PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE: ETHICAL DILEMMA
Physician Assisted Suicide: Ethical Dilemma
Persons with disabilities are more likely to end their lives or request others to end their lives. In some scenarios, this is because of the diverse challenges that they go through, in comparison to their able bodied peers. From the onset, it would be prudent to note that physician assisted suicide, in relation to those with disabilities, tends to violate the ethics of physicians and fails to address the intrinsic needs/concerns of persons with disabilities. With regard to ethics of physicians, it is important to note that one of the principles of medical ethics, under the AMA code of ethics, states: a physician shall be dedicated to providing competent medical care, with compassion and respect for human dignity and rights (Loewy, 2013, p. 113). Regardless of whether they are disabled or not, human beings are assigned value that could be deemed intrinsic to their state as human beings. Physician assisted suicide, specifically in relation to those with disabilities, would be voiding the ideal/concept of human dignity. Next, it would also be prudent to note that permitting physician assisted suicide in this case would be tantamount to harming those that physicians, as medical/healthcare workers, are meant to protect and whose wellbeing they are meant to advance. Doctors take an oath to do no harm. Physician assisted suicide does not advance the wellbeing of a disabled person. What does advance the said wellbeing is the move to ensure that the disabled person acquires the needed skills and capabilities to live a meaningful life. In the final analysis, however, an argument could be presented that autonomy permits disabled persons to make their own decisions about medical interventions with physician assisted suicide in this case being seen as a kind of medical intervention. However, as Tomlinson (2012) indicates, autonomy is limited when its exercise causes harm to someone else or may harm the patient (219).
References
Loewy, E.H. (2013). Textbook of Medical Ethics. Springer Science & Business Media.
Tomlinson, T. (2012). Methods in Medical Ethics: Critical Perspectives. Oxford University Press.
