Physician Assisted Suicide: The Right to Life
For my English 201 class at BYUI, I had to write a researched argument that related to my major, which is Nursing. This is the paper that I wrote on Physician Assisted Suicide.
The Right to Life
Anna Howe
Brigham Young University - Idaho
Abstract
In
her paper, “The Right to Life,” Anna Howe discusses the controversial
topic of physician assisted suicide and the effects it has on society. She first gives background information and
defines necessary words pertaining to the subject. She then introduces her claim that physician
assisted suicide should not be legal in the United States, and provides reasons
in support of her argument. After
providing sufficient evidence that supports her views of the topic, she then
goes on to address the opposing views of the argument. She gives each point, the reasons that people
view the topic in such a way, and then provides a counter-claim in support of
her argument. She uses facts, real-life
stories, and opinions to convince the audience of why she does not support
physician assisted suicide. Howe concludes that physician assisted suicide has negative, damaging, life-altering
effects on not only the patient and doctor, but also the family and friends of
the patient.
The Right
to Life
“I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the
presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my
profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and
mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug” (Maxwell
& Pope, 1910, p. 17). These words
precede out of the mouth of every person to graduate medical school, so why is
it that in four of the fifty United States, physicians can assist their
patients in suicide by administering a lethal dose of medication? Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Montana all
have laws that support physician-assisted suicide, and with each new state
adopting this law, more lives are ending before their time. In 2012, Oregon alone had 115 prescriptions
written for the lethal amount of barbiturates needed to result in death. Of those, 77 lives were ultimately taken due
to suicide (Schadenberg, 2013). Jeannine
Young says that “Doctors told my father that he would not live through the
winter of 1962-63, so my eldest sister moved her wedding date up from June 1963
to December 1962, so he could walk at least one of his six daughters down the
aisle…In 1978, when my husband’s job was taking us to California, I said
good-bye to my father in intensive care at the hospital in Burlington. I
thought I would never see him alive again,” (Riel et al., 2013).
Background
In order to be eligible to pursue physician
assisted suicide, a patient must be a mentally competent adult diagnosed with a
terminal disease. There are also several
rules before a prescription for the lethal drugs can be received. For example, the patient must make two oral
requests, 15 days apart. He or she must
make a written request under the supervision of two witnesses. Additionally, the physician must inform the
patient of alternatives to assisted suicide (Norman-Eady, 2002). Sometimes physician assisted suicide is
referred to using different terms such voluntary active euthanasia. The connotation of these two phrases are very
different, and can even entail two separate meanings. According to the World Federation of Right to
Die Societies, “physician-assisted suicide entails making lethal means
available to the patient to be used at a time of the patient’s own choosing,”
while “voluntary active euthanasia entails the physician taking an active role
in carrying out the patient’s request, and usually involves intravenous delivery
of a lethal substance” (“Difference,” 2011).
Cases of physician assisted suicide can be seen as
far back as 500 BC. During this time,
the ancient Greeks and Romans, although bound by the Hippocratic Oath, are
thought to have often performed voluntary mercy killings as well as support the
idea that voluntary killing was better than prolonged agony. Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries,
support for euthanasia diminished due to an ascendancy in Christianity. As time passed, controversy over the church’s
right to interfere in ethical matters arose, but the rejection of suicide and
euthanasia remained firm (“Timeline,” 2013).
In the United States, it wasn’t until 1828 that the
first United States statute was enacted that outlawed assisted suicide in New
York. In the 1900’s, debate over
physician assisted suicide became a more prominent issue as advances in
technology allowed the debate to be addressed on television, radio, and even
movies such as The Black Stork in 1917.
As time passed, groups both in support of and opposing physician
assisted suicide were organized, rates of support continuously fluctuated, and
new rules and regulations were put in place regarding the act. In November of 1994, Oregon became the first
state to legalize the Death with Dignity act, or the right to physician
assisted suicide, followed by Washington and Montana in 2008, and most recently
Vermont in 2013 (“Timeline,” 2013). Despite
the legalization of physician assisted suicide in four states, it should not be
legal in the United States because it removes all chances of that person ever getting
better, it introduces a double standard between physical and mental suffering,
and it also causes more pain and grief of the patient’s loved ones.
Position
Doctors are human, and humans make mistakes. There have been millions of cases worldwide
where patients are diagnosed with a terminal illness, only to outlive their
prognosis by five, ten, or even fifty years.
If a doctor were to misdiagnose a patient with a terminal illness, and
that patient decides to take advantage of physician assisted suicide, they will
have given up not only years of their life, but time and memories that could
have been made with family, friends, and loved ones. They could have grown into the doctor that
discovers a cure for cancer, or the officer that stops a serial killer in his
tracks. There is so much potential in one
person’s life and physician assisted suicide eliminates all chance of said
potential becoming a reality. Erica Riel
from Barre, Vermont was diagnosed with a terminal illness three separate times
by doctors in Vermont. She was pursuing
the route of physician assisted suicide until her family convinced her
otherwise and she tried one more doctor.
This doctor informed her that not only would she live, but she could
live to be 80 years old. Her question
after her accurate prognosis was “How many other people are getting wrong
diagnoses?” Erica is only one of the 12
million approximate people who are misdiagnosed each year in the United States
(Whiteman, 2014). Erica is now fighting to illegalize physician assisted suicide
in Vermont (Riel et al., 2013).
A common assumption of those who turn to physician
assisted suicide is that they are in agonizing pain. However, it is said that many of the patients
who use physician assisted suicide in Oregon are not in pain, but rather they
want to control the timing and experience of their death. Isn’t this something that people, even those
without terminal illnesses, naturally want?
No one wants to die in a vegetative state or while having to depend on
everyone else to do things for them. So
why is it that those with terminal illnesses get to decide when and where they
die, but not those who simply want to avoid the complications and frustrations
that come towards the end of life? There
is no logical reason that people with the exact same concerns regarding death
should be given different options based on their medical status. This is not the reason that all patients turn
to physician assisted suicide, but it has been said that for many, this is a
leading factor (Jeffery, 2009).
Another issue that results from the legalization of
physician assisted suicide is that it gives people – both doctors, families,
and patients – more power, power which could be easily abused. The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates
that one to two million Americans aged 65 or older “have been injured,
exploited, or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for care or
protection,” (Harned, 2012, p. 516-517).
Many family members who have families and lives of their own are given
the responsibility of caring for an elderly relative. After years of putting their lives on hold,
the family member may, consciously or unconsciously, suggest that the relative
pursue the path of physician assisted suicide.
Their reasoning may sound totally innocent to them, but the underlying
reason for their suggestion may simply be that they want their life back. Abuse of the system can also take place when
a patient who has a terminal illness, but also suffers from a mental illness
such a depression, is given the option of physician assisted suicide. The patient could use their terminal illness
as an excuse for why they want to pursue physician assisted suicide, when in
reality it may be their mental illness swaying them to that option. Mary Harned, staff council for Americans
United for Life, states that physician assisted suicide “creating yet another
path of abuse against older individuals—abuse which is often subtle and
extremely difficult to detect. In fact, legalized physician-assisted suicide
may hide abuse of elderly and disabled Americans by providing complete
liability protection for doctors and promoting secrecy,” (2012, p. 517).
Opposition
Many people do support physician assisted suicide
as an end-of-life option, and rightfully so.
It is hard to imagine that anyone would want to take away a person’s
right to end suffering, especially when that suffering is long, slow, and
painful. As stated previously, pain is
not always the reason that patients seek physician assisted suicide, but it
most definitely can be. Let’s look at
those patients with illnesses that do in fact cause unmanageable and unbearable
pain and suffering. People don’t believe
that they or others should have to live a life suffering each day because of
pain. This is a seemingly reasonable
argument in support of physician assisted suicide. But what about diseases that aren’t terminal,
but that cause a lifetime of daily pain and suffering? What about those who have been diagnosed with
mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia? Although it is not physical pain, these
illnesses cause emotional pain that is just as real and felt just as strongly
as physical pain. It is said that in the
brain, physical and emotional pain share much of the same circuitry (Szalavitz,
2013). It is a commonly-known fact that
these disorders are contributing factors towards many of the suicide cases in
the United States each year. What is
interesting though, is that someone who is diagnosed with depression, who will
suffer from it for the rest of their life, cannot request physician assisted
suicide as an end of life option because depression is not terminal. Someone who experiences pain that will last
no longer than six months can request to die before their time, but those who
have pain that will last the rest of their life cannot request the same
treatment. Another strange contradiction
in this case is that those who pursue the route of physician assisted suicide
want to be recognized as someone who has “died with dignity” because they did
not let their illness overtake them. It
would make sense that someone who doesn’t let depression take over their life
would be recognized in the same manner, however, that is not the case
whatsoever. Those who commit suicide due
to mental and emotional pain are often times considered cowards who “took the
easy way out.” They are selfish for
leaving their families behind and for only thinking of their own pain. This is a double standard that works in favor
of those with physical illnesses and shames those with mental and emotional
ones.
Another reason that many people are in support of
the legalization of physician assisted suicide is because it will help lower
health care costs. If someone is
terminally ill, but has six more months to live, that is six more months of
hospital bills that are going to pile up on the family that they leave
behind. Some people wonder why it is
necessary to pay outrageous prices for medications, hospital stays, or
procedures that aren’t going to change the fact that their loved one is
dying. Physician assisted suicide allows
the patient to end their suffering without the guilt of becoming a financial
burden to their families. The problem
with this logic, however, is that because of this guilt, patients may become
more likely to pursue physician assisted suicide rather than fighting their
disease. Felicia Cohn, PhD, Associate
Professor at the School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, and
Joanne Lynn, MD, MA, MS, Director of The Washington Home Center for Palliative
Care Studies, Washington, DC, wrote in their chapter "Vulnerable People:
Practical Rejoinders to Claims in Favor of Assisted Suicide" that for the
economically disadvantaged, as well as those without health insurance,
“…physician-assisted suicide may not merely be a choice, one option among
others; rather, it may become a coercive offer. If physician-assisted suicide
becomes a more popular choice, ending one's own life could come to be perceived
as an obligation, that is, a societally endorsed course of action that is the
only way to avoid suffering, indignity, and impoverishment," (2008). Legalizing physician assisted suicide would
ultimately endanger those of low socio-economic status because of the guilt
they would have of becoming a financial burden to their families, thus making physician
assisted suicide seem like the only option they have.
When a patient is considering physician assisted
suicide, often times they are not only thinking of what it will do to them, but
also what it will do to their families.
Many say that pursuing physician assisted suicide will not only ease
their suffering, but their families as well.
The families can be at peace knowing that their loved ones are no longer
suffering and they can know that their loved one chose the route of physician
assisted suicide for themselves. If the
patient is kept alive, but eventually goes into a vegetative state, the family
would then have to make the decision of whether or not and when to end the
patient’s life. People don’t want to be
left with the burden of choosing life or death for their loved one and would
rather have the family member make that choice themselves, as they do with physician
assisted suicide. While this is a valid
argument to consider, physician assisted suicide is a permanent choice. There is no going back once the family
realizes that they would have rather had the extra time to spend with their
family member and enjoy the final moments.
Feelings of guilt and depression often flood the minds of the family
left behind. That is especially the case
if they later learn that the diagnoses was false, as one daughter did. “After
Rebecca Badger…killed herself, her daughter Christy discovered the diagnosis of
Multiple Sclerosis was wrong. The autopsy showed that her mother did not have
MS and, if she had sought a second opinion instead of assisted suicide, might
still be alive today,” (“Impact,” 2012).
Physician assisted suicide may relieve some of the families suffering at
the time, but the devastating feelings and emotions will last for the rest of
their lives.
Conclusion
While physician assisted suicide may initially seem
like an option that should be given to those suffering from a terminal illness,
it creates too many consequences that far outweigh the positives. It causes grief and regret in the families of
those who choose it. It gives power of
life to those who don’t need it. It
gives the idea that suicide is okay for some, and not for others. The elderly, as well as the poverty-stricken,
may be persuaded to take the route of physician assisted suicide when it’s not
what they want to do. Ultimately,
physician assisted suicide creates problems that aren’t necessary, and it
should not be a legal method of dying in the United States.
To conclude the story from the introduction, Jeannine’s
father “…not only walked [Jeannine’s sister] down the aisle, he walked all six
of his daughters down the aisle and attended the weddings of two of his three
sons… he lived
20 years longer than predicted,” (Riel et al., 2013). Had Jeannine’s father chosen physician
assisted suicide as his end-of-life option, he never would have seen those
daughters and son’s weddings, he never would have seen the grandchildren that
he did, and he would have missed out on nearly 20 years of his life. Physician assisted suicide takes away more
than it could ever give back.
References
Harned, M. E. (2012). “The Dangers of Assisted Suicide: No Longer
Theoretical.” Americans United for Life: Defending Life 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.aul.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/dangers-assisted-suicide.pdf
Historical Timeline: History of Euthanasia and
Physician-Assisted Suicide.” (Jul 23, 2013) Euthanasia: Pros and Cons. Retrieved
from: http://euthanasia.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000022
“Impact of Euthanasia on the Family.” (2012). A
New Zealand Resource for Life Related Issues. Retrieved from: http://www.life.org.nz/euthanasia/euthanasiakeyissues/impact-on-family/
Jeffery, D. (2009).
Against physician assisted suicide: A palliative care perspective. Oxford, New York: Radcliffe Publishing.
Maxwell, A. C., & Pope, A. E. (1910).
"The Florence Nightingale Pledge". Practical Nursing: A
Text-book for Nurses and a Handbook for All who Care for the Sick. G.P.
Putnam's Sons. p. 17. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
Norman-Eady, S. (Jan 22, 2002). “Oregon’s Assisted
Suicide Law.” OLR Research Report. Retrieved from http://www.cga.ct.gov/2002/rpt/2002-R-0077.htm
Riel, E., Young, J., Schoppe, C., Carlson, R.,
Caulfield, J., & Caulfield L. (2013). “Doctors Often Misdiagnose the
Terminally Ill.” Vermont Alliance for Medical Care. Retrieved from: http://www.vaeh.org/resources/DoctorsOftenMisdiagnose.htm
Schadenberg, A. (2013). “Oregon Assisted Suicide Deaths Hit Record
High in 2012”. Life News. Retrieved from http://www.lifenews.com/2013/01/30/oregon-assisted-suicide-deaths-hit-record-high-in-2012/.
Szalavitz, M. (May 6, 2013). “New Test
Distinguishes Physical From Emotional Pain in Brain for First Time.” Time. Retrieved from: http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/06/a-pain-detector-for-the-brain/
“What is the Difference Between Assisted Dying and
Euthanasia?” (2011). The World
Federation of Right to Die Societies. Retrieved from http://www.worldrtd.net/qanda/what-difference-between-assisted-dying-and-euthanasia
Whiteman, H. (Apr 17, 2014). “1 in 20 American adults 'misdiagnosed in
outpatient clinics each year.’” Medical
News Today. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275565.php
“Would Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide
Endanger the Poor?” (Jun 11, 2008). Euthanasia: Pros and Cons. Retrieved
from: http://euthanasia.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000210
Comments
Post a Comment