Physician-Assisted Suicide

I don’t think that physicians have the power to dictate when to pull the plug on someone’s life. There are various reasons that explain this, and one of them is that they are not family members, and neither are they loved ones to the victim. I do believe that the family of the victim, especially the immediate family such as a husband, wife, or child of the victim, have the responsibility to decide if and when the plug should be pulled. Another reason why the physician should not dictate when to pull the plug on someone’s life is that they swore an oath to preserve and protect people’s and thus, they have no say in terminating people’s lives. Finally, the physician’s role in caregiving and not providing financial support to patients (Schulz et al., 2018). Therefore, they can only play an advisory role to the family of the victim to help them decide on whether they would like to continue or terminate the life of their loved one.

Physician-assisted suicide refers to suicide undertaken with the aid of a physician or other healthcare provider (Mukhopadhyay & Banerjee, 2021). Assisted suicide can be morally right or wrong depending on the viewpoint of an argument. For example, if a person is suffering from a chronic illness that presents them with untold pain and suffering, such as cancer, they might be going through hell, and no person has to undergo such an ordeal. Besides, cancer is a terminal illness and requires people to spend a lot of money on treatment, and this may contribute to leaving many people suffering from financial problems once their loved one is dead. Rather than facing a double-edged sword – the death of a loved one through so much pain and suffering as well as the loss of finances; it would be better if assisted suicide was conducted to save the family from trauma and save them from facing financial problems in future. Based on this perspective, assisted suicide can be termed as being morally right. However, in a religious perspective, only God has the power to take the life of another person, and therefore, assisted suicide can be considered as playing God, and this is against the sacred and a violation of the ten commandments – do not kill. Based on this perspective, performing assisted suicide is morally wrong (Cherry, 2018).

References

Cherry, M. J. (2018). Physician-assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia: How not to die as a Christian. Christian Bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality, 24(1), 1-16.

Mukhopadhyay, S., & Banerjee, D. (2021). Physician assisted suicide in dementia: A critical review of global evidence and considerations from India. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 64, 102802.

Schulz, R., Beach, S. R., Friedman, E. M., Martsolf, G. R., Rodakowski, J., & James III, A. E. (2018). Changing structures and processes to support family caregivers of seriously ill patients. Journal of palliative medicine, 21(S2), S-36.