treatment and to get better and become healthy again. Many people argue that this should be the only role of the doctor, to make a sick person better, but sometimes that cannot happen. They are left with no other option than to try to make the patient as comfortable as possible while the patient is