Physician-assisted suicide should be legal - Research Paper Example

PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE SHOULD BE LEGAL The debate on whether to legalize physician suicide or not has been alive for centuries. Some parts of the world like Australia have legalized the act while others like England are still resisting the legalization (Wolfslast, 2008). Assisted suicide is an action whereby a medical practitioner assists a patient to bring about his death. It involves a doctor or medical personnel administering a lethal injection to the consenting patient so that the patient dies without pain (Wolfslast, 2008). It may also involve withdrawal of life supporting equipment. Physician assisted suicide should be allowed in some instances and, therefore, legalizing the act will be vital. There is also an opinion that legally assisted suicide may not be justified as it is God who gives life, and it, therefore, must be God who decides when to take it. However, this point of view belongs to the field of abstract thinking; in this paper, we will use facts and practical considerations to support our opinion. There are two types of assisted suicide, which include active and passive assisted suicides (Kluge, 2007). As regards passive assisted suicide, it may be possible when, for example, a patient is suffering from a terminal disease like HIV/AIDS and has reached the final stages where recovery is impossible. For this case, the patient medication should be discontinued provided he or she has consented to the act, and especially when this consent is made available in the form of a will. The same should also be possible when a patient is in critical condition, and the family members produce a will written by the patient consenting to the act at the time of his consciousness. In regard to active assisted suicide, there are four conditions, which should be considered as justifying the act. The first condition is when a patient is undergoing physical pain that he cannot bear and where death is proved to be inevitable. Where such a patient gives a consent by a word of mouth to the physician, the physician should be allowed by law to execute his or her patient’s will, provided all pain relieving measures are exhausted (Kluge, 2007). People with terminal illness should be allowed to end their lives because patients who are at the last stages of terminal illnesses face a terrible future ahead of them, including low quality life. The gradual decline of their body functioning, the failure of their body organs and their need for artificial life support machines subject them to a lot of suffering. Sometimes, some diseases gradually destroy the brain of these patients. Moreover, some medication necessary to relieve the patient’s pain leaves them with painful consequences, and they become a burden to their families and society (Hayden, 2009). Considering the above sufferings, it becomes more humane to give these patients a chance to choose a way of enhancing their lives, and die with dignity. Although development and medicinal technology have enabled the world to save many lives than in the past, in some countries, laws have been enacted to allow medical personnel end lives of some terminally ill patients upon their request. Most laws agree that physician assisted suicide is not a crime. For a long time, debates have been hitting on religious, moral, legal, illegal, or undecided means of suicide, all depending on the jurisdiction system or the culture of the place (Hayden, 2009). Since personal is superior to social, legal, and religious will, legalizing physician assisted suicide will be a laudable decision, considering that everyone has a right to will for his or her death provided they do not harm or hurt others in the process. Sometimes, patients find themselves under a lot of pain, and they eventually succumb to a painful death. These people should be assisted to die; going through all the pain to die is not logical. A compelling example is when one is a victim of a road accident. This individual gets serious injuries that even doctors lose hope on the chances of the casualty’s survival. It is essential for the medical personnel to help this person die if he wants it; undergoing a lot of pain, wasting a lot of funds for the hospital bills, only to die later does not seem reasonable. Another reason why assisted suicide should be legalized is that some patients undergo immeasurable depression due to terminal illnesses, like cancer, to a point of resisting counseling. These patients eventually decide to commit suicide, due to depression, without giving their reason for doing so. This leaves the family members with many questions unanswered on why the patient did so. Some cultures attribute suicide to lethal spirits, bad omens, ancestral spirits, and this brings fear to the society members (Hayden, 2009). As far as community members live to believe that there are such evil spirits in the culprit’s family, their family members will be secluded or some murdered. For example, if a mother and a terminally ill daughter had a quarrel over the night and in the following morning, the daughter commits suicide because of the sufferings she is undergoing due to her terminal illness, the mother will live to blame herself as the cause of her daughter’s death, which is not the case. Assisted suicide will enable the mother to know why the daughter chose to die. Some societies, depending on their culture, will consider this woman unclean and associate her with evil spirits. To avoid the same happening in the future, they will kill this woman so as to kill the evil spirit in her that makes people commit suicide. To end this fear and doubts, assisted suicide will enable the terminally ill patients explain their reasons before dying, so that the rest of the family members remain in peace. Moreover, some terminally ill patients commit suicide in a threatening way like jumping off buildings, burning themselves in buildings, drowning in large water sources like lakes due to stress and despair, which leaves behind ugly images (Hayden, 2009). Some people, especially the young children who view these bodies, get scared, and they are haunted so much especially in dreams during the night. If a terminally ill patient is assisted to commit suicide, at least people will be aware that he was assisted by a physician to die in an orderly and dignified way. Some patients who suffer from terminal diseases like HIV/AIDS and more especially those from poor backgrounds would like to die before their days of death because they know that they will never heal. They might want to die earlier so as not to burden their loved ones with huge hospital bills. Maybe they will want to save the money that can be used in educating their orphans-to-be or can benefit any other member of the family. These people should be assisted to die if they express their will. This way, the patients will die peacefully knowing that they have left behind something to assist their loved ones. For this sacrificial undertaking, legalizing the act will be vital for both the patient and the relatives. Other patients with terminal illnesses like cancer will wish to be assisted to die so that their body parts can be given to higher institutions of learning for the purpose of research (Hayden, 2009). This is common to lovers of knowledge and education. These people should be allowed to accomplish their wishes by assisting them to die because they already have given their consent. Others will wish to die so that they can donate their body parts or organs, which are still useful to those who have hope of living longer. For example, many patients die of kidney failure, heart failure, and liver failure among other organ complications. Maybe, they will have wished to live longer than they did, but the failing of their body organs shatters their dreams. It is better for the terminally ill who decide to end their lives to be assisted to die so that their body organs can save the lives of those patients who die of various organs failure. Furthermore, individuals should be accorded a right to determine the course of their life. The right to die should be a fundamental freedom of each person so that if one decides to die earlier, especially the terminally ill, he or she should be assisted to do so (Hayden, 2009). Some terminally ill patients consider themselves to be a bother, and more especially the aged patients who have grown old to a point of being fed and being bathed. For some extremely aged people, someone has to wash their short, and they lose control of their faculties. These patients become a burden to others and, therefore, they wish to die and rest in peace. As long as these patients wish to die, they should be assisted to do so. Assisted suicide enables people die with dignity provided their family members will not be left to blame. Assisted suicide will leave everyone comfortable in that they did not contribute to the committing of suicide. Assisted suicide will also lessen the fear attributed to death (Hayden, 2009). Many people associate death with evil not knowing that it is the destiny of every man. Maybe, legalizing assisted suicide will make people understand that death is a process or cycle in an individual’s life like birth, initiation or marriage. In conclusion, assisted suicide for the terminally ill patients should be legalized in all countries. Some countries have legalized physician assisted suicide, and they have seen its benefits over the unassisted suicide committed in many states. Reference List Grish, G. (2009). Right to Die News Letter. World Federation of Right to Die Societies: ensuring choices for a dignified death. Spring 2008. World Federation of Right to Die Societies. Retrieved from http://www.worldrtd.net/node/857   Hayden, L.A. (2009). Helping Patients with End-Of-Life Decisions. The American Journal of Nursing, 99 (4), 24BB–24EE. Kluge, E. (2007). Assisted Suicide, Ethics and the Law: The Implication of Autonomy and Respect for Persons, Equality and Justice, and Beneficence. In Prado, C.G. Assisted Suicide: Canadian Perspectives. Ottawa, Canada: University of Ottawa Press. Wolfslast, G. (2008). Physician-Assisted Suicide and the German Criminal Law. In Birnbacher, Dieter; Dahl, Edgar. Giving Death a Helping Hand: Physician Assisted Suicide and Public Policy. An international Perspective. Germany: Springer. Read More