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¶ … Morality of Assisted Suicide
Assisted suicide for terminally ill patients may be one of the most morally complex issues facing today's society, with a particular impact on modern healthcare workers. Modern medicine has progressed to a point where, in many instances, life can be prolonged for significant periods of time, well beyond when people would have died of terminal diseases in prior times. However, there have not been similar advances on the other side of the issue; death remains a relatively unchartered part of the healthcare spectrum, and there have not been significant advances in helping patients who no longer wish to extend their lives, but hasten the end of their lives and end their suffering. The choices remain limited for healthcare workers, who, in providing any type of euthanasia are seen as assisting suicide. This is a deeply morally complex issue. The taboo against the taking of human life, even one's own life, exists in every culture. However, there are many people who believe that compassion demands that people act to end suffering. The arguments against suicide include: the sanctity of human life; the possibility that assisted suicide would be abused, putting innocent life at stake; and that it would put healthcare professionals in an uncomfortable position. However, there is also a strong argument...
Therefore, society has a duty to preserve life. "To allow people to assist others in destroying their lives violates a fundamental duty we have to respect human life. A society committed to preserving and protecting life should not commission people to destroy it" (Andre & Velasquez). This appears to an almost universal imperative. Most of the major world religions consider suicide a sin or other taboo. In many countries, suicide is a crime, as if assisting any other person with the commission of a suicide. Allowing physicians to assist in a suicide would go against these well-established moral norms that have existed for thousands of years. In addition, there is the concern that sanctioning the taking of human life in one context would spread to other contexts, devaluing all of human life.
Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that physician-assisted suicide could be abused. It is not difficult to imagine a scenario in which family members might urge doctors to help a patient commit suicide, when that patient had no desire to end their life. "If assisted suicide is allowed on the basis of mercy or compassion, what will keep us from 'assisting in' and perhaps actively urging the death of anyone whose life we deem worthless or undesirable?" (Andre & Velasquez). This is particularly true with elderly patients, who may not be fully…
Works Cited
American Medical Association. Opinion 2.211- Physician-Assisted Suicide. AMA . N.p.
1994. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.
Andre, Claire and Manuel Velasquez. Assisted Suicide: A Right or a Wrong? Santa Clara
University. N.p., 1987. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.
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