Final Draft

docx

School

West Coast University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

434

Subject

Philosophy

Date

Apr 3, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by melainev02

1 RUNNING HEAD: END OF LIFE End of Life: Physician Assisted Suicide Melaine Valle West Coast University PHIL 434 Professor Rosh Mishra May 29th, 2022

2 RUNNING HEAD: END OF LIFE End of Life Euthanasia is the deliberate practice of ending a person’s life to end suffering. Euthanasia can be performed at the request of the patient or their family of people who are terminally ill or experiencing severe pain and/or suffering. Euthanasia a practice that is not legal in the United States. There are different forms of Euthanasia; Active Euthanasia in which a patient’s life is ended by active means, for example a lethal injection. Passive Euthanasia in which a patient is intentionally allowed to die by withholding life sustaining support such as feeding tube, or ventilator. Euthanasia can be voluntary mean with the patients consent or involuntary meaning without the patient consent. Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) is a practice that assist patients with certain terminal illnesses to end their life with prescription medication provided by a doctor at the patients request. In the United States there are currently 11 states in which the practice of Physician Assisted Suicide is legal under the death with dignity act. These states include California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington state. The death with dignity act requires that patients meet a certain criterion to be eligible for Physician Assisted Suicide. The act requires that the patient be terminally with a life expectancy of 6 months, the patient must be of sound mind, the patient must be able to self-administer medication and that the patient be a resident of the state in which physician assisted suicide is being requested. The patient may only request PAS if all other options have been explored.

3 RUNNING HEAD: END OF LIFE In the United States there are currently 40 states in which affirmatively prohibit Physician Assisted Suicide. Criminal penalties are imposed on anyone who assist another person in the act of ending their own lives. The supreme Court argues that in the U.S Constitution there is no fundamental right to the act of Physician Assisted Suicide. Instead, the U.S Constitution states that there is “unqualified interest in the preservation of human life”, which means preventing suicide, and in studying, identifying and treating the causes of suicide. Many believe that Physician Assisted Suicide goes against the states duty to protect life. It is believed that if Physician Assisted Suicide is legalized it can put vulnerable groups such as elderly and children at risk. Discussing the ethics of Physician Assisted suicide and Euthanasia is complicated because PAS and Euthanasia are seen as “bad” or “immoral” in society. The re fine point and details regarding the discussion of physician assisted suicide arise against its acceptance and legalization. It is argued that before considering the legality of Physician Assisted Suicide, we need to focus on improving access to hospice care and palliative care for terminally ill patients. Due to limited funding and restrictions of Medicare patients often have limited access to funding for palliative and hospice care. This leads to ineffective treatment of pain and poor access to care, which causes terminally ill patient’s distress. It is argued that this may lead them into making a decision of ending their life unnecessarily. Patients on hospice and palliative care often opt for physician assisted suicide because treatments are not enough to relieve severe pain and suffering.

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

4 RUNNING HEAD: END OF LIFE Some of the positive outcomes of Physician Assisted Suicide include the maximizing the good for the patient and maximizing the good for the patient’s families. Physician assisted Suicide will allow the patients to determine how and where they want to die. This gives the pain autonomy and a choice of how, where and when they want to die. Patients with terminal illness often suffer from pain, loss of autonomy, mental and emotional anxiety. This is a heavy burden for the patients to cope with. Many patient that are suffering from terminal illness often become physical and emotional burdens on their loved ones, and this causes emotional distress for them. Approximate 8.5% of terminally ill patients are reported to have attempted suicide (S. Marks, D. Rosielle, 2019), Another 10 percent are actively seeking Physician Assisted Suicide. The legalization of Physician Assisted Suicide gives the patient Safe alternative to dying rather them taking matters into their own hands. Most people may argue that Physician Assisted Suicide is unethical and immoral . One argument against Physician Assisted Suicide is not a treatment nor a solution for human suffering and pain. If we found ways to proper treat and effectively manage patients’ pain, they will not want to end their lives. Negative outcomes of physician assisted suicide focuses on the dangers it poses to the practitioner’s and patients. It is believed that if Physician Assisted Suicide is legalized quality of care will decrease. Slippery slope arguments stipulate that there is a thing line between what can be moral and what is not moral. The fear is that if we open the door to voluntary euthanasia than it could lead to non-voluntary euthanasia. Many argue that Physician Assisted Suicide is still a form of suicide, because it is inflicted by the patient and not by natural means. Other arguments against Physician Assisted Suicide argue that it goes against the Hippocratic oath of physician’s which states that physicians will not harm their patients.

5 RUNNING HEAD: END OF LIFE Act Unitarianism is also known as the greatest happiness principle. The act-utilities theory claims that an action is right if the outcome benefits or increases the happiness of the parties involved. It claims that the action is wrong if the outcome or consequence decreased the overall happiness of the parties involved. According to the Act Utilitarian theory, Physician Assisted Suicide is ethically appropriate. Act Utilitarianism argues that the this is morally correct because the decision is made in the interest of the patient. It further believes that the families of the patients should not be included except for voicing the patient’s wishes. I believe there should be an exception to this moral perspective. I am in favor of physician assisted suicide. Patients with terminal illness often suffer from pain, loss of autonomy, mental and emotional anxiety. They often become physical and emotional burdens on their loved ones, and this causes emotional distress for them. With physician assisted suicide the patient gets the opportunity to decide to have a peaceful and painless death with dignity, as opposed to one that is prolonged, pain and a burden to their families. Why should a person who is suffering be forced to wait out a prolonged death, as opposed to where they get to choose when they have had enough suffering?

6 RUNNING HEAD: END OF LIFE References Euthanasia . Euthanasia - MU School of Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2022, from https://medicine.missouri.edu/centers-institutes-labs/health-ethics/faq/euthanasia Med Lexicon International. (n.d.). Euthanasia and assisted suicide: What are they and what do they mean? Medical News Today. Retrieved April 13, 2022, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/182951 Cavallo, J. (n.d.). Debate over legalizing physician-assisted death for the terminally ill . The ASCO Post. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://ascopost.com/issues/december-15-2014/debate-over-legalizing-physician-assisted- death-for-the-terminally-ill/ Animal Testing Facts and Statistics . PETA. (2022, February 9). Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animals-used- experimentation-factsheets/animal-experiments-overview/ Frequently asked questions . Death With Dignity. (2022, April 5). Retrieved April 13, 2022, from https://deathwithdignity.org/resources/faqs/#:~:text=Death%20with%20dignity%20is %20an,%2C%20humane%2C%20and%20dignified%20manner. Suicide Attempts in The Terminally Ill Sean Marks MD Drew A Rosielle MD Download PDF. (2019, February 28). Suicide attempts in the terminally ill . Palliative Care Network of Wisconsin. Retrieved May 29, 2022, from https://www.mypcnow.org/fast-fact/suicide-

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

7 RUNNING HEAD: END OF LIFE attempts-in-the-terminally-ill/#:~:text=Up%20to%208.5%25%20of%20terminally,suicide %20(10%2C11).

Final Draft

Related Documents