Arguments Against Physician Assisted Suicide

Physician Assisted Suicide

The elderly and terminally ill are not allowed to die with dignity. Passive euthanasia is an option, but so is active. Both deal with assisted suicide but one is more contreversial. Should terminal people have an illness consume them until they are no longer competent and able when he or she can make an active decision about his or her life? The issue with Physician Assisted Suicide has been around since the 17th century and is now the most hotly debated and research topic in ethics for doctors (Pesta 23).There is a lot oppostion to the fact that people want to die with dignity or dying “healthy” While dying healthy isn’t actually dying while physically able, it’s more for the ill or elderly who want to choose how to die (Your Right to Die Healthy, When You Bloody Well Feel Like it 1). The argument against this is palliative care, or hospice (Koewn 103-107). Yes, while that will work, it only prolongs the inevitable and creates a lifeless life. I believe that assisted suicide should be allowed, but with restrictions that protect minors and those unable to make the decision themselves.

Many opposers of physician assisted suicide worry about the loss of trust between patients and doctors, the idea being that a doctor would kill his or her patient because they might be judged “better off dead”. If there were rules and regulations where both doctor and patient

were held accountable for their actions, trust might run deeper than originally thought. The doctor, listening to the patients wants and needs, and listening to them and acting on those is more trustworthy than that of a doctor who doesn’t (Rogatz 31). If a patient can no longer make decisions for themselves, families need to be able to trust that the doctor can do what they ask, no matter what the doctor believes because if a patients families want this , then the patient should be transfered to a facility that can help them. Patients might ultimately trust their doctors infinitely more because the patient has the ability to make the decision to die with help. There is also another thought that if patients want to die, then they should make that decision themselves and commit suicide and not criminalize their physicians . (Rogatz 31) This thought is callous, undermining, and unsympathetic. Physicians are expecting their patients to ulitmately stick a gun in their mouth or horde pills for months and eventually buck up the courage to to end their life themselves, so they don’t let an illness kill them .
Decriminalization of PAS is said to lead to a slippery slope, but doesn’t everything until rules and regulations are established?

The slippery slope is the idea that any patient of any illness or age can ask to die they deem their lives unbearable. But many lawmakers don’t take into account that there can be restrictions and also freedoms. Peter Rogatz has devised a plan or at least rules to make P.A.S safe for all parties involved. This won’t simply let a patient decide how bad his or her situation is, but instead make a safe enviroment for the mentally incapable and

handicapped.
The patient must have an incurable condition which causes unreleting suffering
The patient must understand their condition and get a second opinion.
All palliative measures must be considered and presented to the patient.
The patient must say clearly that they want to die and repeat it
A pyschiatrist must be asked if the patient has treatable depression
The physician must know the patients and their condition well.
No physician is expected to violate his or her basic values, the patient may be transfered to another physician for care.
All processes of PAS must be clearly documented. (Rogatz 31)
These rules give a good idea of how healthy and secure PAS can be. No one will be victimized by the system or be unwillingly euthanized. While the slope is said to lead to a culture of death, it actually leads to the opposite. When assisted suicide was legalized in Oregon, only seventy terminally ill patients took advantage of the law in the first three years (Rogatz 31)
This opens up the question of mental illness. Mental illness can be treated and many sufferers can have a life, but they might need constant care. Many people suffering from any mental illness have no willingness to die or have no apparent sickness or reason that might cause them to die. And in the end the choice ultimately isn’t up to the patient, but up to their doctors and families because of the safeguards that can be put in place. The patients aren’t deemed “better off dead”, but instead looked at as person who has a sound and able mind.
While I believe that PAS should be allowed, I also believe that healthy people shouldn’t be allowed to die based on age and mental illness. If there is no physical illness that is affecting them, then they don’t get the option of death. If they are of a younger age and have an illness that will cause them death no matter how they are treated, it should fall to the shoulders of the parents. Therefore, I believe that Physician assisted suicide should be decriminalized, but with restrictions to age and illness.