Assisted Suicide: The Debate

Brittany Maynards 2015 video posted by the British newspaper The Guardian is heartbreaking testimony to the intelligence and the forethought this young woman placed into her decision to request life-ending medication. It highlights that individuals who reject palliative sedation for the terminally ill do so because, like Maynard, they are afraid of the suffering and the loss of functioning that this can cause. Given that patients like Maynard have already lost significant functioning and quality of life (Maynard had brain cancer), forcing them to take matters into their own hands and try to orchestrate their own suicides without the assistance of a physician seems cruel.

A physician should always be a facilitator of improved quality of life and wellness, and while this usually means helping the patient lead a better and higher quality of life, in Maynards instance, a peaceful death was her goal, rather than enduring an agonizing death or artificially prolonged life. Of course, Stephanies story (2015) is incredibly moving, and she shows great courage in the face...

But it is not fair to compare the two existences of these two womentheir pain, their challenges, and the stages of their disease are all unique.

Even though Stephanie has made one choice and Maynard made another does...

…make a moral judgement of the patient.

As a healthcare provider, I hope I would ultimately be guided by my technical knowledge as a physician, my ethically informed compassion as a physician, and also by the knowledge I had gained over the years treating patients with similar illnesses. I would make decisions on a case-by-case basis, rather having a uniform approach to treatment, which should be the case with all illnesses, terminal or not.

References

Grassi, L., Folesani, F., Marella, M., Tiberto, E., Riba, M. B., Bortolotti, L., Toffanin, T.,

Palagini, L., Belvederi Murri, M., Biancosino, B., Ferrara, M., & Caruso, R. (2022). Debating euthanasia and physician-assisted death in people with psychiatric disorders. Current Psychiatry…