Physician Assisted Suicide Essay, Research Paper

Physician Assisted Suicide

Man is born with death in his hand. We all will die. We may be able to postpone death but we cannot avoid it. We all die of something, somewhere, somehow. Although we cannot avoid death, we can control the death caused by a terminal illness. We can determine how, when, where, and with whom we die. Right now at this time, there are over 10,000 patients in the United States that are in a permanent vegetative state. Also there are thousands of handicapped infants born each year. With the technology we have today, we are able to help people survive for long periods.

About two million Americans die every year. About 85% of them are in an institution. 80% involve a decision by someone to try to prolong life or to let it go. It is estimated that around four of every five Americans will die of lingering, chronic illness, which cannot be cured but can be artificially prolonged. Odds are not in your favor to die naturally at home.

The following are some thing to clear up any confusion about assisted suicide and euthanasia. Euthanasia is act of mercifully ending the life of a hopelessly suffering patient; taken from a similar Greek word meaning “easy or good death” Physician-Assisted Suicide – assisted by a qualified medical practitioner in fulfilling the wishes of a competent, terminally-ill patient to end his/her own life, usually by means of lethal injections. The difference between the two is during euthanasia is when death itself occurs, it’s carried out by the doctor but in doctor-assisted suicides, the patient fulfills the final step of terminating his/her own life. “Passive” Euthanasia is ending a patient’s life by withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments, and “Active” Euthanasia is causing a virtually painless death by means without which life would continue naturally, usually referring to lethal injections and lastly, suicide is the act of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally.

A very well talked about doctor who assists in suicide is Dr. Jack Kevorkian. He has pointed out the benefits of assisted suicide. Some of those are that it reduces patient’s suffering family and friends of patient. Dr. Kevorkian also asks his own patients to donate vital organs or undergo a critical medical experiment, which helps science, medicine, society, and the lives of others. Dr. Kevorkian made up a way of his suicide apparatus, which he called ‘mercitron’. This was invented in 1989. This is how it worked. There was a salt solution that runs from a needle through the veins. When ready the patient pulls plunger, injection a solution into their veins putting then to sleep in 10 to 15 seconds. One-minute later4 a final lethal solution goes through the needle into their veins. Dr. Kevorkian explained the difference between ‘mercitron’ and euthanasia. “It’s like giving someone a loaded gun. The patient pulls the trigger, not the doctor. If the doctor sets up the needle and syringe but lets the patient pull the plunger, that’s assisted suicide. If the doctor pushed to plunger, it would be euthanasia.” (McCuen 34)

Some people say that assisted suicide is like ‘playing God’ but when are we playing God. Is it when we pull the plug or really when we plug it in? What about birth control or blood transfusions or heart surgery. An example I found was about a lady named Nancy Cruzan. She was a 32 year-old Missouri woman that was in a vegetative state for seven years after an auto accident. Her family fought all the way up to the Supreme Court to get her off artificial nutrition and hydration. Finally, it was allowed. When the day came to take the tubes out, nineteen people stormed the facility to try to put the tubes back in. They were arrested and placed in jail. Now that’s playing God.

The sixth Commandment states simply “Thou shalt not kill.” However, there are 62 verses in the Bible calling for killing as a punishment. Aid-in-dying is not killing. Killing means doing something to somebody against their will to end their life. Physician aid-in-dying is doing something with someone who requests it to end their dying. Murder and killing are done against the victim’s will. Physician aid-in-dying is done with the wishes of the person who petitions it. So the words murder and killing are inappropriate when referring to physician assistance in dying.

In 1995, the Center for Ethics in Health Care at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland surveyed 2,761 of the state’s physicians after Oregon voters passed Measure 16 allowing physician aid-in-dying. This was the result:

73% believed that terminally ill persons have the right to suicide;

66% believed that physician assisted suicide is ethical;

60% believed that physician assisted suicide should be legal;

46% would be willing to comply with a patient’s valid request;

21% had been asked for a lethal prescription in the past year;

7% had written a lethal prescription before Measure 16 passed.

Some opponents argue that, if physicians become killers, they will lose the respect of their patients and many people will be afraid to go to a doctor. A doctor, who helps mercifully to end suffering, gains respect because of the compassion such an act conveys. Families are grateful to physicians who help them in such a grave situation.

People appreciate a veterinarian who ‘puts to sleep’ a pet to end suffering. These people do not suspect that this same veterinarian will kill other pets brought in to them for healing. People loyally return to their veterinarian ‘who is there when you need it the most.’

Different religions have different views when it comes to assisted suicide. Many religions leave it to their members’ individual conscience. The Roman Catholic Church prohibits the choice, defining it as a “mortal sin.” Fifty-five percent of the Protestants and 69% of Jewish faith endorsed it. Among Roman Catholics a surprising 61% support physician assistance-in-dying even though their church’s doctrine prohibits it. Only the Unitarian church has officially endorsed the right to die.

Some elderly people can’t deal with the pain and suffering anymore so they deal with it their own ways. There is no better evidence for the fact that people need the compassionate help of a doctor to escape suffering. There was research done on adults 75 and older that committed suicide. This was the result of the research.

93 used drugs

17 swallowed agricultural chemicals

2 took corrosive or caustic substances

78 used carbon monoxide (includes car exhaust)

171 hanged themselves

46 suffocated by using plastic

40 drowned themselves

130 used firearms

14 used cutting or piercing instruments

34 jumped from high places

15 jumped or lay in front of a moving object

10 burnt themselves to death

10 electrocuted themselves

About 50% of patients admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on respirators are terminally ill. It costs about $10,000 a week to keep a person on a respirator in an ICU. Often this money is spent on obviously terminally ill patients with virtually no chance of recovery. Doctors Knaus and Wagner wrote in Science, “In many cases, intrusive and complicated machinery is wheeled in to keep vital signs going, to give treatment of no benefit and tremendous cost, depriving others of treatment while dignity disappears.” (14) Note, too, that when the machines are wheeled in, loved ones are often escorted out.

There is concern throughout the world over denial of human rights. The violations include imprisonment without trial, torture, killings, and discrimination against women, racial, religious and political groups. A less recognized but also important violation is increasingly occurring in our freedom-loving country. We deny incurable patients the right to die with dignity and to hasten a lingering, painful dying. Individuals who have lived free lives, making their own personal decisions since childhood, are being denied this last choice.

George Carlin said ‘The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What’s that – a bonus? I think the life cycle is backwards. You should die first; get it out of the way. Then you life in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young. You get a gold watch. You go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You party. You get ready for high school. You go to grade school. You become a kid. You play. You have no responsibilities. You become a little baby. You go back into the womb. You spend your last five months floating…and you finish off as an orgasm!’

Bibliography

McCuen, G.E. (1994) Doctor Assisted Suicide and The Euthanasia Movement. Hudson, WI: Gary E. McCuen Publications, Inc.,

(1989) Euthanasia Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc.,

Singer, Peter. (1995) Rethinking Life and Death. New York: St. Martin’s Press.,

(1992) CQ Researcher. Wash, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc.,