Yingkai Zhao
Professor Crawford
LING 113A
14 March 2018
Physician Assisted Suicide: Annotated Bibliography
Working Thesis: Physician Assisted Suicide on terminally ill patients should be legalized. Because 1. 2. 3.
Brody, Howard. "Physician-assisted suicide should be legalized." New England Journal of Medicine 331 (1994): 119-123. In the scholarly article "Physician-Assisted Suicide Should Be Legalized" from New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Howard Brody offers medical professionals a summarization of the arguments for both the advocacy and the against of physician-assisted suicide. In the public domain, the article states that the debate might appear to be one of the extremes. On one side, there are those who are advocating for granting patients a legitimate right to decide on whether to continue living or not and that right ought not to be regulated. On the other side, there are those in opposition, advocating for the absolute prohibition of physician-assisted suicide. The author of this source is in favor of the idea of banning the unregulated practice of physician-assisted suicide and should only be the last resort for those patients who have been examined to be suffering critically, and more days of living is added days of agony. The article additionally looks at the critical concepts underlying the debates, which include the physician-assisted suicide policies on nursing care.
This article suits its purpose of informing the reader on both sides of the argument based on the available evidences. It is true that whether physician-assisted suicide is banned or legalized, they both have several consequences which both sides of the debate base their arguments on. However, considering that health care should be at the interest of the patient, all forms of treatment should be aimed at offering health and alleviating the pain which the patient goes through as the physicians try to prolong his/her life. Therefore, considering both sides of the argument, it should be agreed that legalizing of physician-assisted suicide on critical or terminally ill patients should not be a subject of debate. This is because doing so will be granting them their right to dignity even in death.
Emanuel, Ezekiel J., and Margaret P. Battin. "What are the potential cost savings from legalizing physician-assisted suicide?" New England Journal of Medicine 339.3 (1998): 167-172. The scholarly article "What are the potential cost savings from legalizing physician-assisted suicide?" from New England Journal of Medicine, was written by Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Dr. Margaret P. Battin. Their purpose is to inform physicians and the public about the social benefits of legalizing physician-assisted suicide. Data was used to demonstrate the practice of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia in the Netherlands, as well as the existing evidence of the costs of prolonging the life of a dying person at the end of their lives in the United States. The article also explores and analyses the extent to which the endorsement of active assisted suicide and euthanasia would lower the costs of healthcare. According to the findings in the article, the estimated costs savings amounts are up to $627 million, which would lessen the total cost of healthcare by about 0.07 percent. The national estimates might also in a way reflect the levels of savings on an individual health management plans.
There is a general appeal for the legalization of assisted suicide with the perception that it would save on the cost of hi-tech health care for the dying patient. It is noted that about 30 percent of the budget allocated to Medicare is used on 5 percent of the dying patients every year. It is also noted that the expenditures often increase at a very high rate as the patient approaches death such that the last days of their lifetime cost more than a third of their Medicare expenditures. What even makes it worse is that, is that it is more detrimental than beneficial to consider investing in technological interventions at the end of life as this will only add up to the already accumulated costs.
Momeyer, Richard. "Does physician-assisted suicide violate the integrity of medicine?" The Journal of medicine and philosophy 20.1 (1995): 13-24. The scholarly article "Does physician-assisted suicide violate the integrity of medicine?" by Dr. Richard Momeyer provides his perspectives on physician-assisted suicide. The article was published in The Journal of medicine and philosophy, and the purpose is to convince the reader of physicians. This source assesses the opinions which are countering the advocacy for the legalization of assisted suicide. The author believes that it is a violation of the reliability of medicine and the relationship between the physician and the patient. The article says that assisted suicide is a contradiction of the health care's goal of healing and seeking health care. It is a violation of the total ban against deliberate ending and undercuts the trust which the patient has towards the physician. The article elaborates four arguments as to why assisted suicide should not be made legal, that assisted suicide is: (1) based on the conception that for ideal medicine, death is a defeat, (2) the misuse of teleological and teleology explanations, (3) disregards the highly regarded Hippocratic tradition and (4) unacceptably paternalistic.
Basing on this source it is undoubted that the interests of patients are not considered and the only thing which the author mentioned is saving the image of the health care system as well as keeping the physicians' reputation. This is ironical because health care is there for the purpose of serving the patients interest which includes health care and alleviation of pain, and in cases where pain cannot be alleviated I believe it is the responsibility of the physician to offer the best medication to end the pain and agony completely through application of lethal procedures which include lethal injections. In as much as the Hippocratic tradition should be followed by the physicians, the best interest of the patient as well as their families should also be considered. Basically, physician-assisted suicide is a way of enabling the patient to die in dignity rather than languishing in pain and eventually he/she will die. The more the Hippocratic and other traditions are being followed at the expense of the patient, critically ill patients will continue languishing in pain they do not wish for.