Introduction
This topic may seem like an oxymoron because physicians are supposed to heal not assist in death bit for more and more the ability to control your own death is a satisfying and welcoming experience. Since this topic deals with the terminally ill many times it is the wishes of the family members to determine the time of death of a loved one, which is not an easy responsibility by any means. There are many reasons why death is sought and in a few states it is legal but in n most cultures , it is still not accepted and should stay this way is the topic of this paper. Euthanasia should remain illegal as only God determines the time and place of your death and any intervention is akin to murder.
Physician assisted death (PAD) is different from euthanasia in who administers the lethal dose as in PAD the physician writes the script for the lethal does and someone else administers it . The end result is the same but the patient has the control over their death which is an important consideration. The end of suffering is a desirable experience for the patient who usually has been suffering for some time. Everyone wants to move away from pain and it is not to say that death is pleasurable because we do not know the answer to that but the end of suffering is a welcome thought.
The legality of the PAD was upheld by the United States Supreme Court . And since this decision several arguments have been raised regarding the ethics of PAD as a method for someone in severe pain to find relief as death is inevitable. It is a physician’s duty to alleviate pain and so if the person is competent the decisions to have e the physician write the script and to use the dosage is up to the individual patient. However it is the physician duty to heal the sick as in the Hippocratic Oath that they took .
The reason that my stand is that PAD is not legal are two fold, legally and religiously. First of all, the legality of when to take a life can be blurred. People can and do recover from some horrific illness. The elderly should not be assisted in their death because of the fact that now they are a burden. It could be a misuse of the ability for the physician to prescribe this medication based on a family members desire to get on with their own lives and not be tasked with caring for a sick member.
Religiously , the study showed that the more faith based and orthodox a family was the less they were in favor of PAD. The traditionalist view that God controls the hour and the minute you will die is rooted in strong religious beliefs. If you are familiar with the folk song, the following verse was put to music: Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up”.
References
Lagay, F. (2003). Physian Assisted Suicide. Journal of Medical Ethics, [online] http://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2003/01/pfor1-0301.html. Accessed February 2016.
Maxwell, J. (2001). Maxwell Leadership Bible. Nashville: [online] https://www.openbible.info/topics/assisted_suicide.Accessed February 2016.
Rakow, J. (2016). Should Euthanaisa or Physician Assisted Suicide Be Legal? ProCon.org, [online] http://euthanasia.procon.org/. Accessed February 2016.
Sharp, S. (2012). Religion and End of lIfe Treatment Prefernces. Univeristy at Rutgers, [online]http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~carrds/sharp-carr_SF_forthcoming.pdf. Accessed February 2016.
Starks, H. (2012). Physician Aid-in-Dying. Ethics in Medicine, [online] https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/pad.html, Accessed February 2016.
