Physician Assisted Suicide Essays (438 words) - Euthanasia

The term Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) generally refers to a practice in which the physician provides a patient with a lethal dose of medication and ends the patient?s life at his or her request. For many people the right to end one?s life is a right they can easily exercise but someone whose handicap, condition or disease renders them unable to end their lives in a dignified manner ask for assistance from their physician. Under present law suicide is not a crime, but in most states, assisting in suicide is illegal. The Supreme Court concluded its decision on the New York and Washington cases for Physician Assisted Suicide. On June 26, 1997, they announced their verdict. They found that the average American has no constitutional right to a physician assisted suicide. On the other hand, the court implied that there is no constitutional bar that would prevent a state from passing a law permitting physician assisted suicide. Allowing such legislations would threaten the rights of individuals with mental illness, handicap, depression, elderly, homeless, and anyone else society deems ?succumbed?. There could be other factors involved in a person?s decision. Depression and fear are two common feelings when someone is adjusting to living with a newly discovered illness or learning to adjust to being handicap. Other than a person?s medical history, there is no definitive way for a doctor to know if these are part of a patients reasoning. It is also argued that sanctioning assisted suicide would violate the rights of others. Doctors and nurses might find themselves ?pressured? to take part in a person?s suicide in order to satisfy the desires of a patient wanting to die. Ultimately a doctor is ending someone?s life, but the decision will follow them for the rest of their lives. Less than 40 years ago doctors would have never imagined a person with AIDS could survive longer than a couple of months. Today there is new and effective medicine that have made it possible for someone suffering from the disease, to now live a pain free and active life for many years. Medicine has given us the mean to cure or reduce the suffering of people afflicted with diseases that were once fatal or painful. Before choosing a stance on this issue I urge you all to consider everything I have said. There is no definitive way in knowing what will happen ahead. We can not give up on hope. Hope in people to continue to astonish us with their minds, and the capability to change something that can seem as certain as death.