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Argumentative Essay (Physician Assisted Suicide)
Intermediate Composition (ENG 123 )
California Baptist University
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Ms. Shahan ENG- 10/27/ Physician Assisted Suicide. Argumentative Essay.
The subject of suicide, for everyone included, often brings overwhelming feelings of plight. It takes a great deal of pain to push an individual to a life ending decision. When we talk about suicide it often revolves around mental stability, but often we fail to take into account a whole body of people who feel this pain on a physical level. People who are forced into forlorn conditions of life, with complications that are detrimental to it. Their battle is both mental and physical, and while you can overcome mental state, physical state cant be trumped as easily. These people deserve the right to willfully die, especially when their disease is terminal or incurable by today’s standards of medicine. Physician assisted suicide goes by many names, it is perhaps one of the most widely recognized terms, but other alternative terms include: right to die, doctor prescribed death, and physician assisted death. A variety of factors have led to these various name differences. One of these key reasons is the qualifications of the individual carrying out the procedure. The slight wordplay between “medical” with “physician” may seem insignificant, but allows for non-physician clinicians to prescribe the lethal dose to a receiving patient. Just as the medical practice is specific and complex, death is equally complex, especially .when its being done in a premature fashion
Some supporters of physician assisted suicide prefer not to use the term ‘suicide’ and argue that its a medical practice, completely bespoke from the act of suicide for a depressed person. By contrast, opponents both for and against physician assisted suicide maintain the stance that any deliberate or premature death is always suicide, regardless of intent. And while the term itself, along with the loose definition of suicide in this context is sure to offset some people. Dissociating ‘physician assisted suicide’ from other types of suicide degrades those who die by suicide for other reasons. Consequentially, people on both sides find themselves in similarly dire predicaments. Whether it be mental torment or physical conditions that degrade life, many continue to feel excruciating amounts of pain routinely. Additionally those who are affected by the physical side of this spectrum, like people who are on ventilators, those who have varying cancers, those that are brain dead or in a coma, all suffer daily, many of them live with their life hanging by a thread. Living life in a bed without a choice and uncertain of the conditions is not living. Sickness does not just deteriorate the body. It plays a much more sinister role. Sickness especially in a hopeless position, deteriorates the body, the mind, and the spirit. It tears you apart in awful ways unbeknownst to most of us, until we’ve experienced it ourselves, .or been a bystander in someone else’s experiences The argument for physician assisted suicide carries three main points. Respect for patient autonomy and relief of suffering, both of which weigh heavily on bioethics. And keeping assisted suicide is a safe medical practice, requiring a health care professional. Bioethics is commonly understood to refer to the ethical implications and applications of health related life sciences. The argument of bioethics gained traction in the 1970s, a time when patients were beginning to push back against physician paternalism. During this time. Philosophers Tom Beauchamp and James Childress, advanced four fundamental principles for addressing ethically complex cases “autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice” (Principles of Biomedical Ethics, Tom Beauchamp and James Childress). To this day, autonomy undeniably carries the most influence
Ms. Shahan ENG- 10/27/ .on medical practice in the United States Autonomy in a healthcare sense, is the right of competent adult to make informed decisions about their own medical care. This means the patient is expected to determine which medical decisions to elect or forgo. (Gerald Dworkin, The theory and practice of autonomy) This logic is arguably extended to physician assisted suicide; patients familiar with making their own health care decisions throughout should also be permitted to control the circumstances of their deaths. Yet this is not widely accepted across the United States, some sates allow for physician assisted suicide while others outright deem the act homicide. It makes absolutely no sense that a .system that seems so firmly rooted in autonomy, does not allow the free choice of ones morality People will argue suicide is not morally correct. But one person’s morals and beliefs could be entirely different from someone else’s. As said in The Principles of Medical Ethics “Physicians must recognize... patients and families approach decision making in many different ways, informed by culture, faith traditions, and life experience, and should be sensitive to each patient’s individual situations and preferences when broaching discussion of planning for care at the end of life...” (AMA Principles of Medical Ethics, 2019) I find this to be prevalent when discussing physician assisted suicide, especially if the person requesting has spent time coming to, and accepting death, all while dying. When discussing life or death situations, ones beliefs on what’s necessarily right or wrong needs to be set aside. We don’t all hold the same virtues, the .only one responsible for your life in a medical and legal sense, is yourself While some believe that physician assisted suicide is a slippery slope, one that damages the relationship between patient and physician, as stated by by George Delgado MD “Physician- assisted suicide does damage to patients who are in very difficult situations. It does damage to the medical profession. It compromises the sacred trust between physician and patient, which should be based on healing, not based on killing.” (June 20, 2017 George Delgado, MD) While I believe physician assisted suicide is a practice based around dying, I’d like to retort by saying what life is spared, if there is nothing can medically treated? When the BBC asked Steven Hawking about the subject he said, “I think those who have a terminal illness and are in great pain should have the right to choose to end their lives and those that help them should be free from prosecution. We don’t let animals suffer, so why humans?” (Sep. 17, 2013 Stephen (Hawking, PhD Physician assisted suicide remains a controversial subject relevant to the care of patients. With the rise of euthanasia around the world, many have began to rethink previous stances, but death of patients still sits uncomfortably with many physicians. Although many respected medical professionals have begun to reconsider their positions, the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates voted in June 2019 to maintain the organization’s long-held opposition to physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Strong arguments remain both in favor and in opposition to the practice. There is not one solution that will guide us in a direction of clarity. But the best thing to do is to open mature discussions, and begin to understand the .situations of those forced in these predicaments
Ms. Shahan ENG- 10/27/ The British Medical Association is the trade union and professional doctors in the UK. 2020. Autonomy Or Self- body for Determination As A Medical Student Ethics Toolkit For Medical Students - BMA. [online] Available at: <https:// bma.org/advice-and-support/ethics/medical-students/ethics-toolkit- medical-students/autonomy-or-self-determination> for- .[ 2020 [Accessed 2 November
Argumentative Essay (Physician Assisted Suicide)
Course: Intermediate Composition (ENG 123 )
University: California Baptist University
