Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Should people with terminal illnesses who want to die be able to have a doctor help them commit suicide? The debate regarding a proper and ethical answer to this question has continued for decades (Svenson & Behuniak, 2002) and it is expected that it will continue for decades more (Jeffrey, 2008; Birnbacher & Dahl, 2008).

Truog (2008) defines physician-assisted suicide (PAS) as the practice, by a physician, of assisting a patient to voluntarily take his or her own life. Typically, this involves providing the patient with a prescription as the means for death. This paper provides a general overview of PAS focusing on the general nature of the debate, the history of the practice, PAS as an aging policy, the key actors in the PAS debate, policy changes that have taken place with respect to the practice, and the status of the issue.

As noted by Kopelman and de Ville (2001), the nature of the debate over physician-assisted suicide is complex. However, the arguments both for and against PAS can be boiled down to a few key points. Those in favor of PAS make their cases based on arguments involving a person's need (both legal and ethical) for ego autonomy as an important component of dignity. The proponents of physician-assisted suicide also cite the need to end patient suffering. Further, the arguments in favor of PAS also address the fear that life can now be technologically extended to the point where it has lost all meaning and n

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nt. However, it is also in line with the American public's views in that it does not approve of physician-assisted suicide. Key Actors Involved in Debate Dowbiggin (2007) states that the key actors in the physician assisted suicide debate, on both sides of the issue, are the special interest groups and their representatives where representatives can be individuals (e.g., physicians, nurses, political activists, politicians, etc.) or organizations (e.g., hospitals, insurance companies, etc.). Some of the key actors against physician assisted suicide include the Catholic Church the American Medical Association, The American Geriatrics Society, the American Nurses' Association, and lesser organizations of physicians who feel that PAS is incompatible with the doctor's role as a healer. There are also special interest groups that are against PAS as part of a larger mission such as the arguments and activism against PAS promoted and carried out by The National Right to Life Committee. The key actors who are proponents of PAS include organizations of physicians who do not believe PAS violates the fundamental tenet of medicine, not-for-profit organizations dedicated to fostering PAS such as "Choice in Dying,' and the New-Land F

Category: Medical - E