I have an assignment in which I am trying to summarize the various positions and arguments involving Physician Assisted Suicide. I’m having a hard time finding arguments on the Pro side other than, “The life of an individual belongs to an individual, and the decision to end it is theirs”. Nothing I’ve seen on the Con side seems to refute this, and it seems like the Pro side doesn’t need any more arguments. Can someone who is for PAS explain why they feel the way they do?
Well, “The life of an individual belongs to an individual, and the decision to end it is theirs” pretty much sums it up. Besides which, I don’t want to die a slow, horrible lingering death. Sure, I could kill myself now; but since I’m healthy there’s no point. If I’m dying and helpless, I’d like to be allow an easy death. There is no virtue in suffering.
Try this also: Releasing someone from suffering is not doing them harm. Keeping them alive and in misery and despair against their will does them harm.
We all die sooner or later, so its not like this is some kind of avoidable fate. When a person chooses to take their own life they are avoiding years of chronic pain as well as hundreds of thousands in medical bills that may end up going to their family. Better to die happy and leave a will to your family than hate your life, suffer and die in debt. Plus a person with a disease that affects cognitive function may end up unable to recognize their family after a while.
I suppose there is the religious aspect as well. Some religions (not mainstream ones mind you) feel that the body and soul are connected. In ancient Egypt the pervading view was that the body you lived in was the body you had in the afterlife. So a body crippled by disease would not be desired to spend eternity in. I’m sure some new agers believe that the cognitive decline of Alzheimers also corrupts the soul’s ability to reason and think, and this handicap will carry over into the afterlife. That is just speculation though, but that is probably an argument for physician assisited suicide.
I haven’t heard that one before, but there’s new agers out there who believe just about anything you can imagine. :rolleyes:
However, I do believe in reincarnation, and so assisted suicide frees the spirit to get on with it and reincarnate in a healthier body. Ah! You say, but what if suffering is part of what the spirit is supposed to be learning? Meh. Ok. Maybe. But if that’s the case, it will suffer in the next life as well. Freeing it in this one does no harm. I don’t believe we can thwart our higher Will (or God’s will, if you prefer that terminology.) If you’re meant to learn by suffering, you’ll suffer until you learn. If not in this life, then the next.
So that’s my metaphysical argument. The rest boils down to “my body, my choice.”
OP asks: **Why are you for Physician Assisted Suicide? **
The answer is simple because I have had several surgical operations that required full anesthesia.
1- The Physician has the equipment to make you numb in a matter of seconds.
2- The Physician has the intravenous means used for full anesthesia.
3- The Physician can inject you with a fatal dose while you are under full anesthesia.
Consequently, you can peacefully go into deep sleep in a matter of seconds, and you never wake up. So, as you can see in all 3 above steps, you need Assistance of a Physician.
Now that you have the answer, what is the debate about?
The people who make the laws against physician assisted suicide are not usually the same people who have experienced unendurable agony. They have no concept of the issue.
I figure if someone truly wants to die, they’ll figure out how to do it one way or another; gun, pills, blades, rope around the neck, garden hose in the tailpipe, what have you.
If a licensed physician can do it in a relatively painless and dignified manner, then so much the better.
Note that I only completely approve of physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill, who have no hope of recovery short of a “miracle cure” being produced overnight by medical science. :snort: You might as well take your life savings and blow it on the lottery in that case; you’d at least have chance of passing on a nice® inheritance to your survivors, or of “going out in style.”
When it comes to certain cases (like the Schiavo case), I’m much less certain of anything, except that I feel in no way qualified to judge for other peole. If the victim’s last wishes are known, documented, and undisputed, I have no objections.
When it comes to people who are just “tired of living” and want to die, I’m against physician assisted suicide (even as I acknowledge that I doubt that hardly any physician worth his/her degree would assist a physically healthy person suicide).
That assumes that they are not too badly damaged to kill themself.
True; I’m making no claim of having thought through every possible contingency. I suppose I’m assuming that even a terminally ill person could summon the strength to pop the top on a bottle of pills if they were determined. But I’ll readily concede that it’s easily conceivable that there’s going to be instances where it’s not the case.
Because death isn’t bad.
It is illogical and unreasonable for one to prolong his life while suffering in order to sattisfy anothers moral beliefs
What about the issue of whether any given doctor should be compelled to perform such a procedure?
That would be a con…
I think it’s something that would have to be phased in in say 60 years or so. I don’t think anyone who attended med school before the date of the decision should be compelled to do it, although they should be allowed to if they choose. But after that, I think it should be included as part of the job description. Don’t want to do it, don’t become a doctor. Just like a veternarian. Alternatively, it could be worked out so that if you were a “no-suicide” doctor, you could make that choice if you worked in a practice with a fully functional doctor who would take that portion of patient care.
In the meantime, (assuming legality), we’d need to work on social attitudes, so the ones who would choose to do it aren’t themselves attacked or threatened like doctors who perform abortions.
Are gynecologists (or any other doctors) compelled to perform abortions? AFAIK, the answer is no, so the answer for assisted suicide should be no as well.
I watched my father waste away from cancer over a 2 year period. He spent his last months bedridden and in uncontrollable pain.
We treat animals better.
I believe this as well, especially in cases where the outcome is going to be the same (death) with or without the suffering. I believe in a reward after death, but only for good deeds, not as compensation for suffering. Some religious people believe differently.
I have seen a refutation of that argument. I’m for PAS, but I’ll present it here:
Medical care can be very expensive. Some people might feel pressured to end their lives to avoid being a financial burden on their families.
Frankly, I think if you’d rather leave more money to your family than live a few weeks or months longer, probably with a fairly poor quality of life, you should be allowed to make that decision.
I have no problem with the assisted suicide part. It’s the physician part that bothers me.
Why does it have to be done by a doctor? It seems that a medical license and 8 years of training would be a little overkll, as far as qualifications go.
A high school dropout with a 2 hour certification course and a claw hammer could get the job done, but I’m sure something more elegant could be worked out.
I see job openings for all those physicians that have been barred from normal practice due to some fatal misbeavior like alcoholism or drug addiction. Or for those whose work habits were so sloppy that they can no longer afford the malpractice insurance.
I go to an HMO. It’s not like most of us see real doctors half the time anyways. Or nurses, for that matter. Most of those health personel are adult education students that are just wearing the uniform and are making just a fraction above minimum wage.
I had to watch my mother live (if you can call it that) in a nursing home in uncontrolled pain for six months, until she developed gangrene from improper care. Her circulation in the affected leg was not sufficent to allow an amputation to heal, so they took her in for an aortal bypass, then planned to take her back in to amputate her leg. Blessed be, she died following the bypass surgery. It is difficult for me to remember my mother as she was before the stroke. She didn’t know anyone and was totally helpless, and the plan of these doctors was to chop her to bits.
We treat animals better.