Week 2 DB
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West Coast University, Los Angeles *
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110
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Philosophy
Date
Jan 9, 2024
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docx
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In your own words, describe the difference between euthanasia and physician-
assisted suicide.
Select an argument for or against either euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.
How would you defend your argument?
In addition to your main response, you must also post substantive responses to at
least two of your classmates' posts in this thread. Your response should include elements
such as follow up questions, further exploration of topics from the initial post, or requests for
further clarification or explanation on some points made by the classmates.
The difference between euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is that physician-assisted suicide is
knowingly and intentionally providing means for an individual to commit suicide (Boisvert, 2012). An
example would be a prescription given to someone with the knowledge that the patient plans to use the
medication for the purpose of suicide. Euthanasia is when a healthcare provider, such as a physician,
causes death to an individual knowingly, to ease suffering or pain to that individual (Boisvert, 2012). An
example of this would be a physician giving an injection of medications to induce a coma and then do
something else to stop their heart from beating.
I am against both euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The reasons why are because of religious
preferences. If I end up treating and taking care of a patient who is asking for these means of health
care, I would have to ask the charge nurse to reassign me to another patient. I do not want them to
continue to suffer, but if there is no way that I can talk them out of them wanting to end their life or
getting a therapist to help them reconsider, then I do not believe that I would be one of the best nurses
to further provide care to that particular patient. I prefer that the patient pass on naturally, after they
put up a good fight and the healthcare team has done all that they could. If I had to choose, however, I
believe that physician assisted suicide would be more of a natural way of passing than euthanasia.
References
Boisvert, M. (2012). Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Retrieved February 3, 2020, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3383171/
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