Physician-Assisted Suicide

Physician-assisted death or physician-assisted suicide is a term for suicide committed by an individual with assistance from another person or persons.

It is usually referred to when referencing a person who is suffering from a severe physical illness (Assisted suicide) and there is no hope of getting better.

A lot of people have never heard of physician-assisted death.

Many terminally ill patients think it is an alternative to their suffering.

Is physician-assisted death ethical?

Oregon (since 1994) and Washington (since 2008) have accepted physician-assisted death into their law books.

Terminally ill patients residing in either of those two states, that are competent and not clinically depressed, can request a prescription from their doctor for a medicine that ends life if ingested.

Most of life is what one makes of it.

When people are faced with obstacles and situations that seem unfair, they have a choice to make.

They can choose to focus on the negatives or positives.

There are thousands of cancer survivors in the world and there are also thousands, perhaps millions of people, who are terminally ill and in excruciating pain daily.

A lot of them chose to think positively despite the challenges they face every day.

Medicines, treatments, and well-educated and caring doctors are extremely vital to a sick person’s road to recovery. But, a positive attitude can make a difference.

One of the many ethical issues surrounding physician-assisted death is not knowing whether a patient is terminally ill or clinically depressed.

Although there are numerous and very serious symptoms that depressed people face every single day, there are many, many treatment options including therapies, medicines, or a combination of both, that can help depressed people overcome their symptoms and deal with their depression.

If some of those 20 million or more depressed people in the United States wanted to end their lives by taking advantage of physician-assisted death because of their feeling of worthlessness or suicidal thoughts when they could be treated and live a healthy, normal life, what is ethical about that?

Some advocates say that if it is the patient’s wish, then the physician is sympathetic by helping them commit suicide.

However, doctors are supposed to provide their patients with the best care possible and never give up on them, regardless of how grim the situation is.

While there are both pros and cons on the matter, nobody knows what someone who is terminally ill is going through or dealing with daily.

They could very easily be in so much pain that not even their doctor can relate to it.

Unless an individual has personally gone through an illness or medical condition, they have no idea what someone is going through that has the illness or condition.

Doctors and advocates of physician-assisted death do not understand the effects on the patient’s family, but they also have no idea what the patient goes through every day.

In our modern world, technology and medical advancements have created numerous cures and preventative measures for diseases and sicknesses that otherwise would have been terminal and fatal.

But if someone is in constant pain and that pain can not be controlled by any of the available methods, then there must be an alternative to suffering.

All of this is well and good, but the patient who is terminally ill and in constant pain should have the right to continue suffering or if they so choose, to have their life ended humanely.

Only a person who is terminally ill and in constant horrible pain all the time knows what they are going through on a day-to-day basis and the decision should be theirs to make and their wishes should be respected by others.

A physician should not needlessly let a patient endure horrible debilitating pain when there is no chance to get better.