This essay will examine what Physician-Assisted Suicide is, or PAS. Physician-Assisted Suicide, or death, is when physicians prescribe medications to people who have a terminal illness and a prognosis of six months or less to live. Physician-assisted suicide is different from euthanasia, in which the patient is the one killing themselves with the help of physicians by prescribing the medications and euthanasia is the physician actually injecting the killing medications into the patient. These medications will assist them in ending their life. Because there is the option to end their life, more people are using the assistance of physicians in the states where it is legal. While there are some doctors that believe that the patient should be able to choose how they end their life, there are many doctors who believe it is morally wrong and refuse to do it. Along with physicians who do not believe is it morally correct to “kill” a patient, there are many churches and Supreme court officials against it as well, therefore only having physician-assisted suicide in seven states.
In seven states; Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Montana, people with a terminal illness with six months or less to live qualify to “die” or end their suffering with the help of a physician that is willing to prescribe the medication. Every state has their own requirements in which the patients can request assistance. Not every physician in the seven states is able to prescribe the medication. If the patient wishing to end their life goes to a doctor that will not prescribe the services, he or she must have the doctor write down their wishes in their medical records. This notation will count as a first oral request. The time it takes for a request to be approved typically takes three to four weeks.
Individuals with a terminal illness with six months or less to live can opt to end their suffering with the assistance from a physician. This means that if the physicians have exhausted all treatment and the patient is suffering, they can have a medication to help them peacefully die. Doctors who prescribe the medication cannot be prosecuted for it causing “death.” The patients that accept the help from the physician understand what they are about to do. Patients are taught how to inject the medication through either an intravenous fluid or an oral medication. Patients cannot receive physical assistance from the doctor or their family and friends. Each person is to sign documentation and answer multiple questions before proceeding with the process.
In regards to physician-assisted suicide, there are many fallacies in the case. The first regard and the most common is slippery slope. People think if we allow them to do something, then something bad will happen and society will have no choice to follow in this act. This occurs when thinking that if a physician-assisted suicide is permitted then people would be permitted to do other acts that are seen as morally wrong as in purchasing illegal drugs on the street. The laws create a world where it is okay for people to commit suicide because they are receiving the medication that is killing them from a physician. Suicide any other way would be seen as wrong, yet they see the physician as just killing their patient instead of treating them. There has not been a correlation in whether someone using the assistance from a physician to die and purchasing drugs in the street. Many people in this situation that want to die because they are suffering so badly do not know about PAS, therefore resulting in overdosing on medications or finding other ways to die. This is something many physicians believe will happen if PAS becomes legal in more states. If they are helping some die, yet others are being denied then there will be a higher rate of homicide being seen (Roderto, 2015). The straw man fallacy is for the people who want the assisted suicide laws, but are not terminally ill and have been given a prognosis of six months or less. For instance, a person who is paralyzed who wants to end his or her life, but cannot take the oral medication on their own. This person would have to have assistance from someone else, therefore turning into an issue of murder.
Pathos fallacy in PAS has an article written telling a story about a woman with Alzheimer’s disease that died using PAS. This woman had been diagnosed with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, which meant she was well on her way to fully developing Alzheimer’s in the next years. She went home and thought about killing herself before the disease took her life away. In Oregon where she lived, dementia is not a disease that a doctor would typically give a prognosis of six months or less to live. Her sister, on the other hand, had stage four ovarian cancer. Since she would not be able to get the death-inducing drug on her own, her sister got it for her at her doctor’s office. Because dementia had taken away much of who she was, she wanted to die on her own time and how she wanted, so she took the pentobarbital surrounded by family and eventually died. With this slippery slope story, we have Ethos fallacy where one believes that the article that is written is credible as well as Logos fallacy where people believe she was logical in her choice to end her life.
The first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide was Oregon in 1994 with the Death by Dignity Act becoming a law in 1997. The Death by Dignity Act allows adults who are mentally competent with a prognosis of six months or less to live to request and receive a prescription from a physician to hasten their death. This law was written so the terminally ill patients could choose when and how they wanted to. They are able to do it with dignity and control next to family and friends. Although PAS is legal in Oregon, there is a process to achieve the end goal. Patients must receive approval from two different physicians confirming their residency, mental competence, diagnosis, and prognosis. The patient must be a resident in the state that PAS is legalized in. There is then a waiting period in between the approval of the physicians and filling the medication. The other states that PAS is legalized in have similar Death with Dignity Acts.
Physicians have an image that society tells them their job is to heal, not to hurt (Sulmasy & Mueller, 2018). As a physician, society states it is ethically wrong to assist in any kind of patient killing. Also as a physician, they’re job is not to abandon the patient once all treatment has been exhausted. In the seven states, not all physicians believe that assisting their patient in their death is ethically correct and it is why one will not find many physicians in those states that are willing to prescribe the medication. Physicians prescribing the lethal medication are not physically giving the patient the medication as they would in euthanasia; all they are doing is prescribing it. The physicians choosing to prescribe the medication cannot be prosecuted for it causing death. If they were to physically inject the medication or give them an oral medication then it would be considered murder.
There have been issues with patients who are taking the lethal medication. These medications cause the nervous system and activity of the brain to slow down, therefore ultimately stopping the organs. Both medications, secobarbital (oral medication) and pentobarbital (liquid injection) can be used medicinally in small doses for ill patients. All medications being prescribed have been dispensed by pharmacies. There have been complications where the patient is in pain, nausea that leads to vomiting, seizures, and the patient not falling into a coma instead, falling into a deep sleep. With each medication being taken there are risks and side effects. The patients know what could happen with these medications, which is why they need to receive approval from two different physicians.
Physician-assisted suicide is when physicians prescribe medications to hasten the death of patients who are terminally ill and with a prognosis of six months or less to live. Patients that live in the seven states that have PAS legalized, may request the assistance from a physician if they qualify based on the categories. All medications being prescribed are being dispensed through a pharmacy; therefore one knows exactly what they are receiving. Physician-assisted suicide has its pros and cons, yet if someone is terminally ill and logically understands the process of choosing how and when to die, then they should be able to. Constant physical pain can mentally affect the person and people around them.