Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide

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Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Abstract

Physician-assisted suicide entails taking action to end the life of an individual who has a long-term illness. Most healthcare professionals in the fields of palliative and oncology care have been faced with the request for death assistance.  Therefore this paper focused on the legalization of the physician assisted suicide. The arguments for this paper focus on emotional and financial burden, death with dignity, patient autonomy and long term pain and suffering experienced by terminally ill patients. Legalizing physician-assisted death means that people who want to die due to long-term illness will receive suicide intervention. Physician-assisted death should be legal in all States because terminally ill patients have the right to die with dignity, and it should also be a matter of free will and not that of the law. Various studies have illustrated the need for legalization of physician assisted suicide. Death with dignity is important since it offers an end-of-life option where terminally ill patients die in a manner, place, and time of their choice. Physician-assisted suicide relieves the families of the burden of caring for long-term ill individuals. Respect for patient autonomy is another major reason for legalizing physician-assisted suicide. High dosages of drugs and respirators cannot save a terminally ill patient from the victory of an illness or disease. These considerations have brought the need to legalize physician assisted suicide.

Introduction

Physician-assisted suicide entails taking action to end the life of an individual who has a long-term illness. Other terms used to describe this practice include physician-assisted dying and death with dignity. In most countries, physician-assisted suicide is against the law and may lead to a jail sentence. Considerably, in the United States, the law on physician-assisted suicide varies between states. This has made the topic an emotive and controversial topic. In recent years, most developing and developed countries have had the end of life debates which have increased the pressure for legalizing physician-assisted suicide (Braswell, 2018). Most healthcare professionals in the fields of palliative and oncology care have been faced with the request for death assistance. Therefore, this paper will focus on the need for the endorsement of physician-assisted suicide. Permitting physician-assisted death means that people who want to die due to long-term illness will receive suicide intervention. Physician-assisted death should be legal in all States because terminally ill patients have the right to die with dignity, and it should also be a matter of free will and not that of the law.

Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Critically ill patients should have the right to govern their deaths. Terminally ill patients should have a legal option of assisted death that recognizes the right to human extinction. In Washington, the end with dignity Act allows mentally competent individuals with a critical illness with a long-established diagnosis with six or fewer months to live to request physician-assisted death voluntarily (Simmons, 2018). The death with dignity Act enables terminally ill patients seeking death to demand lethal doses of medication from osteopathic and medical physicians. Research has shown that the terminally ill patients that decide to seek aid in dying aren’t concerned only about the pain but are also concerned with controlling the way they exit the world. Most patients want an option of controlling their body and life, which means that there is a need to focus on meeting the needs of terminally ill patients. Death with dignity is important since it offers an end-of-life option where terminally ill patients die in a manner, place, and time of their choice.

Respect for patient autonomy is one of the major reasons for legalizing physician-assisted suicide. Autonomy is considered a personal prudential value that offers reasons why physician-assisted suicide is relevant at the end of life care. Autonomy argues that a patient has the right to express their own personal choice (Rodríguez-Prat et al., 2016). Ideally, physician-assisted suicide is a part of human freedom to end their own lives in a manner that they are comfortable with. Safeguarding the autonomy and dignity of a patient during the end of life should be paramount since it respects how the patients see themselves and their personal quality.

Considerably, caring for terminally ill patients or dying patients is one of the most challenging things that physicians encounter. It takes a lot of effort to alleviate the pains and suffering of these patients. The request to hasten death by terminally ill patients shows a signal of the presence of psychological, physical, and social stressors (Castelli Dransart et al., 2021). There is a need to understand the nature of terminally ill patients, which makes the physicians feel the right to hasten their death when requested. Physician-assisted death allows the patient to end their suffering and pain.

The terminally ill patients are able to experience a less traumatic and painless death. Relatively, the patients have the chance to die with dignity without fearing that they lose their mental and physical capacities. Most of the patients in this condition do not want to be a burden to the caregivers and the family members. Therefore, physician-assisted death can be considered as one of the ways of upholding rights through honoring a person’s right to die with dignity.

Physician-assisted suicide relieves the families of the burden of caring for long-term ill individuals. The terminally ill patients and family members encounter problems covering healthcare costs. Ideally, medical care expenses can arise when a patient is terminally ill (Smith, 2017). Therefore, physician-assisted suicide can save both resources and time for terminally ill patients due to costly medications, prolonged hospitalization, and aggressive treatments. Not only do the expenses of the patient pile up, but also the members of the family. For instance, in the U.S, patients have provided considerable care to end of life patients, which has added to the costs of care during the end of life. The family members of critically ill patients can be able to save if physician-assisted death is legalized.

The number of deaths from life-limiting illnesses such as cancers is rising. As a consequence of the high incidences of life-limiting illnesses, the number of individuals that are experiencing the complex and multiple care systems towards the dying is growing (Karsoho et al., 2016). The increasing demand for caregivers for end-of-life care has put more burden on family carers. Considerably, the burden of family caregivers is rising due to the high ratio of old-age dependency, changes in traditional family structure, and high geographic mobility. The trend of end-of-life care in society has put more financial strains on the patients and their families. Research has shown a high number of family carers experiencing emotional and physical strains, a wide range of unmet needs as well as a financial burden.

The concerns of economic burden and emotional burden have led to the need to promote human dignity through physician-assisted care. Research shows that the concerns regarding economic burdens and poor quality healthcare due to lack of insurance have been linked to the validation of physician-assisted death. These have related the specific worries about financial strains and access to reasonable end-of-life care. Given the costs that are linked with offering high-quality end-of-life care such as medications, nursing, and personal care, the concerns of legalization of physician-assisted suicide are valid.

Considerably, physician-assisted death will eliminate the financial constraint of the government in the provision of social security benefits. The elderly constitute the highest number of terminally ill patients that are likely to prefer physician-assisted suicide. Therefore, the government will be able to distribute the resources saved from the social benefits to other needs in society. Healthcare spending will also decrease if terminally ill patients are allowed to choose physician-assisted death. The medical expenses will be substantially lower than the patients that are receiving conventional care.

Physician-assisted suicide alleviates patient suffering as an alternative to palliative care. Pain is the only compelling effect that leads to patients requesting physician-assisted death. Psychological distress, uncontrollable symptoms, and existential suffering have appeared to be profound components in the suffering of patients. Unbearable suffering has been one of the most significant motives for patients requesting physician-assisted death (Svenaeus, 2020). The existence of unbearable suffering among terminally ill patients has been a central criterion in requesting physician-assisted suicide. Patients suffering from long-term illnesses such as terminal cancer often experience a lot of pain (Erdek, 2015). In the treatment of cancer patients, care includes chemotherapy, a radioactive medicine that is considered dangerous to the body. The results of chemotherapy are the body suffering increased pain, vomiting, hair loss, and unpleasant side effects. Additionally, multiple adverse symptoms and uncontrolled pain have compelled some cancer patients with a critical disease, which makes them consider physician-assisted suicide.

Physician-assisted suicide has been advocated as a viable way to relieve patients’ long-term pain experienced in terminal illnesses. Shortening life in order to offer escape is not a new concept. Sigmund Freud gives an example of physician-assisted suicide to escape painful death. Freud was seriously ill and had been operated on several times, and was now terminally ill. Only intensified and severe suffering remained. This brought the possibility of choosing death to eliminate his suffering. Palliative care and curative medicine at the end of life care are seen as a result of suffering. These alternatives limit the ability to eliminate suffering at the end of life care. Administering several drugs to a terminally ill patient and placing them on medical equipment does not assist anything in terms of treatment. High dosages of drugs and respirators cannot save a terminally ill patient from the victory of an illness or disease. Additionally, chronic pain deliberately changes the lives of those suffering from it. Such pain can result in unwanted changes, which affect the ability of a person to function properly (Gaasø et al., 2019). The patients may also begin feeling like a burden to society and the family. Chronic pain has been linked to unmanageable physical pain as well as debilitating psychological issues.

Conclusion

Physician-assisted death should be legal in all states and a matter of free will to allow dignity death, reduce the burden on patients and families, and relieve pain among terminally ill patients. The legalization of physician-assisted suicide has been supported by a number of considerations that are linked to the patient’s autonomy, economic, emotional, and physical considerations such as pain and suffering. Terminally ill patients with no hope of a return to health should be allowed to carry on physician-assisted death to eliminate suffering and pain. Terminally ill patients and end-of-life patients experience different conditions such as pain, financial constraints, and care burden, which support the need for legalizing physician-assisted suicide. The legalization of physician-assisted suicide prevents the loss of control, autonomy, loss of self, and a sense of dignity among terminally ill patients.

References

Braswell, H. (2018). Putting the “Right to Die” in Its Place: Disability Rights and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the Context of US End-of-Life Care. In Studies in Law, Politics, and Society. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Castelli Dransart, D. A., Lapierre, S., Erlangsen, A., Canetto, S. S., Heisel, M., Draper, B., … & Wyart, M. (2021). A systematic review of older adults’ request for or attitude toward euthanasia or assisted suicide. Aging & mental health, 25(3), 420-430.

Erdek, M. (2015). Pain medicine and palliative care are alternatives to euthanasia in end-of-life cancer care. The Linacre Quarterly, 82(2), 128-134.

Gaasø, O. M., Rø, K. I., Bringedal, B., & Magelssen, M. (2019). Doctors’ attitudes to assisted dying. Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening.

Karsoho, H., Fishman, J. R., Wright, D. K., & Macdonald, M. E. (2016). Suffering and medicalization at the end of life: The case of physician-assisted dying. Social Science & Medicine, 170, 188-196.

Rodríguez-Prat, A., Monforte-Royo, C., Porta-Sales, J., Escribano, X., & Balaguer, A. (2016). Patient perspectives of dignity, autonomy and control at the end of life: systematic review and meta-ethnography. PloS one, 11(3), e0151435.

Simmons, K. M. (2018). Suicide and death with dignity. Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 5(2), 436.

Smith, W. M. (2017). The Ethical and Economic Concerns of Physician-Assisted Suicide.

Svenaeus, F. (2020). To die well: the phenomenology of suffering and end of life ethics. Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy, 23(3), 335-342.