physician assisted suicide

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Physician Assisted Suicide


The last thing anyone wants to think about is death. The thought of death is frightening, saddening, and worrisome to most people. It is inevitable to everyone and yet still is the most unfamiliar aspect of life. Death occurs every day, but to anyone facing death it seems to be everything but common. Although there are endless questions surrounding the mysterious occurrence we call death, there is a lack of an abundance of answers. For these reasons, the issues of how to handle death are always complex and never easy to deal with. Most of the problems that are created by death are very personal. Death affects each individual differently, whether you are the one dying or you are a family member, friend, or loved one of the dying. It is not usually easily discussed nor is it easily resolved and since the issue is so personal in its nature, it makes it very difficult to reach any comfortable decisions regarding the death of an individual. The difficulties of making the crucial glife or deathh decision have caused some of the most heated and heartfelt debates in America today.


One of the most controversial issues that have risen from these debates is the practice of physician-assisted suicide. Currently, Oregon is the only state in America where this practice is legal. Prior to the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Oregon, for most Americans the issue was not really an issue at all. The practice was not discussed primarily because it was illegal. Any discussion of a patient wanting to be assisted by a doctor to commit suicide was kept private and confidential, and so the American public did not get involved with such a concealed matter. The controversy did not reach the agenda of the American public until the news of a Michigan doctor, Jack Kevorkian, helping over 100 people end their lives, broke out in the mainstream media. Once the general public became informed about the issue, people began discussing the dilemmas of a personfs right to die and the practice of physician-assisted suicide.


So, what did Americans decide? Well, Americans were torn in many different directions. Public opinion polls revealed that Americans feel that the issue is more complex than simply whether the practice of physician-assisted suicide should be legal or illegal. About 70% of Americans support the help of a doctor to painlessly end a terminally ill patientfs life at the request of the patient and their family. Although it sounds like a majority of the American public supports physician-assisted suicide, public opinion polls reveal that when asked, gdo you think it should be legal or illegal for doctors to help terminally ill patients commit suicide by giving them a prescription for fatal drugs?h, only 40% of those asked thought it should be legal and 48% felt it should be illegal. Changes in the wording of the questions resulted in variations of the answers given. These varying results show that most Americans do not take a clearly defined stand on this issue and feel the issue is very complex.


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The reasons why Americans are so torn by the idea of physician-assisted suicides vary just as much as the results of the public opinion polls. One of the main reasons Americans have trouble taking a firm stand on the subject because the nature of it is so personal. When asked more personal questions, like gwould you help a member of your family who was terminally ill and wanted to die?h many people were not sure and 46% answered gnoh to the question. Also, according to the Gallup Poll in 1, 51% of those polled would not consider suicide if they had a disease that was incurable and they were living in severe pain. Americans do not want to make decisions about this issue because it involves so many touchy subjects, ranging from whether they would want physician-assisted suicide as an option for their loved ones or themselves to what constitutes a ggoodh death.


Another explanation for the way Americans are dealing with this issue id the unknown effects the legalization of physician-assisted suicide would have on our society. First, the question of how this practice would be regulated is difficult to answer. Many people believe that if it was legal, the practice could be abused, which would have no small consequences on peoplefs lives. Second, there is the underlying issue of how medical professionals would deal with carrying out the practice. Although a majority of physicians say that assisted suicide should be legal, less than half say they would be able to actually perform the practice. Some fear that the medical profession would become less committed to caring for patients with terminal disease and less concerned with the pain and suffering of dying patients. These concerns of the American people have caused the debate on physician-assisted suicide to expand in complexity and spawn other controversial issues surrounding individual rights.


The public takes several views on the gright to dieh issue. One view id that people should have the right to get assistance if they choose that they no longer want to live because it is a matter of personal choice. Another view is that society has a stake in the matter and therefore the value of human life is greater than an individualfs wish to end his/her own life. These views demonstrate the conflicts of preserving the ideal of individualism in our society, which is a fundamental characteristic of democracy in this country. Advocates for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide argue that allowing individual to make the choice grespects individual autonomy and the need for personal dignityh. To many individuals who are near death, this practice offers a more humane, less painful, option in dying. In most cases, people who are dying are concerned with the gfear of losing control and becoming unduly dependent on othersh and physician-assisted suicide gives individuals a way gto control the circumstances of deathh.


There have been several court cases that are crucial to the issue. While the courts have upheld the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment, the courts have yet to support the right of a patient to seek physician-assistance in hastening death. Although the courts currently take the position against a physician-assisted suicide, the issue seems unresolved. Regarding the Supreme Court cases that continued to ban the practice, gChief Justice Rehnquist wrote that the courtfs decision permits this debate to continue, as it should in a democratic societyh.


The most publicly known case involving physician-assisted suicide is that of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who advocated the legalization of the practice, and publicly acknowledged assisting more than 100 patients end their lives. Kevorkian wished to make the issue public and released a videotape of the death of Thomas Youk, who was suffering from Lou Gehrigfs disease, to CBS news g60 Minutesh. In 1, Dr. Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 to 5 years in prison. When he requested an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, he was denied and he remains imprisoned at the Thumb Correctional Facility near Lapeer. Other cases of assisted suicide have upheld the law banning the practice, but cases involving the carerfs aid of a person who wishes to end their life have stirred up many moral issues and have brought the attention of the public to these issues. After the Supreme Court voted unanimously in 17 in Washington v, Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill to uphold the statesf right to prohibit physician-assisted suicide, there is still hope for victory for proponents of the practice. One advocate stated that gone of the chief goals of the cases had been to increase public awarenessh, and this goal was definitely achieved. The American public has never been as interested in the discussion of physician-assisted suicide and the moral questions of the use of euthanasia as a proper medical treatment.


Since the initial decisions of the courts, Americans have become very involved in the legislation proposed to resolve the issue of physician-assisted suicide. There have been several voter initiatives to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. In Washington and California voter initiatives failed to legalize gaid-in-dyingh measures, mainly because the proposal included euthanasia, where the doctors are actively killing patients, which is a turnoff to most of the American public. Supporters of a patientfs right to die drafted a new bill that created more mass appeal. In Oregon, the gDeath with Dignity Acth was approved by voters in 14. The success of the bill can be attributed to limiting the proposal to assisted suicide only and excluding the use of lethal injection. The new provisions to the bill allowed for more supporters because gthe illusion of patient control was conveyedh and rules were established to ensure that the practice could not be misused. Although the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Oregon marked a turning point in favor of the practice, it did not create the domino effect that advocated predicted. Voter initiatives in Maine and Michigan failed, which dampened the hopes of supporters for a national legalization, but the purpose of proposing laws to permit assisted suicide does not end with passage of legislation. Media coverage in one of the main goals of advocators because they want the American public to be more informed about the issue.


So what can America expect in the future for this issue? First, many other states will probably see similar voter initiatives to legalize physician-assisted suicide, but this does not mean that other states will enact laws permitting this practice. It does mean that this issue will grow in interest. Already there are many interest groups on both sides of the issue. There has been some strong grassroots opposition to the legislation, mainly by minority organizations, like LULAC, The League of United Latin American Citizens, and disability rightsf groups, who are concerned that the practice would further allow for discrimination of minorities and the poor in their medical treatment. Many groups have spoken out in opposition to the legalization of assisted suicide because of the belief that it would undermine the legitimacy of the medical profession. Other groups have taken a neutral position, hoping to improve palliative care for individuals near death. The American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine is seeking to stay neutral on the issue, in favor of excellent palliative care as gthe standard of care for the dying, and that the inadequacies that exist in its delivery should be remediedh.


Americans are most likely to be plagued by this issue for many years to come, and answers are not likely to come easily. The issue of physician-assisted suicide involves many aspects of the role of government in our personal lives. The decisions made regarding this issue are likely to change and continue to conform to the will of the people. America might follow the lead of other nations around the world, like the Netherlands and Belgium, but it is almost guaranteed that this policy issue will lead the American people to a democratic decision which will influence the lives of future generations.





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