Physician-Assisted Suicide: Control Of Time To Die

Physician assisted suicide Name Institutional Affiliation Introduction The concern about how one will die has increasingly become an issue of concern over the years, mainly due to the inability of medical intervention and present cures for various ailments failing to provide favorable and proper care when a life comes to an end. Thus, paving way for physician-assisted suicide as an alternative solution. According to the Hastings Center, physician-assisted suicide is the practice of a medical doctor or physician willingly and upon the request of a terminal patient providing lethal medication so that they can control their time to die. In the United States, the practice began in Oregon in 1997, after its legalization, with other states such as Washington, California, Hawaii among others also passing legislation to allow its practice (Quill & Sussman, 2018). The practice has led to the deaths of more than two thousand American citizens countrywide, according to the American Health Authority. The debate on whether severely ill patients should take their lives as a method of ending their suffering has attracted numerous debates over the years, with both proponents and opponents of the practice presenting different opinions. Assisted suicide should remain illegal as it is unethical and immoral; it would put the lives of the weak and vulnerable in danger and would destroy the patient-doctor relationship Statement of background The push to legalize physician-assisted suicide has grown with public support firmly aligning towards it. On estimate, according to the Compassion and Choices Organization, nearly 2.5 million Americans die annually, with about 1.5 million deaths due to terminal illnesses. The illnesses cause them to remain bedridden in hospitals, nursing homes or hospices for the rest of their lives (Compassion and Choices organization, 2010). Spending an additional day in the intensive care unit when suffering from a terminal illness, for most patients is heartbreaking. The lack of consciousness, pain, and inability to enjoy one’s life creates the desire for some to end their lives. The process of dying, living and the care people get when they are close to dying is crucial to an individual, their family, and the society. In some instances, sick people have failed to get the desired care and medical assistance to make their transition to death as comfortable as possible. However, the government through medicine and the society has made tremendous progress in promoting comfort during such a time. Through hospices and palliative care, medicine has facilitated the ease of the dying process by improving the quality of care, providing pain relieving medication and being there for the patients to the end. In this regard, the need to sustain human life becomes crucial, thereby making legalization of physician-assisted suicide unnecessary (Sulmasy and Mueller, 2017, pp. 576-77). Proposition and proof Firstly, physician-assisted suicide should be illegal as it is immoral and unethical. Not only is assisted suicide murder, but it is also immoral. Doctors and physicians who carry out this practice contravene many values and guidelines that guide this profession. According to the Annals of International medicine, medical ethics enumerat...