Physician-Assisted Suicide and Legalization

This paper contends that physician-assisted suicide should be legalized. The issue of physician-assisted suicide pertains particularly to a group of people suffering from diseases that cause a severe deterioration of human powers and capacities. Some are suffering from intolerable pain, while others find their lives unbearable. In either case, medical technology has only sustained their lives, but not improve the quality of life for them. With the assistance of a physician, these people can gain control over the timing of their death and leave the world in a dignified fashion. Especially at a time when they are losing control over their existence, they can still exercise the personal choice of dying. Unlike the critics' image of rampant "murders" of unwanted and dying patients either by the physicians or family members, the legalization of physician-assisted suicide will occur within a set of strict and clearly formulated rules and guidelines. The ultimate decision to die belongs to the patients. However, the physicians involved plays an integral role in informing the patients of their options. In this paper, the Oregon Death with Dignity Act (DDA) passed in 1994 and the guidelines used by the Dutch courts will be used as examples for describing the criteria required for enforcing physician-assisted suicide.

For many dying patients, physician-assisted suicide provides them with personal choice. They want to exercise their rights to die and have the assistance of their physi

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e role of comforting the patient without being emotionally drawn into the experience compared to the patients' relatives (Kass & Lund, 1996, p. 19). In the Netherlands, the doctor and the patient form a supportive bond that prepares the patient for impending death (Shapiro, "Euthanasia home," 1997, p. 25). By examining the details of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act (DDA), it can be demonstrated clearly that legalizing physician-assisted suicide will address the increasing demand of dying patients in a safe and regulated atmosphere. The act was formulated to serve three objectives and three groups of people: 1) Offer terminally ill people the right to die in a "human and dignified" fashion by ingesting lethal pills prescribed by a physician; 2) protect physicians from professional and legal prosecution for their involvement in the deaths of their patients; and 3) to guarantee that the practice will be regulated and accountable to the public (Campbell, 1999, p. 498). In this act, the rights and the roles of the patients and the physicians are spelled out clearly. Terminally-ill patients include patients whose life expectancy is less than six months, as assessed by the physicians. In making their decisions, patients should f

Category: Psychology - P