Physician-Assisted Suicide ~An Examination of Ethics and Dignity at - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Physician-Assisted Suicide ~An Examination of Ethics and Dignity at the End of Life~ Breanne Parets The Hippocratic Oath I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect
~An Examination of Ethics and Dignity at the End of Life~
Breanne Parets
“I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect”
Legality of PAS by State
Background Information Arguments For and Against Biblical Texts, Christian Doctrine, and Worldview
Mentally competent Over 18 years old Resident Terminal illness, less than 6 months Capable of self-administration
Two oral requests Written request with two witnesses Physician attestation of mental capacity No coercion Minimum of 17 days to complete
Common Diagnoses in cases of PAS:
Washington (2015)
Cancer Neurodegenerative Disease Unspecified
Oregon (2016)
Cancer
ALS
Heart Disease Other
Autonomy: A person’s rational capacity for self-governance or self-determination Autonomous persons have the right to die if they so choose
Neither “the presence nor the intensity
desire for a hastened death
From The Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry: Official Journal of the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry
No one wants to spend their last days in the relative comfort of palliative care Even just the fear of increasing pain, discomfort, and dependence is more than enough to burden patients
Most requests for PAS are based on depression and fear Rather than killing people, end of life care needs to focus on caring for the entire well- being of patients and their loved ones
People do not choose PAS because of the pain, physical or otherwise, but because of the indignity of being helpless and dependent on others If a terminal patient wants to die with dignity, let him die!
“Every suicide, and especially an assisted suicide, represents a failure of the human community to affirm the value
At the end, maintaining the quality and dignity of one’s life is more important than the desire to merely extend one’s life When the time comes, euthanasia may be the only way to free people from their agony, and it is therefore the merciful thing to do
Calling it physician-assisted suicide is a euphemism The American Medical Association rejects physician-assisted suicide because they believe it to be “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer”
A physician’s obligation is not only to preserve life, but also to minimize suffering When the only way to eliminate suffering is to end life, it may be the merciful thing to do
It’s a slippery slope… Allowing PAS opens the door for abuse and exploitation, and may lead to the legalization of euthanasia at large
Autonomy and the Perceived Quality of Life vs. Humanity and the Endowed Sanctity of Life
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s
am fearfully and wonderfully made”
“To bring death upon oneself in order to escape the afflictions of this life is to adopt a greater evil in order to avoid a lesser”
“God has reserved to himself the right to determine the end of life, because he alone knows the goal to which it is his will to lead it”
“It is never licit to kill another: even if he should wish it, indeed if he request it because, hanging between life and death, he begs for help in freeing the soul struggling against the bonds of the body and longing to be released; nor is it licit even when a sick person is no longer able to live”
“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”
“Your eyes saw my unformed substance; In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me”
Even in the midst of suffering, even when a patient has only days left to live, he is still valuable in God’s sight If God values the life of the terminally ill, then so should we
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