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Life has to get to an end. Every person has to taste the death. However, the type of death depends on the person's fate. Some people face death without going through any consequences while some has to undergo severe physical or emotional pain before death. Death can be natural or forced the death, which happen unnaturally is due to a suicide attempt. People commit suicide when they no longer to live, or they have lost the will to live because of various factors. The problems or issues of life make an individual to refrain from life. On the other hand, the pain caused by physical ailments or emotional situation may force a person to commit suicide.
The people suffering from very serious ailments and diseases lose their hope and commit suicide. Diseases occur with pain, and some diseases are lethal. Since, these diseases are incurable, the patient is directed towards committing the sin of ending life. These diseases are severe therefore; the pain, injuries, secondary infections, and diseases are not tolerable. Consequently, the patient prefers to end the life as they feel killing themselves can be easier as compared to live with the miserable conditions.
The patients are often assisted by the physicians to commit suicide. The physicians are the ones who acknowledged the patients about their state of disease. In addition to this, the level and hope of improvement in their condition are conveyed to the patients through the physicians. Therefore, once the patient is informed about the state of disease in a negative connotation, the patient loses hope and decides to die. Furthermore, the physicians inform the patients regarding the suicidal means in an indirect way. For instance, the lethal dose of sleeping pills is enlightened to the patient while prescribing its dose. Eventually, such a patient can use sleeping pills anytime to commit suicide. Hence, physicians have an important impact in the suicidal attempts. Therefore, the physicians need to implement the regulations in their practice to alleviate the suicidal attempts associated with their prescriptions and them.
Physician-assisted suicide refers to the suicide attempted by the patients whereas, the means to commit suicide are informed by a physician. This phenomenon is not a new one; intolerable suffering has been a part of the treatment of patients. Patients find the breakthrough of pain by death only. Therefore, the patients request the physicians to give them a process to die to get rid of sufferings. The events of physician-assisted suicide have decreased as the remedy for the suffering from the disease is reduced. Now-a-days, medication is provided that provide ease in the extent of pain. Hence, the suicidal attempts are minimized (Emson, 1995).
There exists a controversy regarding the legal permission of the physician-assisted suicides. The physician is required to relieve the pain in a possible way to decrease the circumstances of suicide attempt. However, the physician should not impose personal decisions on patients in this issue. The patient is responsible for all situations, therefore, if the patient decides for the suicidal attempt; the physician should not deny them. In 1997, the supreme court permitted the physician-assisted suicide attempts. Moreover, the state or government has complete right to allow or stop this activity. With the introduction of this law, Oregon was the only state to favor the permission of the physician-assisted suicide (Dahl & Levy, 2006).
Consequently, this suicidal attempted with the physician’s aid was permitted on Oregon. In order to relieve the patients from the sufferings, the physician-assisted suicide should be permitted. Since, the Oregon has allowed the suicide, there has been an increase in the number of physicians assisted suicide (NPR Staff, 2014). However, those suicidal attempts were based on a different reason, which was to lose the control and autonomy. Subsequently, the majority of suicidal events were not based on the suffering or pain of the disease. This indicated that the physician-assisted suicide was committed as the patients were tired of the life and had no significance of life. That is why; they are hopeless about their life and decide to end it up. Moreover, the disease can affect the mental status of the patient. Therefore, these patients are not in their senses to decide anything. Eventually, they cannot decide the suicidal attempt to be committed or not as they are not in the state to decide any good for self. On the other hand, it is believed by some that ending up one’s life is the choice of the person own, so the physician or the government should not get involved within this issue (Snyder & Sulmasy, 2001).
Conversely, the legalization of physician-assisted suicide is not favored. The profession of physician is concerned with the saving life and conducting measures to save the life of the patient. On the other hand, the physician-assisted suicide subjects the physician to carry out an opposite task, which is to let the patient die. Therefore, the physician should not be allowed to conduct such activities, and the conditions of the patient should be made stable or decrease the pain, nausea, depression, and other mental issue with the help of medicines. Moreover, the permission for this law will enhance the misuse of this law. Several ill people living at their last stages will take advantage of this law and commit suicide to get rid of their life. The old people will terminate their life in order to stop the miserable condition of their life by ending up the life. Consequently, the suicide would become common if the physician-assisted suicide is permitted (Suicide & Permitted, 2013).
In conclusion, the benefits of physician-assisted suicide cannot be denied as it relieves the patient from the regular pain and hopelessness. Since, the medicine can make the pain or mental issues subside, but the hopelessness and the helplessness a patient and the physician undergo is not tolerable. The hopelessness in an improvement from the disease can discourage the patient, and the will to live becomes weak. In that case, the suffering is very serious, therefore; the suicidal attempt with the physician’s aid should be permitted to provide advantages to the patients. In addition to this, there should be strict check on the misuse of the permission. The patients should undergo the necessary investigation procedure in order to be allowed for the physician-assisted suicide. In this way, the misuse of the permission for the suicidal attempts other than the patients who are severely suffering can be prevented.
Works Cited
Dahl, E., & Levy, N. E. I. L. (2006). The case for physician-assisted suicide: how can it possibly be proven?. Journal of medical ethics, 32(6), pp. 335-338. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2563370/ on 15th December 2014.
Emson, H. E. (1995). Defining physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal, 152(12), 1961. Retrieved from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1338010/?page=1on 15th December 2014.
NPR Staff, 2014. Debate: Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal? Intelligence Debate. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2014/11/20/365509889/debate-should-physician-assisted-suicide-be-legal on 15th December 2014.
Snyder, L., & Sulmasy, D. P. (2001). Physician-assisted suicide. Annals of internal medicine, 135(3), pp. 209-216. Retrieved from https://www.acponline.org/running_practice/ethics/issues/policy/pa_suicide.pdf on 15th December 2014.
Suicide, P. A., & Permitted, S. N. B. (2013). Physician-Assisted Suicide. The New England Journal of Medicine. Pp. 1450-1452. Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMclde1302615on 15th December 2014.
