ian regarding her case. He had simply met this woman in a van he had outfitted with a "suicide machine" consisting of three chemicals to be injected into the patient via an intravenous like needle. Clearly to help kill Ms. Adkins Dr. Kevorkian went against God's commandment "thou shall not kill."
Morally, physicians who help terminally ill individuals take their own life are also acting in an immoral manner because of violating the Hippocratic Oath which states first "do no harm." Dr. Kevorkian's role was to start the intravenous line, with Ms. Adkins then taking responsibility for pushing or pulling a lever releasing lethal drugs into her body. Allowing an individual to die and helping to kill an individual is an important moral distinction. Sulmasy (1998) argues the "distinction between killing and allowing to die is clear, coherent, and makes moral sense to any person who holds that it i
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