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... relationship has the power to heal, whether it is with comfort, faith, and / or love. Patients give physicians wide access to intimate knowledge comparable to the trust given to priests and psychotherapists and there is no comparison to be made to the dropping of physical barriers that occurs in the relationship. The patients self-interest should always be the physicians priority.
Because the physician has the best knowledge, society grants him permission to put an end to the patients life, given the wishes of the patient. Society even allows the physicians indirectly to hasten death through medications that alleviate pain and anxiety. The doctors participating in taking a patients life also threatens the trust number of the physician-patient relationship (Egendorf 163). A man named Jack Kevorkian, a Michigan pathologist, also believed in a patients right to die.
He had been put into the headlines and onto the news by helping patients who wanted to end their suffering and die. Once the news media spread the word, Doctor Death had more patients than he could handle. With high-tech medicine prolonging the agony of unstoppable disease, Jack Kevorkian launched a major public debate (Egendorf 139). Kevorkian believed in choice for life, which many people strongly disagree with. He thought if one wanted their life to be put to an end, then there wish should be granted.
This debate caused many disagreements throughout the world, which is still talked about up to this very day. Controversy about medical ethics would begin after the day an Oregon woman, lying in the back of Kevorkian's VW van, started the flow of lethal drugs into her veins and Doctor Death told her: Have a nice trip (Egendorf 139). Because the media continually ridiculed Jack Kevorkian, he was banned from medical practice in 1991. He was brought to trial three times for assisting suicides and was acquitted in each trial. His fourth trial was declared as a mistrial. He has admitted to assisting in at least 45 suicides.
Many people, including the patients, agree with his feeling about ending a persons suffering and agony. He once stated at one of his trials the following: My desire always is to aid the suffering human being as I would any suffering entity. When I wince at their suffering, I must do something. Even if I didnt wince, as a physician I must do something. It is never nice to see a human life ended. But when the agony ends, it ameliorates what I feel (Egendorf 140).
Some think that history will remember Jack Kevorkian as the truly a great man. Families think that he helped because he respected the request of the patients. Others families disagree because they think patients may be requesting death as the answer out of desperation. Physicians, the government, and some families think, If embraced as social policy, Kevorkianism will destroy the ethic which as proclaimed the sanctity of life for the last two thousand years (Egendorf 140).
Lawyers and courts have inevitably become involved with physician-assisted suicides. Physician-assisted suicide is a very serious matter, when it comes to the doctors participation, which is why there are many different views. In March, 1996, in San Francisco, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit became the first federal appeals court in the country to recognize a constitutional right to determine the time and manner of ones own death (Rosen 66). Judge Stephen Reinhardt ruled that Washington States law against suicide is unconstitutional.
The court formally ruled that a mentally competent, terminally ill patient has a constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide. It is in the opinion of the court that the right to be killed should extend to the disabled, ruling that seriously impaired individuals, along with non-impaired individuals, will be the beneficiaries of the liberty interest asserted here (Murphy Online). The Ninth and Second Circuit Court of Appeals ended up having a common ruling about assisted suicides. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York also ruled that assisted suicide is a constitutional right for dying people.
A month after Judge Reinhardt struck down Washington states law prohibiting assisted suicide, three judges on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit struck down New York states assisted suicide law. Several New York judges did not agree with Judge Reinhardt's ruling. However, in the end they reached the same result stating New York has a duty to treat equally all competent people who are in the final stages of fatal illness and wish to hasten their deaths (Rosen 68 - 69). Both the Ninth and Second ruling had currently came to a halt as far as making any further decisions.
In 1997, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not grant Americans the right to die. However, states are not prevented from passing laws that would establish this right.
In conclusion, there are many views on physician-assisted suicide. Basically, there are some people that are against this type of suicide because they feel like it should be Gods decision on when to take a persons life. These people believe that when a physician has agreed to assist a patient with their suicide, the physician has agreed to kill the patient due to their patients situation. On the other hand, there are people who believe in physician-assisted suicide. They believe that one has control of their life, and if they want to die, then they have the right to make that call.
They, also, believe the terminally ill patients should be allowed to end their lives with dignity. People, who strongly oppose to physician-assisted suicide, believe that it is wrong for a physician to take away another human beings life and not even feel guilty about it. They believe that when a patient decides on whether they want to follow through on their physician-assisted suicide, its out of desperation and that their body is taking over their mind. There are many patients, who arent on their death bed, that have diseases without a cure. A person who has a very strong belief in the opposition of physician-assisted, believe that the patients without a cure or have no other answers, should seek help and try to live life to its fullest.
Life is a great gift; it shouldnt be abused or taken away. Its very understandable that these ill patients go through so much pain (mentally and physically), that they want to die. That is why so many people argue about this certain issue today. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Physician Assisted Suicide U S Court
